Lovely. I hear a bit of a Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and, at least at the beginning, a bit of the Ives quality that you mentioned, perhaps evocative of "The Unanswered Question", where a group of musicians on stage do one thing, while some off-stage musicians do another.

Besides telling you that I really like this -- I think it's some of the best classical music on this site -- I was amazed at the sonic quality... I have been considering forking out a lot of money for a sample library, and this is making me think the East-West library you use should be the one I go with. I take it you recommend it strongly?

Are the pitches generated from Sibelius, or do you use a sequencer? If it's Sibelius, I didn't realize you could use it to trigger sounds from your own sample library... I'll have to look into that!

Do you have any opportunities to have this performed?

Are you happy with the ending? It feels unfinished to me, but that may have been your intent.

Anyway, very exciting and wonderful work here!

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Clark, you are spot on with the "Unanswered question" , I was listening to it quite a lot prior to starting on this piece. And, funnily enough, whilst I was working on it, I kept referring to your lovely Steppin’ Out trio to get a feel of what’s possible with the strings and piano combination.

Yes I do strongly recommend the East West Symphonic library. It is fairly easy to use (I load them in Cubase as VST instruments). I know there is another orchestral sample package from the Vienna Philharmonic which people swear by. It might even be superior to East West, but I think it is more expensive, and slightly more complicated to use. I would definitely check on either of those.

The pitches are generated from Cubase and then, once the piece is finished I export the Midi version to Sibelius and work out the score from there. It’s quite laborious but a good learning process for me in developing my notation vocabulary.

Apparently the latest Sibelius upgrade (no 5) can generate VST instruments, and so, logically, would work with East West . I haven’t yet got the upgrade, but it is definitely an incentive for me to do so.

I would love to have my piece performed for real, but haven’t got any plans or offers.

I’m not sure about the ending either. I wanted this piece to be short. I thought it could be an "encore". But as I mention in my description it feels more like a 1st movement. Maybe at a latter stage I will try adding to it.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your imput.


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looks like i didn't close my underline tag properly... sorry about that! (this is a test to see if it will be closed now)

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ClarkRoss.ca is now welcoming visitors from distant planets -- Apply within

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didn't work; this would be a time when it would be handy to have the admins around, so that hey could look at the code for my earlier post and close the tag. There is a /u missing.

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ClarkRoss.ca is now welcoming visitors from distant planets -- Apply within

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Fabulous.

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Thank you. Glad you like it.

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Erm, … how does one get rid of the line underneath the text ?

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...fantastic instrument sounds. I used to play violin...you can actually hear the sound of the bow drawing along the string, here. Great attack.

The ending does seem a bit abrupt...but I think that's simply because it's at the same dynamic level as the preceding measures. Continuing the line, as well. Perhaps (and, JUST a "perhaps", because this really is fantastic, cc) you could have all the instruments combine for a last one or two note crescendo (short) to "finish it off"? Just my humble, though...

Whatever you do (including nothing), I really enjoyed this piece.

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Thank you guitapick, I’m glad you enjoyed it.

Yeah, I think I’m definitely going to have to work a bit more on the ending. I will try what you suggest, and see.

I sort of want to avoid making it into an obvious "this is the end" moment . I would like it to finish as if it evaporated into thin air, but without it being abrupt like it is now.


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...I'm usually not one for making suggestions on the actual composition. Sorry about that...

The "...thin air" is a nice concept.

Again: a very, very fine piece.


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I live between the notes

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Please don’t be sorry. I very much welcome your suggestions. I actually uploaded this piece with a few doubts about the ending myself. The fact that the ending has been commented on unprompted, not only by you, but also by Clark, is a welcome confirmation that my doubts were not unfounded.

This is part of what make these comments so invaluable in my mind.


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I really enjoyed this piece, although it would be nice if you mention who the players ae and what are they playing. If the violin is not real I will be utterly amazed. What did you use to record this piece? The stacatto with strings and piano was pretty cool. Thank you!

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Hello Enrique,

All the instruments are samples from my recently purchased East West Gold Orchestral software - there are no real players.

The samples I chose are those of a piano quintet, ie: two violins, one viola, one cello and a piano.

The recording process was simply to make an audio mixdown of my midi tracks of the piece - I use Cubase.


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Love the realism of the samples, nice modern-type construction orchestration. Would be perfect for a mystery detective movie.

Way to go. Thanks for sharing the sounds and were they came from!

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Thank you thetiler, I'm glad you visited.

I like the idea of the music being suited to a mystery detective movie. Maybe something by Dashiell Hammett ?





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Thank you thetiler, I'm glad you visited.

I like the idea of the music being suited to a mystery detective movie. Maybe something by Dashiell Hammett ?





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Thank you thetiler, I'm glad you visited.

I like the idea of the music being suited to a mystery detective movie. Maybe something by Dashiell Hammett ?





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It's always stimulating to hear new classical music, especially in the chamber setting.

The East West sounds are INCREDIBLE.

(This is wonderful news to me, who cannot afford the Vienna Library. I'll have to do some research and see what the "financial damage" will be.)

In any case, these sounds are very convincing.

More importantly, your writing for these instruments is imaginative, idiomatic and well-balanced.

The various voices have a nice interplay with one another, and the contrast of textures is truly artistic. Interesting indeed.

You and composerclark are certainly the best composers of the classical genre here at MacJams. You both push the limits, yet your music is very accessable.

Hats off to you!

Oh by the way, about the ending...

I think that all it needs is for the final violin note and the piano chord to be longer -- a fermata, perhaps, and a rallentando on the final measure should make for a more definitive ending.

I hope you add more movements to this. Best wishes.

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Thank you Cameron for such a nice post.

And thank you for the suggestion about the ending - I think I will go for what you suggest; and , yes, the more I listen, the more I think this piece could do with a couple more short movements.

Your enthusiasm is catchy - thank you so much.

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Very nice piece. The entry of the violin is immediately straight out of Ives with its independent harmonies.

While the strings are mostly very convincing, those opening notes are a bit strange: they sound very static. Any idea what's happening there?

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Thank you VicDiesel,

If you are referring to the static opening notes of the violin, it is probably because I went with a sample whose articulation is 'non vibrato soft' - probably not the best choice.


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somehow i felt that it just sort of ended. i guess i missed some guideposts along the way, so the journey seemed to flow along, yet i wasn't quite sure when we arrived.

regardless, you've created some great phrases here. and the quality of the recording is great. i have no idea if all of this could actually be performed, but it sure sounds like it to me.

thanks!


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I must say I like the idea of a journey that ends at its destination before one is ready to arrive. However - if I do add to the piece - this will become a pit stop on the way.

Once I’ve laid out the score, I will have a better idea whether this is performable or not - hopefully it should be.


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just one idea: you might want to establish some key motifs or phases (by repeating them here and there) that keep coming back in a somewhat predictable way- that way you can build an expectation in the listener when the finale is approaching - and ultimately set it up so that when the end finally arrives, the listener is satisfied that, yes, this is the end of the trip.

(my apologies if you know all about this... just trying to be constructive here)


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Thank you SmokeyVW.

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that Ives sound...agree with Clark. But, it's a few decades removed from Ives. Lots of interesting textures and polyrhythms here. Very cool piece. Lots of double, even triple stops are doable on high pitched string instruments. Stravinsky, in his Violin Concerto, came up with a triple stop thought unperformable by many at the time. It's performable today! Technique improves with time. Great piece!

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