Symphony No. 5 (excerpt)

Started by relm1, April 11, 2022, 09:57:15 AM

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relm1

I'm 2/3 finished with my fifth symphony.  This is an excerpt from the long slow first movement.  It's 17 minutes long! 

https://clyp.it/ugog4gtm

MarkMcD

Hi Relm1,

Wow, that's quite epic!

Can't wait to hear the finished article.  Your set up much be expensive LOL, it sounds very realistic.

classicalgeek

Epic is the perfect word to describe it! I like the mysterious and foreboding timpani at the opening of the clip; the trumpets at the climax remind me of Holst's The Planets, or maybe Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antarctica? But it never sounds derivative. And the threnody that follows the climax is very moving!

I'd really like to hear the finished product too. I've listened to most of your other posts on this thread (even if I didn't comment) and it's clear you have quite a talent! I'd certainly buy a 'Relm1 Complete Symphonies' box set! ;D
So much great music, so little time...

Original compositions and orchestrations: https://www.youtube.com/@jmbrannigan

relm1

Quote from: MarkMcD on April 13, 2022, 09:03:37 AM
Hi Relm1,

Wow, that's quite epic!

Can't wait to hear the finished article.  Your set up much be expensive LOL, it sounds very realistic.

Thanks!  Expensive is relative.  I do use pro-gear but others have spent far, far more than me.

relm1

Quote from: classicalgeek on April 13, 2022, 09:37:00 AM
Epic is the perfect word to describe it! I like the mysterious and foreboding timpani at the opening of the clip; the trumpets at the climax remind me of Holst's The Planets, or maybe Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antarctica? But it never sounds derivative. And the threnody that follows the climax is very moving!

I'd really like to hear the finished product too. I've listened to most of your other posts on this thread (even if I didn't comment) and it's clear you have quite a talent! I'd certainly buy a 'Relm1 Complete Symphonies' box set! ;D

Holst Planets and RVW are favorites so yes, those influences do exist.  There is also Scriabin, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff, John Williams, Mahler, etc.  And thanks for the comment on talent, I appreciated it.

vandermolen

Quote from: classicalgeek on April 13, 2022, 09:37:00 AM
Epic is the perfect word to describe it! I like the mysterious and foreboding timpani at the opening of the clip; the trumpets at the climax remind me of Holst's The Planets, or maybe Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antarctica? But it never sounds derivative. And the threnody that follows the climax is very moving!

I'd really like to hear the finished product too. I've listened to most of your other posts on this thread (even if I didn't comment) and it's clear you have quite a talent! I'd certainly buy a 'Relm1 Complete Symphonies' box set! ;D
Count me in for the boxed set! I'd like an autographed copy please.   :)
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

relm1

Quote from: vandermolen on April 14, 2022, 06:07:55 AM
Count me in for the boxed set! I'd like an autographed copy please.   :)

Thank you!  Hopefully I don't disappoint you!

krummholz

Indeed, most impressive! Epic is a good description, sounds very much the large-scale saga. One thing I have noticed in your music, and not only here, is that you seem to work mainly with sonorities, contrasts of dynamics, orchestral timbres, and harmony... but I hear very little in the way of linear writing or counterpoint, or for that matter, recognizable thematic material. It is hard to know whether this is a weakness or if it is even true of entire works, since all we ever hear are brief excerpts. Perhaps it comes from joining the music "in the middle", and the thematic material would become clear if we heard an entire work, or even an entire movement, from the beginning. Even if it is true in general, it is impossible to know whether the materials you work with can sustain an entire movement without knowing the length of any of them.

All this to say that while your work sounds very moving and impressive from the excerpts I've heard, I long to hear at least a single movement in its entirety, and really feel that I cannot make a truly informed comment on any of your works based on what you post.

Is there any chance you could post an entire movement of one of your completed works?

relm1

#8
Quote from: krummholz on April 15, 2022, 07:14:49 PM
Indeed, most impressive! Epic is a good description, sounds very much the large-scale saga. One thing I have noticed in your music, and not only here, is that you seem to work mainly with sonorities, contrasts of dynamics, orchestral timbres, and harmony... but I hear very little in the way of linear writing or counterpoint, or for that matter, recognizable thematic material. It is hard to know whether this is a weakness or if it is even true of entire works, since all we ever hear are brief excerpts. Perhaps it comes from joining the music "in the middle", and the thematic material would become clear if we heard an entire work, or even an entire movement, from the beginning. Even if it is true in general, it is impossible to know whether the materials you work with can sustain an entire movement without knowing the length of any of them.

All this to say that while your work sounds very moving and impressive from the excerpts I've heard, I long to hear at least a single movement in its entirety, and really feel that I cannot make a truly informed comment on any of your works based on what you post.

Is there any chance you could post an entire movement of one of your completed works?

Thank you for your thoughts.  I think you are spot on and I'll consider posting more but also have reasons for not wishing to do so.  It is deliberate and might annoy some.   But that's no different than any of us choosing which works of ours we mention in the first place.  Is it right of me to tell you to share all your music before I assess any of it?  Regardless, I appreciate your point of view and think all your points are valid.  I will also add that I'm in a transitional phase (blame covid isolation) where I felt too public and in a place now where I don't care if my music is ever heard.  I'm not fully in either place but understand both and am choosing where I'm comfortable now and that changes over time annoying as that might be to some.   

krummholz

Fair enough @relm1, and I apologise if my ask was an inappropriate one, I did not mean to be intrusive and actually hesitated before posting it out of fear that it would be taken that way. Of course, we are all entitled to stay within our comfort zone as to how mcuch of our work we share. My perspective is just that of one who strongly dislikes "sampler" excerpts of works on record company sites, which give you just enough of a work to get an idea of the composer's style without being able to judge whether you will like the work as a whole. I've never been sure whether the philosophy behind that is just to present you with something perhaps intriguing, so that you want to hear more, or whether it comes from the "music as background noise" mindset where if you like what you hear, it's assumed that you will buy it since coherence and structure don't matter.

Anyway I'm sure that none of this applies to you... please forgive my ramblings. I hope you will continue posting your work, and I will continue to listen... though I will probably not comment much unless I hear something very different from what you have already posted.

relm1

I completed my symphony no. 5 today!  Here is an excerpt from its final moments.  It's 37 minutes long in three movements.  The first and last movement are long but there is an aggressive middle movement in dance form (3/4 time).  The third movement is in three broad sections, an opening dirge recalling the first movement followed by a fast and vigorous section which reaches its climax halfway through the movement followed by a long, slow melodic epilogue.  Here is an excerpt of the final minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLLfRGrjlU0