# String quartet no. 11



## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

In case anyone's interested, I recently composed a string quartet, my 11th. In general, the treatment is late romantic contrapuntal harmony but the last movement "theme and variations" is often more classical in spirit and I tried in the theme and some of the variations to capture some of the hope and idealism of those times to contrast with the fraught times we live in (and illustrated by some of the more intense and gloomy passages in the work) The audio can be found on my Reelcrafter site chamber works. The rendering is using the solo strings from the Cinematic Studio library.


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## Fraildrummer (6 mo ago)

I listened to much of the 11th. It's really quite good and very sophisticated. Doubly impressed that you are a self-taught composer. I also listened to the trio for piano, violin, and cello and thought that was excellent. Are you pretty happy with the Cinematic Studio Library? I've looked into that, Sacconi Strings by Spitfire, and Noteperformer to up my game on playback on Musescore. I take it that your preference is Cinematic Studio?


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

* Fraildrummer*, thanks for taking the time to listen to my quartet and I'm glad you seem to have got something out of it. I currently use two main libraries for chamber music for strings, the other one is the VSL solo string library. That is more sophisticated and has more articulations than the CSS and for quartets, I have more often used that one but for works where lyricism is particularly prominent like the 11th, I sometimes turn to Cinematic Studio as it has a gorgeous legato. 

The trio for piano, violin and cello is one of my happiest and most tuneful works and certainly among my favourite. I'm always pleased when others appreciate it as well!.


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

Thanks, Dko22! I listened to some of your chamber works and what I liked about them the most were the atmosphere, instrumental combinations and constellations and the sounds. You really seem to have the ear for such. Lyrical!

Please recommend a work you think is your best so I will listen to it with some serious thought. 

I am not sure if you welcome/need constructive comments from a fellow composer, though.  They are your compositions so they are exactly the way they ought to be.


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

thanks, Waehnen! I'm looking forward to hearing something from you in due course as well. 

As regards which are my best chamber works, it's rather hard to say. If I have to pick my two favourites just at the moment, they would perhaps be the already mentioned piano trio and the String Quintet. The Piano Quintet is regarded as my best by a successful composer I admire and it is certainly intense and brooding but it's not everyone's taste. I used to like the 7th quartet the most and am still particularly fond of the cathartic coda but think my style has developed a bit since then. 

You are more than welcome to offer comments and criticism once you know a work well enough to find faults. There certainly are plenty (probably somewhat fewer in the more recent works). I may agree or not with your assessments but it is always useful to know what others who have some basic sympathy for the idiom think.


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

dko22 said:


> thanks, Waehnen! I'm looking forward to hearing something from you in due course as well.
> 
> As regards which are my best chamber works, it's rather hard to say. If I have to pick my two favourites just at the moment, they would perhaps be the already mentioned piano trio and the String Quintet. The Piano Quintet is regarded as my best by a successful composer I admire and it is certainly intense and brooding but it's not everyone's taste. I used to like the 7th quartet the most and am still particularly fond of the cathartic coda but think my style has developed a bit since then.
> 
> You are more than welcome to offer comments and criticism once you know a work well enough to find faults. There certainly are plenty (probably somewhat fewer in the more recent works). I may agree or not with your assessments but it is always useful to know what others who have some basic sympathy for the idiom think.


I feel no need to complain about anything when it comes to your music because it is enjoyable! 

But I would describe the music as some sort of rather stable soundscapes. The tempi often seem to stay much the same. It is kind of like the baroque Durchführung as a technique.

If I was given the task to enhance some of the pieces, I would start by trying to give greater contrasts to sections.

”This is how we start and this is where we are heading. Now we are here and this is what we experience here. And now the direction is over there!” -kind of thinking.

Just a quick thought. ☺


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

you are not the first person who has made a comment along these lines and I think at times it is a justified criticism but I would need specific examples. Some of my works contain very dramatic contrasts, others less so.


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

dko22 said:


> you are not the first person who has made a comment along these lines and I think at times it is a justified criticism but I would need specific examples. Some of my works contain very dramatic contrasts, others less so.


The first question is: do you want to give greater contrasts to sections or not? If you are happy this way, then keep it this way.

When others comment like this, it is based on the ”common way of listening”. It is not the only value.


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

Waehnen said:


> The first question is: do you want to give greater contrasts to sections or not?


well it depends entirely on the individual work (there are some where I specifically want to create a sort of stasis) so again I would need an example of a work and section where you think more contrast might be beneficial.


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

dko22 said:


> well it depends entirely on the individual work (there are some where I specifically want to create a sort of stasis) so again I would need an example of a work and section where you think more contrast might be beneficial.


I do not think it would be appropriate of me to go into such detail. It is your atmospheric music and your aesthetic!


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

Fair enough if that's how you feel though I'm perfectly happy to receive constructive criticism


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## REP (Dec 8, 2011)

dko22 said:


> As regards which are my best chamber works, it's rather hard to say. If I have to pick my two favourites just at the moment, they would perhaps be the already mentioned piano trio and the String Quintet. The Piano Quintet is regarded as my best by a successful composer I admire and it is certainly intense and brooding but it's not everyone's taste. I used to like the 7th quartet the most and am still particularly fond of the cathartic coda but think my style has developed a bit since then.


I listened to the piano quintet and thought it was exceptionally good. I'd say it deserves a good performance, but I know how hard it is to get something performed these days.

I know it's a major trust issue, but have you considered putting any of your scores online? It might help attract more attention to your music, as musicians tends to prefer reading scores to listening to MIDI/digital realizations. It does create publication issues later, though, as you can't sell first-publication rights to something you have already put online.


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

many thanks for your kind comments on my piano quintet -- it's most encouraging. It is a bit more "modern" than some of my works, certainly, although still very much in the Romantic mould.

As for putting scores online, I discovered by chance that I'd put one or two on ScoreExchange about 15 years ago and had completely forgotten. I'm not aware there has been any interest although a few people have certainly seen my entries. I hear conflicting views about whether scores or mock-ups are better. As I write primarily for people to listen to, my instinct is to go for mock-ups and myself am only interested in scores as a further aid to study of the works which really interest me. Of course if someone likes a work, then I can always make a score available though frankly I write scores because for me it is much easier to follow what I've done in the music than simply a MIDI pianoroll in a DAW like many commercial composers do. These scores are primarily designed for virtual playback so would require quite a few adjustments in the event of anything being performed by a real orchestra


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