# String Chords Critique



## TristanBarton13 (Jun 2, 2015)

Hi everyone.

My name is Tristan Barton. I am an 18 year old guitarist and songwriter who is new in the world of orchestration and composition as well as this forum. I am trying to work up to become an amateur film scorer, and am trying to improve my orchestration and composition skills.

So, I figured a good place to start would be the string section. I have been listening to classical music and film scores for a while now, and I am well educated in music theory. I have experimented with a few measures of string chords. I know it's nothing much. I just threw this together really quickly.









I would greatly appreciate feedback on what I've done as far as the voicing and whatever else you all see. Like I said, I am new to all this.

And also, would contrabasses and cellos usually double-up when playing chords, the cello playing the higher octave? I feel like if the contrabasses and the cellos were to depart too far from octaves, then the sound would start to get a little muddy, but I don't know. What would you all say?

Thank you all so much. I hope to hear from you soon.

TB


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

You are right to assume handling the basses is tricky. What you did is very normal and satisfactory with regards to cello and bass. But, if the basses only just play exactly what the cellos have (which you did) and also always play the root (which you did), the bass part will become too obvious/predictable and that's surely not desirable. 

Muddiness would exist if the cellos & basses are "sounding" less than octave apart for any length, but more than octave apart will actually allow both parts to be heard clearly.

Do read up on handing the basses in several orchestration books where the string orchestra is discussed as a separate chapter like in the Kent Kennan book.


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## TristanBarton13 (Jun 2, 2015)

Thank you for the reply. I just kept everything simple to make sure that what I was doing was musically sound, making sure that basically I had the right idea.

What about the other voices? Again, thank you for the feedback!



TB


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Because you do you have a theory background, the voices move OK. 

But I'm not keen on the viola that has the consecutive thirds of the secondary dominant chords (C# to F#) and the open fifths of the violins towards the very end of the exercise might sound too hollow and therefore stick out. Also the 7th (F) of the G7 that you introduce in Vln 1 (m.3) and then transfer to Vla (m.4) never resolves down a step to E.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

How are we supposed to hear the B in measure 5? If you want it to be an appoggiatura resolving to A in an A minor chord in first inversion, you should have the viola line move to E and have both it and the second violin hold for a bar. I would also recommend anticipating this note in the preceding harmony, perhaps by moving to it on the second half note of the measure in the first violin and holding that over as a true preparation for the dissonance.

If you have a dominant seventh chord, the seventh should stick around until the chord is left, rather than merging into the octave. It can appear in one of the other voices if you wish.

Parallel fifths between bass and 1st violin from bar 11-12.


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## TristanBarton13 (Jun 2, 2015)

Yeah, I thought the same thing about the violas. And I didn't catch the seventh not resolving to the E. Thanks again for replying! I greatly appreciate it!



TB


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