# Symphonic Poem 'Solar' for Orchestra (contemporary music)



## junha yang

Duration : 32m 34s

I had spent four months composing this.
It is contemporary music, but not atonalism.

contact : [email protected]


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## differencetone

Parts of it are excellent. It feels like you are grasping for something but haven't reached it. The relentless dissonance is overwhelming for me in many places. Master small ensembles before attempting a symphonic piece. Those are two different beasts.


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## PetrB

The dissonance level (always relative to any one piece as well as any particular listener) was nothing I noticed at all, i.e. it was 'consonant' enough for me.

It was the use of a string of ostinato figures, each running far too long so that they became intrusive, which bothered me, to the point where after the second or third of these, still just minutes in to the piece, they had me turning away and shutting it off.


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## Vasks

First off, while I sometimes could lay my hands on a "tonal center", there's enough layered dissonance to claim it as far more atonal. But that has nothing to do with the piece itself. It impressed me. It shows talent. 

However, I too, like PetrB, became distracted by what he called "ostinato figures" (I'd call them "licks"). For me, each new section started with one or two kinds of licks and rarely let up on them until that section ended. Then another new lick or two is introduced and away it goes until that section is done. Layering things on top of the repeated licks is not that great a compositional technique as it may disguise but it can't fully hide. Now is that terrible? No, but predictability is always a liability and I could predict what would occur at the start of each new section.


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## differencetone

@PetrB You ought to listen to the whole thing before reviewing a piece.


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## echo

epic -- im 20 minutes in and it's still go my attention


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## PetrB

differencetone said:


> @PetrB You ought to listen to the whole thing before reviewing a piece.


I did not review the piece, made that pretty clear, saying when I left off listening and why.

Always nice to know one has minders just about everywhere on TC, though.


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## arpeggio

I like it.:tiphat:


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## PetrB

@ the OP.

I did, of course, spot check through parts, getting through the duration of the piece.

You have an ear, talent, but I would agree that your ambition was here larger than your ability to make enough sense of a piece of this duration. Much of it, attractive enough to the ear, sounded arbitrary, and not in 'the good sense of arbitrary.' You have the luxury of a rather full bank of sound samples, and again I think ambition was greater than your ability to really take advantage of them, the density of the texture too near the same throughout.

As an experiment, mute all those running (sixteenth note?) and repeated figures / configurations you have in the piece, even if some are thought of as critical elements, and listen all the way through.

I think you might best next try a shorter piece, with a greatly reduced instrumental resource, and try your way through that, a handful of instruments or a chamber symphony sized number of instruments / timbres, and keep to a limit of say, six to ten minutes, as if it were a self-contained piece or perhaps a movement of a multi-movement work.

"Great art needs chains."

This piece, of course natural for some of an age, especially, to want to make something large, long and 'epic' got away from you. Limits of duration, number of instruments / timbres can very much be your friend in finding your way to a more efficient way to have the instruments and music 'speak' and end up with a less random-sounding piece.

There is a lot good there, but to hold it together, sound less negatively arbitrary, _less is more_ is a good motto when beginning your next piece. In a way, composing is nothing but problem solving for the composer, they have an idea, a concept of 'invention,' and then have to find their way through it if it is to be successful, or that initial problem, 'solved.' Set smaller problems for yourself, for the next few pieces, at least.


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## asdfgh

*Symphonic Poem Solar for Orchestra contemporary music*

The biggest paradox is you are not calling this verse a poem, its deeply poetic and philosophical.

Excellent work dude.


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## Guest

I've been a big fan of repetition for quite awhile now, and what I usually think is that things don't go on long enough.

In this case, the repetitious bits never get a chance to be "the" thing. Even though they're prominent, the piece is constantly going on to the next (sometimes also repetitious) thing.

Have you heard any Kutavičius? That might be something that would interest you. Might be something to study, as he has solved some of the same problems you have set for yourself.

Anyway, you have a real facility. And you have a very strong Lithuanian sound to your work. I'd at least try to keep the "licks" going even longer before moving on to the next bit, and with less layering, not more. That sounds counter-intuitive, but I've been listening to this kind of music for a long time (pun), and it's been my experience that more mature composers tend to keep the repetitions going longer. Less mature composers chicken out, as it were, and do something different too soon.


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## The nose

@ the OP
Have you written also a programm for this piece or it is a "Synphonic Poem" wich refers generically to the sun?


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## junha yang

thank you everybody. (for kind, sincere feedback). Actually, I'd been expecting something substantive (like rhythm, harmony, melody, orchestration etc) evaluation for my work but everyone just talk about the structure. That's why I got little embarrassed. (because I don't consider the 'structure' as 'important thing' of my work. It's just 'poem'. not 'symphony') 

Anyway, I really appreciate for listening.


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## junha yang

The nose// There is story about this song. like 'eine alpensinfonie' does.


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## maestro267

Kudos for just going out and producing an epic large orchestral score. There's not enough of these on this forum, or in contemporary music in general. Can I hear an organ in there? Organ is awesome!


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## Vasks

Structure is as important to any piece (including a "_poem_") as rhythm. harmony, melody, etc. And if that is what was the only thing critiqued then those other elements were not a problem.


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## Delicious Manager

I have to say I was VERY impressed with this piece. I don't know anything about you (how old you are, how experienced you are, if you have had any public performances, etc), but under any circumstances I think this is fantastic piece of work. Before I listed to the piece and saw the image you used for the video, I was fearing a re-write of Roul Ruders' *Gong*, but I needn't have worried. While I take on board some of what previous posters have said about form, structure and your use of _ostinato_ figures, I have to say that your compositional invention was more than sufficient to not make these things important to me. I detected the faintest 'minimalist' element in your style of composition, which is why I forgive your frequent use of these _ostinati_. I *DO* think the piece is a little overlong and loses momentum from time to time and I think it would benefit from a judicious revision and a bit of trimming, but the forward momentum you inject into the movement captured my ear from beginning to end.
I enjoyed this immensely and, as a hardened manager of some 30+ years, I'm hard to please. I'd love to hear more of your work.


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## Nope

generally agree with what PetrB said, if you wrote a 15 minutes piece out of the same material, it could really be something really really great. I am sorry OP, I guess you would expect some constructive comments of orchestration, but my guess is that, most people on this forum dont know much about orchestration(including me, I am still a first year composition student). But I can tell you are no stranger to orchestration


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## Nope

Vasks said:


> Structure is as important to any piece (including a "_poem_") as rhythm. harmony, melody, etc. And if that is what was the only thing critiqued then those other elements were not a problem.


Well, I think in order to criticize his orchestration, one has to know orchestration. Same goes for harmony. The reason why everyone was solely commenting on "structure" is because thats the most obvious one and the easiest to comment on


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