# Clarinet and Orchestra



## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

So, a few months back I wrote a work for clarinet and piano and currently two clarinet professors are giving it a good look-over. Then last month I saw 2 different orchestra "Call for Scores" that would accept pieces that have a soloist (most often they exclude works for a soloist with orchestra). So I decided to orchestrate the piano part and here's the result. I have one more month to toy with it all before I must clean up the conducting score and submit it.

This is also the first time I have used my new set of sound files. I hope it brings a better sense of instrumental sonorities than what I previously used.

Good, bad, or indifferent comments are welcomed. I won't be offended, no matter what you say. I've been a composer for 50+ years, so thick skin is an integral part of me. But if you like it, and don't feel like commenting then please click on the "like".

Here's the link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qzqp4x1iuqa6fcb/Clarinet & Orchestra.mp3?dl=0


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## Samuel Kristopher (Nov 4, 2015)

Fantastic Vasks - great balance between mischievous and serious. 

What sound files are you using by the way? I'm looking for new strings at least - although all the instruments sound much better than mine.


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## MarkMcD (Mar 31, 2014)

Bravo!

As you know, I'm not really qualified to give any useful technical critique, but the piece really held me throughout and the tension you create is palpable, I really like it. The contrasts from these tensions to the more subdued moments and the odd almost comical moments, give the piece a real sense of journeying through an ominous landscape, punctuated by surprising events, (to me in any case).
I've listened twice so far and the only thing I could say is that the very end felt........unfished, not exactly sudden, but just as though there should have been a final resolution that didn't come, possibly even by just one note, instead of the 2 last semiquavers, a semiquaver triplet (F, E, Eflat) would give it something more definite, but who am I? In any case I'm sure it is exactly as you intended, it's just my personal feeling.

Regards
Mark

P.S. The sound set is great and the clarinet bending must be hard to achieve with notation software but it's really effective.


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Samuel Kristopher said:


> Fantastic Vasks - great balance between mischievous and serious. What sound files are you using by the way?


You nailed it, Samuel. I do like to allow moments of playfulness or even silliness to pop in for some of my pieces. I'd like to imagine the part of me that has some French blood is that of an Ibert or Francaix who did allow moments of fun to seep into their pieces.

I bought "NotePerformer" which integrates seamlessly & easily with my notation program "Sibelius 8". It may not be the "Vienna Symphony" software but it's a step up from "Sibelius 6 Essentials" which I was using.


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

MarkMcD said:


> a real sense of journeying through an ominous landscape, punctuated by surprising events


You too nailed it. I don't share my actual titles here, for a couple of reasons, but the piece's title does imply a type of journey where the landscape seems familiar throughout, but as one goes around a bend the scenery can surprise



MarkMcD said:


> I've listened twice so far and the only thing I could say is that the very end felt........unfished, not exactly sudden, but just as though there should have been a final resolution that didn't come


That's OK, not all endings need to feel complete. LOL! I just watched a movie the other day called "Gone Girl" which was fascinating until the very end. I felt like booing after the final scene ruined my expectation and hopes. But back to this piece. Those last 3 pizzicato notes is my way of "winking" and that wink is what you find unsatisfying. C'est la vie



MarkMcD said:


> The sound set is great and the clarinet bending must be hard to achieve with notation software but it's really effective.


Actually when using a glissando for *only* a half step move is super easy to notate and have it play back.


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## MarkMcD (Mar 31, 2014)

Ahhh, I bought "NotePerformer" too a while back, I love it, and the glissando tip will be useful.


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## Samuel Kristopher (Nov 4, 2015)

I'll have to check out NotePerformer. I use Sibelius 7 and I was thinking of getting Vienna but I heard it's a nightmare to use with Sibelius so I held off.


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## MarkMcD (Mar 31, 2014)

Sorry Vasks for the short hijack but,

Samuel, I can't recommend NotePerformer highly enough, there's no loading time and the sound sets are really quite good. It has it's own performance adjustments so it's best to turn off "Live playback and Live tempo" in Sibelius and also have Sibelius performance on meccanico with no expressivo, but other than that, it works fine with Sibelius 7.


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## Samuel Kristopher (Nov 4, 2015)

Thanks a lot Mark - I'll look into it )


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## E Cristobal Poveda (Jul 12, 2017)

Enjoyable listen. I think I would like this more if it were live, as the clarinet sound bothers me quite a bit


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

I will be checking this out


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

ST4 said:


> I will be checking this out


Be sure doing it fast, some members like to remove the musics by the mods later .


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Pugg said:


> Be sure doing it fast, some members like to remove the musics by the mods later .


If so, so be it but I'm a busy man, it'll factor into today's daily analysis :tiphat:


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Ps, I never realized how much I missed the tipping hate emoticon, classic


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

ST4 said:


> Ps, I never realized how much I missed the tipping hate emoticon, classic


You do know you can edit posts do you?


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## Jacob Brooks (Feb 21, 2017)

Great! There is little I can say in terms of technical considerations because it seems solid there. All I can offer is broad-strokes recommendations based on what I prefer more in classical music. While I see the intent of going at playfulness, the instrumentation and direction can feel a bit random, such that it could use a more tight structure. I invite you revisit the beautiful order of Haydn's music and see again what it may have to offer your own. Again, great music! Highly subjective suggestions, since the objective value of the work is already basically in order.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I tried to post this earlier but was stopped by a database error message and put it aside. Anyway:

Well done! The first couple times the overall shape of the piece didn't come through to me but now I think I have a handle on it. I hear an overall ternary pattern. An "exposition" with varied restatement in the first 5:00? Then a slow section beginning with the opening theme (and other ideas) in augmentation? After a couple of minutes it then gathers momentum again, the intensity promised by that great foreboding opening paid off between 8:00 and 9:00. Then there is a kind of fragmentation and dicing of the material(?) and a final statement of the opening, but cold and drained? And then that ending. Hmm. That ending. That's the part I'm not sure about. Granted there are other playful bits, but that as the final word? I waited for a final crushing blow, fff, to follow after a pause — something to encapsulate the work's extremes. 

Anyway, I really like the rhythmic vitality and shifting accents and percussion writing. This I would enjoy hearing live, and I hope you will post a recording when it's performed.

By the way, how do the clarinetists feel about it? Any reaction yet?


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

EdwardBast said:


> By the way, how do the clarinetists feel about it? Any reaction yet?


No, no reaction from the clarinetists yet, but they've had it only about a month. And of course, I may never hear from them at all; although by the Fall I may give them a nudge email if I have not heard from them. I actually composed the work to submit to an upcoming regional meeting next Spring. I heard a fine clarinetist this past Spring of the same region and he will be the host for next year's meeting at his university, so...... hope springs eternal....or at least it does with me. The two I sent were after-thoughts once the piece was finished. The name of the game is to promote. Most promotions are dead ends, but ya gotta keep trying or nobody will play it. And they also have no idea that I orchestrated the piano part. That was an after-after-thought once I saw a possible 2 calls I could submit it for.

Now as to a powerful crushing ending , one has to remember that the work was designed as a piece for clarinet and piano. That would have been tough to do. And the one thing I couldn't do is change the clarinet part and that includes the work's exact length. The orchestration allowed me to add things, but not radically depart from the original piano.

And as for ending's that don't sit well, have you ever heard the C major chord that Penderecki has at the end of Polymorphia? I mean 10 minutes of non-stop atonal special string effects that he was famous for as a leader of the 60's avant garde and then that final chord.


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Jacob Brooks said:


> Great! There is little I can say in terms of technical considerations because it seems solid there. All I can offer is broad-strokes recommendations based on what I prefer more in classical music. While I see the intent of going at playfulness, the instrumentation and direction can feel a bit random, such that it could use a more tight structure. I invite you revisit the beautiful order of Haydn's music and see again what it may have to offer your own. Again, great music! Highly subjective suggestions, since the objective value of the work is already basically in order.


Thank you for listening Jacob. I certainly know and understand Haydn all to well. I often play some of his piano sonatas, I once played the Trumpet Concerto from memory with an amateur orchestra and most importantly taught a generation of students Haydn movements for his approach to form.

But isn't it interesting that you brought him up of all people, since he too was known for being playful and surprising in some of his works. Hmmmm? Am I a modern day Hadyn?.....LOL!!!


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## Samuel Kristopher (Nov 4, 2015)

> Am I a modern day Hadyn?.....LOL!!!


Ah, the amount of times I sit at my piano seat and wonder, am I a Tchaikovsky in the making? ))

No disrespect to Haydn, but I see myself as more of a Tchaikovsky man


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