# Back with a Symphonic Poem



## Samuel Kristopher (Nov 4, 2015)

So, I'm back after a bit of a hiatus. I returned to New Zealand for a month long holiday and was inspired by my hometown to write a piece based on it.

This is my first work for a full orchestra, and it's taken a long time to feel the right orchestration for it. I originally planned to plot it out on piano staves first but I decided in the end that I wanted to try and envisage it as an already orchestrated piece. It's far from perfect and I still have a lot to learn, and I intend to revise it later (I have three pages of notes to myself about things I have to change or remedy).

Before I finish the work though, I wanted to give you guys the chance to listen and give any feedback that I might incorporate into the finished product. I'll greatly appreciate it!






To give an idea about the piece: Matata is a very small town of 600 people, wedged between the sea and the mountains. The piece opens (in my mind) on the sea at sunrise, peaceful and calm, yet with hints of the power and bad things that the ocean can bring (as we'll hear later). As morning breaks and the township comes to life with a fanfare-ish climax, we move up the coast and into the hills for the second theme. It's earthy and somewhat darker than the ocean themes, leading to a brutish section which attempts to paint the picture of an earthquake (fairly common occurrences in this part of the country) and the active volcano which lies about 50km off the coast. This shifts into tense restatement of the ocean theme, before transitioning into a happy and playful, and then peaceful portrait of the life of the townsfolk.

The second half of the piece features the terrible storm which destroyed much of the town back in 2005 (repairs of some infrastructure and geography were only completed in the last few years). This is the section I'm least happy with currently - it's my aim to let the voices of the orchestra loose in a chaotic yet coherent development of all the themes, but I can't seem to get away from complete phrases and a feeling that everything is quite disjunct. I'm experimenting with ways to fix that. The piece ends on a peaceful sunset - also a lot of work needed here - it's the section I've spent the least time on and the voice leading is terrible much of the time.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoy it and/or can find something to critique about it!


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I will certainly give it a listen later on tonight!


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

It's really hard for me to listen to midi compositions, but I listened to the first 3 minutes or so and really enjoyed what I heard. It starts off really peaceful, almost like a second movement by Mozart, and then all of a sudden, it smoothly transitions into something like Mahler would create during an intense section of one of his symphonies.

Good job, Sam!


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## Samuel Kristopher (Nov 4, 2015)

Thanks for the kind words! 

The sound set I used is certainly not perfect (I've been playing with better sound packs like EastWest and Vienna Symphonic), but it's not midi and definitely sounds a lot better than if it was midi  having said that, a lot of the individual notes are unpolished, and at some point I'll spend the necessary hours going through each one and manually controlling volume, dynamics, and timbre.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Samuel Kristopher said:


> Thanks for the kind words!
> 
> The sound set I used is certainly not perfect (I've been playing with better sound packs like EastWest and Vienna Symphonic), but it's not midi and definitely sounds a lot better than if it was midi  having said that, a lot of the individual notes are unpolished, and at some point I'll spend the necessary hours going through each one and manually controlling volume, dynamics, and timbre.


Thanks for the correction. It did sound superior to my ears compared to what others have posted.


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