String Quartet - Second Movement

[Nalinikanth Josyabhatla]

Hi All,

Attached is the 2nd Movement of my String Quartet in C Major. In condensed Sonata form, this is a slow movement in F Major. At a tempo of 96 crotchets per minute, it runs for about 6 minutes.

The music is a bit dark owing to extensive usage of Chromatic notes. Please listen and offer your comments.

Thanks...

[Craig Hopkinson]

There is a whole bunch of free orchestral samples here. They are quality samples of the Philharmonia Orchestra available as individual instruments and a variety of articulations. I have used themto good effect re-arranging for forum members. You have to put some time and effort into the download and setting up your library referencing but they are worth it:

http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/thesoundexchange/make_music/samples/?...

Imsure you will find something helpful. Good luck!

[Craig Hopkinson]

Hi Simon...just got back from a gig...I believe you could 'blend' some of the articulations to enhance mock up. I do concede that the samples are limited to 'short' and 'medium' durations. There are samples of various extended phrases in a variety of instruments which could compensate? There is a raw but natural resonance to the samples which I liked and downloaded..which took quite a while to create a library. The big problem is the referencing of each sample...that hurts the head!...I used them on Andrew Gleibman's 'Jerusalem Prelude'.

[Craig Hopkinson]

Cool...I got your message about the M-Audio soundcard but I recently upgraded to a E-mu ..which is a far better quality than the Edirol I was using for sure, and Vista compatible...yeah!

[ahmadjawadi]

My friend is also busy; he is a doctor.

[Fredrick zinos]

The version I listened to cut off at about 2:50, so my comments may not be appropriate. What I liked best about it was its dark, quasi- Prokofiev sound. There are certainly some nice and unexpected harmonies here. What I liked least about it was the seeming lack of continuity.. Just when it seems that we could be moving off into unexplored territory, a rather ordinary cadence pulls us back to too well trod territory. You have the skills to break free of the tyranny of predictable harmony. Try "harmonizing" c major and F# major for example (Stravinsky did it in 1911) . The little snippet I heard shows light. Don't hide it under the bushel of antique harmonic language.

[Nalinikanth Josyabhatla]

Hello Fredrick,

I do not know why the mp3 got cut, it is about 6 minutes in length.

Thanks for the feedback, I know what you mean and I definitely take it. Sub-consciusly, my aim to keep the movement short and not be too radical might have curtailed my imagination into those unexplored realms you are talking about:-)

BTW, I did not hear much of other composers other than Beethoven, Bach and Mozart and a little of Schubert, Wagner, Brahms and Chopin.

I also request / invite you to hear the 1st Movement of this Quartet posted in this same Forum.

Thanks...

[ahmadjawadi]

Do you have Finale 2008 or Sibelius? If you any of them they contain rather good sounds, they take sounds from Kontakt but still they are not that good, there is rather good and cheap software called Edirol Orchestral
http://www.roland.com/products/en/_support/dld.cfm?ln=en&dsp=0&...
it is rather ok but still the sounds of the strings are not that good, I advice you to mix the strings with some winds, if you listened to this track here I mixed the strings with the woodwinds, 1st violin with flute, 2nd with oboe viola with bassoon cello with bassoon (you can mix the viola with the clarinet), they will up the work (remember in the baroque music they were doing that) but not with the pizz. anyway you don't have pizz, the sounds here are from the Edirol, I performed this music with the string orchestra as I wrote it. Also please check my track number 23 (Al-Rashid) it is work for string orchestra, I mixed several kinds of several programs.
I don't advice you to use solo instruments, it is better to use sections.
I have another idea; if you have young students or good matures you can ask them to play it and record it.
Waiting for what will happen with you,
My best wishes,
Ahmad

[Nalinikanth Josyabhatla]

Thanks Ahmad for the Info and suggestions...

Musical Composition is just a Hobby for me and not yet a profession:-)
I neither have students nor Tutors, I'm a kind of self-taught composer:-)
Getting String Players who can play by reading notation is difficult here and a recording will definitely prove a very costly affair. Planning to send my Music to Orchestras etc. in the west and see if they can conduct my Music, if they like.

Meanwhile, I'm planning to buy GPO shortly to increase the quality of sound in these mp3 samples.

Regds...

[Nalinikanth Josyabhatla]

Ahmad,

By the way, I heard your Ali Baba, it is an excellent work!!!
Is it the same as the Arabian Night story 'Ali Baba and 40 thieves'?

[ahmadjawadi]

No it is just the name, it is some kind of very simple symphonic poem, the first part reflects an ancient Oriental or Arabic city (several hundreds of years ago) in the summer at night and the second reflects the same city at daytime with the markets and shopping and so on (you can easily imagine that because India is too close to the Arabic countries and it is more oriental), it was written for the violin solo with the string orchestra.
My best wishes,
Ahmad