Which sounds better, music played by Garritan piano or string orchestra from Finale score?

[William Gordon]

Hello,

I am new to the forum. It is wonderful to be able to share music and ideas about music and send it to the World via the computer and internet.

I have been writing music for the piano using Finale. I do not have any acoustic performance of the music yet and have given it only to friends. I would welcome any comments about the music. I am not sure how to upload the music so it can be heard. It is on "my page". If it cannot be played, any suggestions on where to upload it would be appreciated.

The music is notated for piano, but I do not have dynamic markings entered yet. The score is played by the Garritan Orchestra from Finale first on piano, and then the same piece by Garrtan full strings both from the piano score.

I sometimes think the music would sound better with a string orchestra. Since it is played by the computer without expression, it is difficult for me to decide whether it would sound better on strings or piano since I do not yet have an acoustic performance of either. It is written for piano. Garritan is doing the work of playing the score from the piano score. Thank you for any comments.

Bill Gordon

Just wanted to thank Greg for your comment. It was very helpful. I did rent a harpsichord for a year and fell in love with it. The piece was written when I had the harpsichord. I know I should not keep switching Garritan instruments, but I will add the piece played by Garritan harpsichord.

Bill

[Greg Brus]

The piece on your page works just fine, and I like it; Bach influence, perhaps? I think (mind you, MY opinion) that this is indeed a piece for piano, or maybe harpsichord...

As for your main question... well, it's a hard one. Mainly because you're the composer, so whether your piece is for piano or string orchestra or anything else is entirely up to you. What "sounds better" is VERY subjective; actually the meaning of it varies so drastically that personally I do not use the term to compare anything except maybe sound quality.
So, it's your choice what do you write for. If you can't figure what's a better choice on your own, I can only recommend listening to more music; ideally, when an idea enters your mind, you should already "hear" the idea with proper instruments used. We call it inner ear and it's a very powerful skill, well worth being developed.
I should add that switching instruments used at will isn't always a good idea; Garritan doesn't care what patch you ask him to use, but if you want your piece to be played by real musicians, it should be, well, playable. What feels "easy" on piano may be impossible to do on strings, and there's a ton of niuances on strings that won't even cross your mind when composing for piano.

response longer than the blog post itself, woho.