Hi everyone, just sharing with you a composing milestone! My first Symphony, entitled 'Elysium' in 4 movements.
It is musically diatonic, with an early-romantic style, loosely based on the glorification and romanticisation of war and a warriors' paradise.
I have been working on it since around last Autumn, so at least 6 Months on-and-off.
mvmt I. Prelude: Andante- 00:00
mvmt II. Romance: Adagio- 05:02
mvmt III. Waltz: Allegro - Adagio 12:07
mvmt IV. Finale: Adagio - Moderato 18:54
It's on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/ollie-kb/elysium-symphony
and also here https://composersforum.ning.com/music if you scroll right to 'Elysium' Symphony (where you can listen to each movement as an individual track)
Replies
nice to have some activity on this forum for a change -- I thought it was more or less dead, even if Rowy said it's only pining for the fiords. I had somewhat mixed feelings about this symphony. The opening was charming but I'm not quite sure what it expresses as it goes on. It's not really angry or violent enough to be either warlike or a satire on war but perhaps indeed it's supposed to represent a sort of naive idealism in which case I can see what you're getting at. Perhaps you could explain in more detail your somewhat cryptic remarks about the content.
Th slow movement is rather poetic and pretty Beethovenian to me in character although this is disguised by the rather more sumptuous orchestration (i didn't especially care for the cymbals but I find most composers overuse cymbals so I'm hardly impartial).
The third movement has considerable charm and is really quite witty.
The finale starts rather mysteriously, even slightly sinister at times -- a mood which only is completely dispelled with the triumphant peroration. Taken as a whole, it seems to be a little lacking in the drama and large scale contrasts I would associate with a symphony but on the other hand, I suspect that's not what you're about here so again more details on what you intended might be welcome.
Taken as a whole it's perhaps a bit too diatonic for my taste (and surely for the"musical establishment" which would find even my far more chromatic style pretty much unacceptable) but nevertheless, it was certainly an interesting listen, despite certain reservations. There's always something of a feeling of achievement when you complete your first symphony.
Wow, thank you for listening to the whole thing with so much attention and providing detailed feedback. It means a lot!
I feel the first movement is by far the weakest, and definitely a learning curve for me. I feel I rushed through sections without properly developing them. I composed the first movement first, without intentions for it to be a part of a larger work (or indeed having much of an end-goal in mind at all), and then just kept composing, so you were very intuitive to pick up on that. The "naive idealism" is probably my own personality coming through. I'm a happy guy! Haha
The diatonicism, for me, is just a personal preference. I had no intentions of trying to do anything clever, and acknowledge that I am piggybacking on the Western Classical tradition. I just love the fact you can still have something to say within these tried-and-tested frameworks.
Going forward, I think I should be bolder with light and shade, including more contemporary harmonic devices where appropriate. My next symphony will be stronger!
I'd probably agree that the first movement is the weakest -- something I'm often familiar with in my own pieces (the recent 18th symphony is, I think, a rare exception). I'm quite sure that with your next symphony, you'll be able to build on what you've done and I look forward to hearing it. As for tonality, it's entirely a personal choice. Most composers these days-- unless they're writing in a minimalist, cinematic or deliberately populist style -- are rather afraid of "tunes" or anything which smacks too much of diatonism as there is still a strong feeling in that one must take some account of musical developments over the past half century or so. I'd rather leave it up to the individual and agree entirely that there is still plenty to be said within the tried and tested frameworks-- my own stuff is rather a mixture.
Lots of good things in here - first and foremost, your use of the orchestra which elicits a lot of timbral variety and clarity from an early romantic orchestra. I enjoyed especially the 3rd movement's central section and its interweaving of solo strings (violin mainly, it sounded like) with the rest of the orchestra. There are long-breathed lines throughout that are very appealing, and some unusual harmonic progressions that keep the ear attentive.
Given the idiom, I question the wisdom of starting with two slow-paced movements that have much in common in terms of mood and expression. Have you considered merging them into a single movement?
I also observe that the work seems to be part of the "throwback" movement that tries to revive earlier styles - as is my own 1st symphony, though that was a deliberate choice for that particular work and NOT a staking out of musical territory for future works. Is this your chosen style, a point of departure, or perhaps a one-off?
Overall a nice first effort. I look forward to hearing more of your work.
Thank you Liz, I appreciate the feedback and the time you spent listening to my first symphony. I agree with you entirely about the first two movements. The problem lies more in the fact my first movement should have made more of a stylistic statement than it did. I do feel the first movement isn't my strongest work, and should have been a standalone experiment as I familiarised myself with the complexities of symphonic composing.
To provide some transparency, I have previously mainly composed chamber and solo piano works, so it was new territory for me. When I wrote the first movement I didn't intend for it to grow into a symphony.
You raise a good point that it came across as a "throwback" style. This has a couple of reasons: (1) I wasn't confident enough to introduce extended tonality as I normally would in an orchestral setting due to fear of it sounding too "ugly" or "experimental". (2) the composers I revere the most are all mostly tonal (Mahler, Rimsky-Korsakov, Beethoven). My previous works for smaller ensembles feature more extended tonality and sound more modern, but still firmly tonal (think Poulenc as a ballpark).
The good news is, I have received the best feedback on the 3rd movement, which is the last one I composed, so maybe I am beginning to find my voice in this new enormous blank canvas.
This feedback is highly value to me, and again I can't stress how much I appreciate you taking the time to appraise the work of someone just starting out in this new framework!