Hi folks,
I haven't been very active on here in the past year; and of course, the whole site was gone there for a little while. But I thought I'd jump back in and post the link to my latest work, my Violin Concerto in C Minor. I wrote it this week and although it's not programmatic, the recent attacks in Israel were weighing heavily on my mind as I composed. I was experiencing a lot of different emotions as I wrote it, thinking about the beauty, tragedy, and fragility of life. It's about 19 minutes long, with all 3 movements on one track. I know time is a valuable commodity, but I'd love to hear what you think if you have the time to listen.
Greg
https://soundcloud.com/greg-hodges-93214247/violin-concerto-in-c-minor
Replies
I found parts of this to be very powerful, intense and compelling Greg and I also liked the gritty language. The 1st mvt. exemplified those qualities very well. The 2nd mvt didn't always hit the spot for me although it had one or two moments that where very nice - It didn't really exploit the expressive depth of the soloist for me. The 3rd was quirky and had enough dramatic and musical interest to keep me engaged. Overall the scoring seemed sympathetic to the soloist and might well sound good as a live performance.
Re your mock-up, I felt at times, you could have injected more musicality into the lines (particularly the strings), by shaping them a little more dynamically speaking and for my ears, I'd have preferred a different set of mics to give the sound more depth and ambience.
I have to say though that if it only took you a week to write this then hats off to you as that is a remarkable achievement.
Thanks for your comments, Mike. I'm happy you enjoyed the piece overall. I appreciate you taking the time to listen.
Admittedly, I don't have the most sophisticated setup for creating virtual performances. I use Finale and the standard Noteperformer sounds and don't really know much about tweaking the settings, and on top of that, my computer isn't very powerful. However, it's far superior to what I used to have, which was the Cakewalk sequencer and the standard MIDI electronic soundback. In any case, I agree with your assessment here and perhaps I'll try to invest in some new equipment at some point down the road and learn more about the intricacies of virtual performance so that I can do better mock-ups.
well, you know my opinion of the saccharine and artificially virtuosic nature of much of the standard violin concerto repertoire so it was indeed refreshing to hear something very different -- no cadenzas, irritating passagework or other frustrations. In fact the mixture of the strident and at times almost painfully nostalgia coupled with a tight structure makes this for me one of your best works, you may be surprised to hear. I'm increasingly reluctant to say how long it took me compose my works as certain people won't take them seriously if I do but here I think there is a constant flow of inspiration, including in the slow movement which contains some of your most beautiful harmonies.
You know what I think of the NotePerfomer strings so I'm not going to go on about that but I do agree with Mike that a more spacious acoustic could help the rendering to have more atmosphere in the slower sections in particular.
Thanks for your positive remarks, David. I'm glad you liked it. I have to admit in all honesty that David Owen was foremost in my mind as my target audience as I composed this, so I really did take into consideration your gripes with the repertoire and tried to avoid them. You'll probably find it somewhat humorous that I consciously did that.
I expect if I was a violin virtuoso that I'd like something to show off my skills but as a listener, I like music to have actual content which is one reason I generally avoid writing concertos and the one I did is almost an anti-concerto (more concertante). If your aim was to write something which would appeal to the violin virtuoso haters among us, you did rather well here.
Hi Greg- Bravo. I loved it. You took us through a lot of very engaging episodes, and getting from one to the next, and sometimes back again, was seamless. So well paced. Bravo.
Thank you, Raymond! I'm glad you enjoyed it and that it resonated with you. I always wonder, while I'm composing, if what I intend to convey will have the same effect on listener as it has on me. I'm glad this piece worked for you and your words give me great encouragement.
I think if you're considering the listener that's a great thing. That concern undoubtedly puts influence on decisions you make about scoring, pacing, etc. I mean, if the composer and performers are half the equation, then the listeners are the other half, which makes listeners important. Yea... this resonated with me big.
Wow, that was quite a hefty concerto. Pretty impressive that you wrote all that in just one week!
I have to admit I had a hard time getting into the first movement. It sounded to me like the zombie apocalypse version of Star Wars' Imperial March. But that's just my (very biased) opinion...
The 2nd movement had some lovely passages, but I had a hard time reconciling it with the discordant sound of the 1st mvmt. It's still there, but having "innocent" major triads interspersed with the rest of the dark language seemed a bit incongruous at times. Could be just me totally missing the point, though.
The 3rd movement had some nice contrasts and moments of real beauty. I didn't find the ending convincing, though. It sounded (to my highly-biased ears) like a modulation to a different key and abruptly stopping with a bang. But then again, in the context of the rest of the discordant harmony throughout, it's perhaps rather fitting in some sense.
Thanks for listening, HS. As always, after I finish a composition I see areas where improvements could be made, or where, in hindsight, I might have done something different. It was my first stab at a violin concerto. I didn't have very high expectations going in, to be honest. But I'm glad there were aspects of it that you liked.
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