Etude for Orchestra No. 1

Tyler Hughes August 16, 2013 at 3:16pm

I wouldnt say I was going for a Stravinsky Rite of Spring feel. However, my musical language has been heavily influenced by Stravinsky in general. A lot of this traits; such as rapidly changing meters, bi-tonal section, dramatic texture and volume changes with no transition, and aggressive off beat rhythms have made it into my own musical language.

As far as what this study was in, this Etude was all about motivic development. There are only two themes but those themes are developed and re-used and abused through the entirety of the piece. There are also two set-classes used through out the piece repeatedly; set class (016) and (028). These make up a lot of harmonies of the piece and themselves developed time and time again. Also, the themes use invented scales and keys to add a touch of tonality in contrast to the mostly atonal sections.

michael diemer said:

My Stravinsky detector picks up echoes of The Rite of Spring. Good use of odd time signatures, off-beat rhythmic accents. Good balance of instrumental give and take. It has the feel of a concerto for orchestra, although obviously this is a brief study. The "climax" section or tutti seemed a bit cluttered.

Do you intend to expand this, or is it just a study? It definitely has some worthwhile elements to preserve and use elsewhere, if this is just a study.

What strings are you using? The violins sounded very nice.

Etude for Orchestra No. 1

This is the first of 10 Etudes I plan on writing for orchestras of different sizes. These Etudes are much of a practice in techniques for me as it is…

Adrian Allan August 18, 2013 at 9:18am

I liked the concept of he etude for orchestra and the way that it built up by the end.
I wonder if those diminished 5ths double stops for violin are almost impossible. I know that stopped perfect fifths in strings are very rare. Maybe a string player could comment here.

Greg Brus August 18, 2013 at 11:50am

Diminished 5th is easy. Perfect 5th much harder (need to use the same finger on both strings, which gets tricky depending on the position and what kind of strings you use).

Matthew Pelandini August 19, 2013 at 2:23am

I like the way you have developed the melody through the orchestra.

1:18 - HEMIOLA....I am a hemioliac.....

Sounds like thise piece can develop into something more! Keep me posted!

Mohammad W.Alsaad August 20, 2013 at 10:33am

I loved your touch of surreal fantasy, creepy and inspiring, maybe it is true that it's influenced by Stravinsky, but If i didn't read the comments I wound't have notice.. and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, Stravinsky is inspiring and genius and it takes for someone to reach a level to be compared to Stravinsky years of experience and strong ears since it's usually hard to comprehend by regular ears..
I can imagine this going with real instruments, and I think it will sound awesome..
looking forward to hear the progress of this this score..
Great job and Good luck!

Tim Marko August 20, 2013 at 11:26pm

Tyler,

Once again, a very fine piece.

You refer to set classes used in the piece. Would it be possible for a "cliff note" version of what these are for those of us who may be unfamiliar?

Regardless of the technique used, a very enjoyable listen and I too look forward to the future etudes.

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Etude for Orchestra No. 1

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