After having spent my time in the recent months with orchestrations of Beethoven chamber music, in the last 3 weeks i also composed a new symphonic Adagio - I call it the "Path of Peace" , for it starts in G-major with a wonderful peacefull theme which however then is disturbed by a wilder middle part. But finally the theme returns but in melancholic g-minor which is followd by a little more vivid fugato. But eventually the peace theme returns in Major with a beautiful tenderness ...
http://gerdprengel.de/symphonic_Adagio.mp3
http://gerdprengel.de/symphonic_Adagio.pdf
Gerd
Replies
Wow, this is remarkably well done - congratulations on the accomplishment! I don't profess to know enough (yet) about orchestration to enable me to offer any particularly intelligent or pointed feedback, but to my ears at least, you'de deployed the orchestral palette extremely well, and I certainly hear some Beethoven influences. This is very well composed, and I really appreciate the variety you've encompassed both in terms of dynamics, and tempo and mood. I especially liked how we really giddy-upped :-) around the 2:00 mark (if I remember correctly). Tension/resolution is everything in music, and I think you totally understand that.
Dear Frank, thank you very much for your kind reply. I like your sentence "Tension/resolution is everything in music" - yes, indeed this is true and I tried to express this here in my piece :-)
Just listened to this, with score. Wow! Lovely theme, and overall very Beethoven-ish. Especially loved the sudden hectic middle section. Especially appreciated how you managed to keep up the tension even in very thinly-orchestrated passages. Your work with Beethoven's music has clearly helped you hone your skill in your own music! If at all possible, I'd love to hear this performed by a real orchestra.
Agree with H.S.Tech about the somewhat Beethovenesque vein of this work. At times it seemed to have moments of Weber.
But above all it's to your usual excellent standard and thus impossible to say much. Looking at the score it's the sort of thing I wished I'd had to study when I first set out with instrumentation. Doubling of woodwinds is examplary so is the dovetailing when appropriate with chords, (noticed in places like bar 45-50 and 61-64. Students starting out could learn from this).
So...a wonderful piece, most enjoyable to listen to.
.
.
Excellent sound and composition there Gerd. It's not what I was expecting for something titaled adagio. Ones mind immediatly goes to the famous Barber, Mahler or Abononi adagios when I hear the word adagio, but as a composition it really works, nicely done
Rob
Thank you all so much for all your encouraging words! It has been mentioned that there is a Beethovenian flavour in the piece. Well, this may be so in the further course of the piece but I admit that the first impulse for the beginning of the piece I got after pondering about the heavenly 3rd movement of Mahler's 4th symphony. :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdERQSvRxp4 My theme itself is different but certainly was influenced by the atmosphere of this gorgeous Mahler movement.
By now I found out that I had a little error in the tempo of the beginning - it was too fast and so it had lost the "Adagio" character which I had intended (as Rob rightly wrote). I reduced the tempo by about 15 % now ., so you may listen to it again.. (maybe it should be even slower than now ?)