<Pony><Orchestral><Remix>Winter Overture

[LockeStockeAndBaryl]

http://soundcloud.com/tate-chamberlain/winter-overture
After I wrote a small orchestral piece for last week's Toastbeard compo, I decided to expand it and rework it to include the melodies from MLP's 'wintery' songs. I think the result turned out pretty well. I wanted to share it here to see if I could get some feedback before I put it up on YouTube.

[Callenby]

Aha, an orchestral piece. A genre I actually know something about! And from a fellow Californian!

You've blended the melodies together very well, I must say. They certainly do not sound like they were just forced together unceremoniously. I also think you do a pretty good job of assigning the melody to different "voices" so that no one takes over the whole piece.

One change that I think would benefit this the most is dynamics. It stays at the same volume throughout but you can get more mileage out of your music by emphasizing how strong or soft a given "voice" is. You do a nice job of giving something for each instrumental section to do so that it sounds fuller but you could expand on that with dynamics and articulations. For example, I think the solo at around 2:00 could work much more beautifully if it was softer than the part immediately preceding it. Maybe there could also be a fermata or some other extension there before all the instruments return? And perhaps one at the very end could sound nice, as well. You already have some interesting contrasts, so play them up!

Another thing that you might want to look into is varying the accompanying parts. The string accompaniment for instance plays the same sequence throughout much of the piece. You don't have to radically change anything; you can keep the same kind of accompaniment with just a little variation or inflection and that can work wonders. Even something as simple as, say, turning one eighth note into two sixteenths or adding a grace note can be enough to keep hold of the listener's interest.

Anyway, those are my own thoughts. There are definitely people on this board more knowledgeable about orchestral music than I.

[LockeStockeAndBaryl]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll look into making some changes along those lines.

Edit:
Here's the new version: http://soundcloud.com/tate-chamberlain/winter-overture-new