What do you think of my compositions?

I enjoyed 'Chamber' a great deal. Whether you intended it or not (or whether these were influences), I was reminded of composers such as Charles Ives, Krzysztof Penderecki (before he went 'soft') and Tadeusz Baird. I loved the dense, foggy harmonies and the mood they invoke (which would be SO much more effective on real strings) and the independently-moving lines.

I had more difficulty with the wind quintet. I listened to it several times trying to grasp the idea and intended flow of the music, but, have failed, sadly. I suspect the general pulse of the music is perhaps a little too slow, and the individual lines too fragmented to fully suit the wind quintet medium (a notoriously difficult one to write for, which is why there are so few really good wind quintets). With a palette of only five instruments, I was surprised to often hear only two (and sometimes) three of them used - as well as those numerous fragmentary solo episodes. I think this was especially surprising after the dense textures of 'Chamber'.

So, for me, one winner and one that failed to convince me.

Your Quintet troubled me, and frankly I could not for the life of me work out why it was doing so at first. I therefore 'sat on it' for a while before trying to formulate my thoughts, after half a dozen more hearings, probably more.

Whether you can do anything with this is an entirely different matter, but here goes. :-)

I had seen our good Del's comment on it, and didn't disagree with him as far as *a wind quintet* was in play, but the way you were fragmenting your materials as well as their instrumentation -- causing some grief in terms of a wind quintet that Del had already pointed up -- just nagged at me. And nagged.

Then the damascene moment. The entire utterance that was doing the nagging was reminding me of a concerto grosso of which the ripieno had gone walk-about, so we were only hearing the concertino like an unfurled roll of carpet runner, seamlessly, making it all that bit more disembodied as a quintet. Once the thought had struck, I found myself able to restructure in my mind's eye towards such a form change as I listened quite easily. Caesurae fell like 'ripe plums'... :-)

Would you be game to try? See whether a similar resonance might arise for you, once the 'quintet' thought has been 'rested' for a moment?

Distinctly FWIW... :-)

Most warmly, as always,

Let me say at the outset that I have great respect and admiration for any who attempt a composition of any kind, and have the commitment and industry to see it thru to completion: CONGRATULATIONS.

My take on the "quintet": my only comment is that to my hears, it sounded like a piece that a modern-day Brahms might have composed. The "Chamber": the "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" film producers might have work for you relating to sound-tracks for their films - SERIOUSLY.

In terms of assessing the artistic merit of your music, I will leave to others: I'm not an educated professional, so don't feel in any way competent to meaningfully do so.

Do hope that the CM "big guns" who patronize this category in addition to "del_icio" - "Nemesis"/"petr b", etc. - chime in, respond.

And thanks for your question - a most worthy and welcome one, considering.......

Alberich

Chamber is sick, very Steve Reich.