"MARCH OF BROKEN GIANTS" - for Quartet

[RobertBomar]

Hi everyone,

I've written a quartet, and thought I'd share in the hopes of getting some criticism as a student composer like I've done before; video below. Audio in the video is generated by NotePerformer 4.



Program:

After a long-fought revolt, a king has been overthrown. His royal army has been decimated, left scattered and powerless. All that remains of the once impressive force of militaristic strength are but a few rusted and broken sentries inherited from conflicts of distant history, deemed unfit for modern defense. Mysteriously, only after the tyrant king’s death, these giants were seen travelling in isolation far from the capital where they had been stored.

While victory was being celebrated by people of the capital, the old sentries continued to march as a nearby village, small and insignificant, watched in awe. They seemed to have been sent away in retreat from a battle they could not win, perhaps to keep them out of rebel hands. But as distance began to close between them and the rusted beasts, alarms were raised as the horrible march’s destination was made clear. Forgotten by those on the frontline, the village was left to face its impending destruction alone as its people tried to flee, the late king earning one last petty victory to his name.

Thanks,
Robert

[PhilTrombone]

I enjoyed listening to this.
Very "Game of Thrones"... IMO, that's a good thing.

Some comments:
The bass trombone is way in the basement for prolongued periods. There are plenty of players who can cut something like this, but many will have trouble sustaining that.

Muted notes in the lower register (like below C in the staff) can be difficult to play in tune.

I would be great to hear some more intense harmony in the chorale sections.

btw, a great reference on writing beautiful chorale for trombone can be found nin Beethoven's "Equali for Trombone Quartet"

Overall kinda fun. Thanks for sharing. Keep it up!

[RobertBomar]

I enjoyed listening to this.
Very "Game of Thrones"... IMO, that's a good thing.

Some comments:
The bass trombone is way in the basement for prolongued periods. There are plenty of players who can cut something like this, but many will have trouble sustaining that.

Muted notes in the lower register (like below C in the staff) can be difficult to play in tune.

I would be great to hear some more intense harmony in the chorale sections.

btw, a great reference on writing beautiful chorale for trombone can be found nin Beethoven's "Equali for Trombone Quartet"

Overall kinda fun. Thanks for sharing. Keep it up!

Thank you, those are useful comments! Whenever I do a revision of the piece, I'll take another look at the muted sections; bringing the bass up there could also be good for contrast, as well as tuning. The Beethoven is a fantastic reference point; I'll keep that piece in mind.

[hyperbolica]

Very interesting! There are a lot of aspects of this to comment on. First, from a sheer writing point of view, I wish I had the ability to come up with something original that could hang together like this. Nicely written.

Thematically, my quartet would never pick up something quite this dark and dramatic to play. It just wouldn't fit in the context we usually find ourselves. I think it might have benefitted a little from writing more of the parts that moved a lot in the upper range. To me, getting the parts spread out more sounds better on trombone.

Rangewise, you have to get a hardcore bass bone lover to play all that low stuff. But also, it's hard to pull it off when you have all of the parts down on the staff, to keep it from sounding muddy. Maybe it was the short articulations that kept it from getting too ponderous. Whatever it was, nice effect.

But thanks for writing and sharing! Very nice stuff.

[RobertBomar]

Very interesting! There are a lot of aspects of this to comment on. First, from a sheer writing point of view, I wish I had the ability to come up with something original that could hang together like this. Nicely written.

Thematically, my quartet would never pick up something quite this dark and dramatic to play. It just wouldn't fit in the context we usually find ourselves. I think it might have benefitted a little from writing more of the parts that moved a lot in the upper range. To me, getting the parts spread out more sounds better on trombone.

Rangewise, you have to get a hardcore bass bone lover to play all that low stuff. But also, it's hard to pull it off when you have all of the parts down on the staff, to keep it from sounding muddy. Maybe it was the short articulations that kept it from getting too ponderous. Whatever it was, nice effect.

But thanks for writing and sharing! Very nice stuff.

Haha yeah I guess it is a bit dramatic isn't it; performance context is an interesting point to bring up. Thanks for the feedback! I'll try and be more wary of "mud" in the future.