Vincent Lo - Violin Concerto no. 1 in A minor (draft)

[justa16thnote]

This piece is begging for a viola. Especially the second movement. GOD IT'S BORING

[Maspixxx]

Good work, though I find the second movement a bit boring and the last seems a Zelda theme.

[BellaKoei]

Excuse my ignorance but is this in Finale?

[Geniusmu09]

Your writing is really, really nice. Excellent job! Would you ever go back and add a viola part, even two as vivaldi would often? Not saying your writing needs changing at all! It just seems like there's a hidden viola part waiting to be heard :)

[fierydog]

This is really excellent stuff. It sounds baroque. It sounds relatively unique.

[squekecln]

Amazing work here! You really got me hooked with song. It's a bit of a challenge, but i would love if you would arrange this for flute. Would you be interested in arranging it for flute and piano?

[skitzo429]

why didnt you score for a viola in the orchestra?

[zeryx28]

@skitzo429 Oh, that's because the orchestra for whom I wrote did not have any violists. :)

[JFKWT]

@zeryx28 nuuuuuuuuuu

[MrEbaby2010]

Excellent contrapuntal arrangement. I note that your are fond of composing fugal music bearing very strong baroque /classical style. I am waiting for your fufal pieces on modern music. Thanks.

[mtv565]

Sorry, one last thing... Why did you omit violas?

[mtv565]

now I read, you cannot just omit violas just because your orchestra didn't have them. violin 1 & 2, viola and cello is standard 4part harmony.

[zeryx28]

@mtv565 I am aware of the standard configuration. Had I been writing for a different purpose, solely for the sake of composing, I would have written for violas too, but I have many reasons for doing otherwise. I wanted to provide repertoire for the orchestra I play in, and if we have no violas, then it would be a waste to write that part only to have it not performed. Secondly and more importantly, I am trying to push the limits of what I am constrained to and ...

[zeryx28]

@zeryx28 the challenges that arise from these constraints force me to think outside the box. As I am a student of the contemporary arts, I am always driven by innovation and change. Violists are less common, and so it is likely there are other amateur orchestras out there who do not have violists, so perhaps it is a new kind of ensemble worth exploring.

[mtv565]

And, kind of a short duration for a concerto. Try to expand or develop your musical ideas more. I feel your musical ideas are not fully exploited to their full potential. And try to gather suspense and build up emotions to a climax.

[zeryx28]

@mtv565 These are all great suggestions and had I had more time, I would have surely developed my music further. As this had been my first attempt at composing a larger-scale work, I will take your feedback into consideration for my future works. Over the summer, I will be composing an orchestral suite and am aiming for roughly 12 minutes.

[mtv565]

Nice attempt at composition! But lacking the intense emotions of Bach. Texture of music and grandeur is there but the emotions is just missing or not enough....

[zeryx28]

@mtv565

> Nice attempt at composition! But lacking the intense emotions of Bach. Texture of music and grandeur is there but the emotions is just missing or not enough....

Thanks. I appreciate that you find my music to be not as intensely emotional as that of Bach. While I am not trying to strictly imitate Bach, do you have any suggestions as to what you were looking for?

[mtv565]

@zeryx28 I was looking for the standard components that all compositions should have; introduction of musical ideas, development, climax and a conclusion or resolution.

[LaurentSilverlust]

Hi Vincent! First of all, you're amazing! It takes such effort to write in this convincing baroque style nowadays. Anyway, I think you should get rid of the "sul G" section! ^^ Don't take me wrong. Violins those days didn't have a chinrest, so the player had to maintain the balance of the instrument with his thumb. That means he couldn't go upshift on one single string. If you see baroque performances, you'll notice string crossing is in order and mkes it sound more authentic. Cheers!

[zeryx28]

@LaurentSilverlust I think I might have forgotten to reply to your comment, as it must have gotten lost in my many other e-mails. But I wanted to say thanks for your comments and suggestions. The sul G has been removed in the 2010 December 13 version, as many others had agreed with you. That was an interesting bit of history. Wish I knew more about the strings as I am merely a pianist. If I were to pick up a string instrument one day, it would have to be the viola! Cheers.

[garyleung142857]

When I hear to BWV 784, I will think of this concerto imediately.

[nauj325]

... tiresome for the ear, so try and redistribute those voices, particularly in the 2nd mov.

those are the 2 recomendations i can give, but all in all is a great piece and its very interrestin, plz post the recorded work later to hear it played by live musicians.

best of luck!

btw sorry for my english i speak spanish ^_

[nauj325]

Hello zeryx28, first of all this is a very nice piece of music, so congrats. there are a couple of thing i would recomend in general:

1. try to avoid 5ths melodically in the violin parts, they are hard to play and harder to tune properly (unless they are open or in played in the same position, but this seldomly happens ;)) for cellos this is not that much of a problem.

2. i see in your score a lot of paralell 6ths and 3rds, although this technique works great after a while it becomes...

[zeryx28]

@nauj325 Oh thanks for the insightful comments! Upon looking back on my work after it's been performed, I do realize that I have included some "illegal" intervals. But thanks for pointing them out though. I plan to do a revision before making the score and parts open to the public. There is a live recording available. Please see my channel's featured video. Hope you enjoy it. :D

[littlelaurence]

I like this.

[wisnu1231]

i think you like baroque music

[stefomate]

put the MIDI file into solmire(dot)com and see if it sounds better

[zeryx28]

@stefomate Oh thanks! I'll give it a try.

[hoopsmaster13]

Just great, Vivaldi wrote over 500 concerti and you've decided the world needs more?

[b0ttomzone]

You write very convincing neo-baroque music. I like this a lot.

[MgcMrMistoffelees]

Great job! I like the composed music per se, but the performance seems to be not polished. Was the recording done by a real orchestra or just electronic mixing?

[zeryx28]

@MgcMrMistoffelees Thanks! Yes, the audio was produced by samples from a MIDI file, so it sounds sorta mechanical.

[Verdegrand]

Hey great work there. It's alyways interesting when modern day composers write in the style of an earlier era, makes you think about what the essence of that period was and if today's period has such an essence as well that is not possible to see yet.

[zeryx28]

@Verdegrand Thanks. Yeah, that's a very important point. Especially when we live in a world dominated by pop culture.

[AytidaRed]

i love this piece, very baroque and yet still original. in the first movement i'm not sure whether your sul G section would be very easy to play sul G, i think you might have to have it played normally. string crossings should be fine otherwise. I wouldn't mind giving the finalised piece a go myself if that's ok! :)

[zeryx28]

Yeah, I may reconsider the sul G now that you mention it, as it wasn't an original indication on my part. I'm going to have a meeting or with more violinists from SFUCO through August. I hope for the piece to be finalized early September as that is when the fall term begins. I'll let you know somehow. Thanks!

[stefomate]

awesome, very baroque sounding, r they sibelius 6 sounds????

[zeryx28]

@stefomate Yep, this was done using Sibelius 6 and the Enhanced MIDI sound set. I chose this sample library over the standard one because it has more responsive attacks for the quicker notes. Thanks. :)