LUCIFER & GANDHI - Symph. Orch. (Sosnowski)

[etLux]

Dave,

Nice work as usual. I finally took some time to view your scores and I have a few points to consider...

...

I like your compositions very much, though.

I removed all the details on the score shortcomings because I hate to think about all that... lol.

May I assure you that you are absolutely correct on nearly every observation. Having read, written, and played score for over forty years, I'm well aware of proper notation and convention -- but time is the enemy... I rarely have the hours available to go back and do a thoroughly detailed, publication-quality post edit.

I *thank you* for bringing this up, though! I hope all will note that the scores on my www.DavidSosnowski.com site should *not* be considered sterling examples! These are drafts, exactly what I used when I rendered from Finale -- and should be viewed as such! I post the scores for those interested in a fairly good idea of what's going on in a piece, but they should never be construed as guides to correct notation.

Thank you for listening -- and for the very astute comments on the craftsmanship of notation. Your observational skill and knowledge would make you quite a fine editor!

My best,

David.
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[tcohen]

I heard this earlier and finally got a chance this afternoon to hear it on larger speakers. This is a wonderful work, and is very interesting from both a melodic and rhythmic standpoint. I'm quite glad I took the time to hear it on the larger speakers as so much more was available to listen to. There is a lot going on, but never does it get in its own way. Excellent, David, I really liked this.

Regards,

Tim

[PaulR]

Thanks for taking time to listen, Paul, I appreciate the comments on the piano work and form... the pianist does get just a bit of exercise toward the end of the piece, eh?
David.
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Yes, very nice playing Dave!

[Clarkeo]

Hi David, very complex and intricate writing. I hardly feel qualified to offer anything here other than to say that I enjoyed it very much. Love the way it starts out with string them doing the pizzacotos. I'm curious how much time writing versus rendering you put into this. It is so very well done.

Clark(eo)

[joaz]

What an extraordinary piece!!!!
I find your use of the piano very interesting in these pieces of pholosphical disputation. At times it blends seemlessly into the orchestral fabric, sometimes it acts like an agent provocateur,stirring the rest of the orchestra into Satanic action.

As usual your wind writing is superb, but what really piqued my interest was the fantastic lyrical string writing. Especially for the Violas.After all the Viola bashing that has gone on around here lately, who would have suspected Sosnowski of being a sympathiser.

This is a sound I havent heard from you before. A full blooded modern/romantic string section with swooping melodies spreading contageously through the sections.Really delightful.

Poetic music like this,is needless to say, open to many interpretations, but I wonder if we hear the protesting voice of the composer himself, in the final bars.
Gandhi's methods of resolving disputes are not very fashionable at the moment, amongst the powerful. Could the bronx cheer finale be the composer's comment on contemporary methods of resolution.???

Though the surface of this music can be a little abrasive, I think this piece ranks along your Catherine in Winter (My all-time Forum favourite and opposite sound world to this piece.) as your best work.
There are many notes involved, and yet none seem extraneous, or gratuitous. No mean feat.
All-in-all David ,this piece is a fantastic achievement.And I doff my hat to you.
regards Joe

[Josh]

david - i've been waiting all day to listen to this...this is really excellent! i will save the rest of my compliments for after my nap when i'll be a bit more coherent, and i'll be able to listen again as well

[Cataclysm]

All I have to say is this is some outstanding work! I'm sure you will be an inspriration to many people with you're creative writing ideas. This is top-flight work man!

-Cata

[etLux]

I heard this earlier and finally got a chance this afternoon to hear it on larger speakers. This is a wonderful work, and is very interesting from both a melodic and rhythmic standpoint. I'm quite glad I took the time to hear it on the larger speakers as so much more was available to listen to. There is a lot going on, but never does it get in its own way. Excellent, David, I really liked this.

Regards,

Tim

Hey thanks for listening, Tim -- and thank you *very* much for hitting this on the big speakers... I appreciate that. I'm never too sure of my mixes -- especially this one, as I've got a whacker of a headcold at the moment.

Thanks again!

Best,

David.
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[etLux]

Yes, very nice playing Dave!

Thanks, Paul -- like I said earlier, it took a maybe a hundred tries to get it near right. And thank heaven for post-editing... lol.

David.
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[etLux]

Hi David, very complex and intricate writing. I hardly feel qualified to offer anything here other than to say that I enjoyed it very much. Love the way it starts out with string them doing the pizzacotos. I'm curious how much time writing versus rendering you put into this. It is so very well done.

Clark(eo)

Thanks for listening, Clark -- and as for "qualified", if you have ears, as a composer, I'm very interested in your perceptions. (That didn't come out quite right, but I'm sure you know what I meant... lol.)

As you said, this is a complex and intricate piece, and frankly, it was one devil of a composition to write. I don't keep track, but it took shape across a couple of months, probably eighty to a hundred hours to write it... plus time thinking about it.

Writing in this idiom... hard to describe the process... the whole composition is one piece of fabric, but in a sense one is writing with no rules -- which can prove far harder than working within an established stylistic, harmonic framework.

The rendering and sound treatment on this -- that took a little under twenty minutes. As I noted earlier, I've got such a headcold at the moment, I'm half deaf... so this one was "mixed blind" to great degree. [I apologize for the mix if it sucks -- not much I could do, considering.] Just shot this one straight out of Finale via Ambience and then converted to mp3.

Best,

David.
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