Vote for Orchestration Challenge 17

[RustyCrook]

I arranged Entry #7. Thanks to Daniel for such a great melody with which to work! I enjoyed listening to all the great entries -- congratulations should go to everyone as it's clear to me that a lot of hard work went into each entry. I've posted my listening notes at the end.

Serenitymusician commented "I hope we all have the chance to explain what we were thinking at the time we wrote our piece." I was on a riverboat on the Dnieper River in the Ukraine at the time I was working on the arrangement. One of our stops was in Zaphorazhye, where I got to see a Cossack Folklore show. Visions of their knee-bending dancing definitely had an influence.

Thanks also to Gary and SeanHannifin for administering the Challenge and all the behind the scenes work in order to make this go so smoothly!

Best regards,

Ken Weissman (RustyCrook)

Here are my listening notes:
Entry #1
A wonderful rendering! I love the way you’ve captured Stravinsky’s style, your lush string sound (something on which I still need to work) and, your final low brass chord is fantastic and solidly caps a great work – what was your instrumentation on that chord?
Entry #2
I was in Spain earlier this week and could not help but think of the Spanish influence when I heard the castanet. I liked the way you intensify the drama with the gong and bell tree at 2:03 – I find your full sound very exciting.
Entry #3
Your work conjured visions of a military processional. I sensed a waltz-like feeling in the 4/4 meter at 1:24 and 3:03 with the Viennese-like afterbeats – very interesting. Your goose-step passages at 2:23 would make Mussolini proud!
Entry #4
RichR -- Your cannon at 0:58 is very creative. Might that the be Stradivarius I hear at 2:43? I like the vibrato.
Entry #5
I like the way you weave your counter melodies with the flute at 0:44 and the horn line at 1:18. Your lower strings at 2:22 sound wonderful and resonant!
Entry #6
I especially loved your mysterious passage 0:50 much as in Night on Bald Mountain. I liked your horn gliss at 1:32 (okay, yes, I’m a horn player)!

[RustyCrook]

Congratulations to the composer of entry #7!!! I know who he is, but I'll let him reveal himself.

You got my vote. I loved your "feel" -- very far from what I heard in my head when writing the melody. Your entry was utterly creative.

Thank you Daniel, you're very kind. I loved working with your melody -- it sang instantly to me!

Congratulations to writer of #7. The piece showed excellent writing style and was just plain fun to listen to.

Thanks, Rich. I had a great deal of fun working with Daniel's melody.

-- Ken

[Cransworth]

I'll claim my Entry 6. That was mine.
Thanks to the other person who voted!

Entry #6
I especially loved your mysterious passage 0:50 much as in Night on Bald Mountain. I liked your horn gliss at 1:32 (okay, yes, I’m a horn player)!

Yeah, that was just about the only part I really liked about mine. Thanks for the comment. I really liked your interpretation and arraigning of the melody.

[swinkler]

First and foremost congratulations RusyCrook. That was indeed a very clever realisation of Dan's melody.

This was alot of fun. My entry was #1 and if anyone is interested here's the score (pdf) albeit it's in pretty rough shape.

Thanks again and I'll definitely participate in this contest as time permits.

This is a great contest and I hope support for this and the movie music challenge stay high. I'm continually surprised at the level of activity, patience, kindness and general helpfulness shown here as well as the level of acheivment attained. Thank you for letting me be a part of this community.


Steve Winkler

[wrayer]

I'm ashamed to say mine was number 3. A lot of work for no votes ( I do not count - biased). I can give excuses: publishing my first book, et al but...

I indeed loved number seven.

Rusty - great job, very enjoyable with a nice approach. Can't wait to hear what you are conjuring up!

Plug time: Check out the Movie Challenge #3! It looks to be exciting!

[serenitymusician]

I want to say to everyone what a fantastic job you all did with Daniel’s melody. All of the entries were great (including yours WRAYER!!! I really liked your piece…let’s collaborate sometime!). A big “Congratulations” to RustyCrook for coming out on top. What complexity AND originality you had. I could really picture that folklore show happening. Thanks, also, for giving us a wonderful critique of your piece and of our pieces, too.

I was entry #5 and it sure was fun putting the music together. Thanks to whomever it was who voted for me besides myself (still felt weird voting for myself). Like Wrayer, I didn’t want to go without at least one vote, so I was pleasantly surprised to get one additional vote. Thanks, whoever you are!!!! I owe you a pizza and beer.

Serenitymusician commented "I hope we all have the chance to explain what we were thinking at the time we wrote our piece."

Guess I said that, didn’t I? When I started working on this piece, I was thinking of two things at the time, our cat Webster, who was skulking around our condo at the time:

and the wetland preserve out front of our place.

Whenever I start on a new piece of music, I have sort of an idea of where I’m going, while at the same time looking for new ways of taking the journey and enjoying what comes at the end. It is a lot of fun taking an idea like Daniel’s melody and seeing what can be created from it.

It’s been a pleasure entering this challenge. I can’t wait for the next one!

Gary

[SeanHannifin]

Congratulations RustyCrook on the victory!!

I confess to submitting entry #2 ... which is why it is full of Hannifinisms.

It's an awesome experience listening to all these entries together and hearing the various portrayals of the melody. They all give me different orchestrational ideas; I often find myself thinking "ooh, I should try that!" You guys are awesome!!

[wrayer]

This is just a bump, but is Orchestration Challenge #18 in the works yet?

[RustyCrook]

This is just a bump, but is Orchestration Challenge #18 in the works yet?

Yes, indeed -- I'm glad you asked, Bill! My sincere apologies for such a long delay. I have three melodies candidates I've sent off to the panel of judges (friends and family) and will make a final decision tomorrow and post the new melody this weekend.

Steve (swinkler), thanks so much for posting the score! I love the texture you achieve with the trombone and tuba in measures 7/8 and 44/45. I think it's the wide intervals of the chords yielding the open sound anchored with the firmly planted bass instruments that I find very exciting!

Ken
(RustyCrook)