PERSISTENCE OF VISION - Symphony Orchestra (Sosnowski)

[etLux]

David -

Excellent piece. Thanks for your efforts.

brsmith

Good to see you here, Bruce!

Thank you for listening, and for the kind comment.

Best,



David
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David Sosnowski
www.DavidSosnowski.com

[etLux]

David! Welcome back!!
What an amazing and rewarding experience that was; Brilliant and scintillating use of the Winds; you have pushed the envelope further with this one, I think; a lot of refinement evident and this includes the very fine sound, overall.
Bravo to you David and congratulations on such an accomplishment!!

I found it a great listen and quite inspiring!

Best regards,
sd cisco

Most pleased that you liked the piece, SD.

I don't know that it's refinement at hand; but it is a case
of trimming the fat -- one of the points of the piece was
to use an absolute minimum of resources (even some of the
harmony is derived from the opening motif) to build it.

I've also been working at... well, I guess the best way to
say it might be "thinning out" the writing -- reducing complexity
somewhat, and scoring more lightly.

I'm particularly happy to hear you liked the sound quality and
mix. On the one hand, I'm getting older -- and, dang, when
you do that, your ears get older, too. And on the other, I do
not have that kind of Dan Kury talent and ability for working
with sound to begin with. It's something I really have to labor
over.

All the best,



David
-----
David Sosnowski
www.DavidSosnowski.com

[Frank D]

Hi David,

I simply cannot pigeon-hole this piece so I won't! It has so many different styles and you have creatively painted this really interesting music; I loved it ... it was very original. I loved that high trumpet note that rings over the whole ensemble (about half-way, and again at the end). The way you thinned whatever was around them to let them speak so clearly ... tre cool! What with the splashes of low brass harmony and the restrained, sporadic percussion, I got a little Marius Constant vibe from the second half. I really enjoyed this and thanks for sharing your score with us.

Regards,

Frank

[etLux]

Bravo David! It sure is good to hear your voice again. I think I'd recognize it in a blind listening test in fact.

Nicely written and orchestrated. Thanks so much for sharing.

Thanks for the kind comment and welcome, Steve.
It's good to be "back in town"... been a while.

Perhaps we should run a contest one of these days.
We have a lot of writers with very identifiable styles,
here -- it would be interesting to see if we actually
could pick out the different writers just by
listening.

Oh I almost forgot to mention that by the sound of the piece, your rotator cuffs must be healing very nicely

Yes, thank you, they are. I still keep missing my
mouth and sticking the fork in my ear when I eat;
but I'm sure that will pass, eventually.

All the best,



David
-----
David Sosnowski
www.DavidSosnowski.com

[etLux]

Hi David,

This is a beautifully crafted piece. I've listened to it a few times, and each listen is more rewarding.

Thanks for the good word, Jack. In some ways,
this piece is more tightly put together than a lot
of others I've done.

However, I do have some difficulty in classifying it as a jazz piece.

Me, too... lol. I removed that mention on my site
after your comment -- you're absolutely right.

My thinking was that, in that so many people call
anything they cannot classify otherwise "Jazz" --
it might entice a few more people to listen to the
piece who normally might not.

It's good to see you back.

Good to be back, Jack. Thanks for listening!

All my best,



David
-----
David Sosnowski
www.DavidSosnowski.com

[etLux]

Hi David,

What a unique road you are walking!

This piece shows another step forward in your vision and expression.
There are battles going on but clarity is becoming more and more powerful.

The final part of the piece is absolutely stunning!
I can hear influences of Bernstein.

Polished to perfection!

Thanks for your kindness, Yudit -- I'm pleased you
enjoyed the piece... and also by your comments about
moving further toward clarity.

Too often, I think many of us (certainly me) try to
bring about power, intensity, impact by layering on
more sound, more instruments, more complexity.

But increasingly, to me at least, it seems that achieves
just the opposite.

All the best,



David
-----
David Sosnowski
www.DavidSosnowski.com

[etLux]

Hi Cass,

David,

I see you finally got your driveway shoveled out!

Almost.

I would likewise say welcome back, but I haven’t been “threading” around here very much either, so to me you never left.

Anyway, moving on to the important stuff.

Once again I find words (at least the ones I know) are not adequate to express my admiration for this piece. It is, after all, flat out brilliant. I’ve now listened to it 8 or 9 times and I can’t wait to see the score. I can truthfully say that this piece is fast becoming my all time favorite Sosnowki piece, and I have a lot of contenders already slotted in for that #1 position.

I'd decline brilliant; but settle readily for perhaps a determination
of good craftsmanship... lol... which is really more the case, here.
Little pieces like this are often more exercises for me than anything
else; explorations of technical approaches.

But I am indeed pleased you enjoyed the piece, as well.

In my mind’s eye, what makes Beethoven so great is his sagacity regarding musical form/ cohesiveness of the piece as it were; and his ability to take a simple rhythmic motif and systematically create countless superlative variations from it. All this is likewise abundantly evident in your piece.

Beethoven was an absolute master of this -- taking a small motif and
developing every aspect of it. And that was certainly a primary
concern, here... tight integration of the opening motif into virtually
every moment of the piece, one way or another. The strictest of
adherence to exercising the motif -- assuming a reasonable level
of skill otherwise, of course -- practically insures a well structured,
formally robust result.

The 4-note motif that the flute and then oboe starts out with, slowly, almost imperceptibly matures and with diminution, transforms into an exciting rhythmic escapade with the piano taking up the theme and snare and timp punctuating and volleying the rhythm back and forth simultaneously. What great stuff! I might add that the percussion is such an integral part of this piece, you forget it’s percussion, if that makes sense. Rather than hearing a “bleep here and a caplunk there, you hear an intergrated wall of color with all the other instruments.

Thanks for that, Cass. As I've no doubt said elsewhere, traditional
use of percussion is often a discomfort for me; yet, using it this way,
as both a structural and thematic vehicle, isn't so easy, either. I
continue to think further on that, how to remake the role of percussion
more effectively while still retaining a connection to the musical
sense of the listener.

And then comes the middle section that calms you back down to Earth with its mystic-like entwining of orchestral colour; concluded with a perfectly paced recap/coda. What a gem David!

I so much admire your work, can you tell?

Many thanks, my friend. Coming from one whose work I likewise
much admire, I doubly appreciate the comment.

My best,

Cass Hansen (oops, opened my old membership by mistake, but you know who I am. Digitaldigits is my URL ...electronic fingers , you know, playing the music. )

Oh, c'mon now, Cass... lol. Like I'd forget.

Forum:

Make double sure and triple that you get on over and hear Cass's
latest piece, here. What a knockout!

All my best,



David
-----
David Sosnowski
www.DavidSosnowski.com

[sanyarem]

Hey there David,

Wonderful! I really, truly enjoyed this one! I love how you developed the motif and used it throughout. You've done a great job opposing a pensive feel with something that has a bit more tension.

Ah, and the percussion! I mustn't forget to mention that! I truly loved your use of percussion, not only as added color, but also as a way to keep the music moving forward, and in some cases, taking center stage (as it should be!)

Thanks for posting, I really enjoyed it!

[etLux]

Hi Jack,

David:

A really great, contemporary writing. It has movement, a lot of good
rhythmic motifs, attention-getting percussion, and a host of independent
moving musical lines that are played by some fine musicians.......lol

I keep them all chained to the boiler in the basement, of course;
but I do make sure they eat well.

Seriously, it was a real pleasure to be treated to some more Sosnowski
after such a long break.

Thanks for the kind word, my friend -- it's good to be back at it,
at least somewhat... the time I have for writing is limited, though,
due to other obligations (like earning a living... lol).

If only I weren't such a dreadfully slow writer. With relatively few
hours to devote to it, there won't be many pieces this year.

This piece should be played by a "live" orchestra.
And, if it is another Finale extravaganza, I take my hat off to you again.

Pure Finale 2009 and Garritan samples... my usual.

Being a computer mogul, you must be hiding something in the wings that
we don't know about when you create with Finale. The mix sounds
fantastic...

I much appreciate that comment, Jack. You know from prior threads,
getting the mix even nearly decent is always a struggle for me.

In this case, I used a little SIR reverb on it, nothing else.

All my best,



David
-----
David Sosnowski
www.DavidSosnowski.com

[etLux]

quite phenomenal David!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dan

That's a whole lotta exclamation points, my friend!

Thanks for the listen and the kind word, Dan.

Always my best,



David
-----
David Sosnowski
www.DavidSosnowski.com