The Lake at Night for Orchestra

**sanyarem** · 02-10-2012, 04:58 PM

Hello everybody, again!

Here is something that was originally written before I owned Finale 2008 (and thus, GPO). Last summer or fall, not sure which, I upgraded to Finale 2011 and saw all the cool new instruments that were included in the new version, and wanted to try them out. At the time, I saw the new VD Lite percussion, but decided to save experimenting with that another time, so everything in this is GPO.

For some back-story...

This was inspired by an episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog, a cartoon I frequently watched at the time (I think late 2007 or early 2008). It starts with a slow section that I attempted to make sound at least a little eerie, not sure how well that comes across, though. The second section, about 2 minutes in really picks up the tempo (doubles it) and brings more of a waltz feel into the mix. To be completely honest, I'm not sure how playable the flute part is around 2:45, but I figured if anything, it could be split between two players. I know flutists can play some pretty intense stuff, but having pretty much no experience with woodwinds, I do not want to say for sure.

Anyways, I drone on...

Thanks for taking a listen!

**serenitymusician** · 02-11-2012, 12:57 PM

Michael,

Wanted to tell you.....NICE PIECE! Yep, the flute part might be a bit challenging. I will have to show it to my goddaughter to see what she thinks. Great variety! Yes, I have had Finale since the days when all you had was computer pops and noises (early 90's), so it is great to hear it with GPO!

Gary

**sanyarem** · 02-12-2012, 08:02 PM

Originally Posted by serenitymusician

Michael,

Wanted to tell you.....NICE PIECE! Yep, the flute part might be a bit challenging. I will have to show it to my goddaughter to see what she thinks. Great variety! Yes, I have had Finale since the days when all you had was computer pops and noises (early 90's), so it is great to hear it with GPO!

Gary

Thanks Gary, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I guess the only thing I can say about the difficulty is...I feel the speed at which the notes are played is reasonable, especially since they're slurred in groups of 3. My worry is the fact that there are some low-C's thrown in the mix that might be difficult to get out at that speed. But again, I have very little knowledge of woodwind instruments, and that would be tremendous if you get the chance to share that tidbit with your goddaughter!

Since you mentioned your past experiences with Finale, I shall tell my history with notation programs! (which I actually don't believe I've ever shared here on the forum) I originally started with Music Master Works, which was a very simple MIDI notation program. It really just let you put notes on a page, then everything else was done through controller graphs (I say graphs because I probably don't know what the real term for them is

) No dynamics or articulation marks whatsoever; you could adjust the velocity of individual notes for accents, but you couldn't tell which notes had a higher velocity unless you opened a menu on the note or played it back).

It worked well for getting used to the idea of a notation program, scoring, and arranging, though, and I was able to get a lot of crummy music out there that no one will ever hear, because I will not allow it! I then became very interested in writing for percussion and needed a program that could write more legible music for a percussion ensemble I was in with the Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra. Someone recommended Finale, so I picked up Print Music, being unwilling to pay for the full version at the time. A year or so later I got the full 2008, and fell in love with GPO, and have never looked back!

Erm...thanks for reading my anecdote if you made it this far

**Plowking** · 02-13-2012, 05:34 AM

That's a great piece of music - I like how it slowly keeps building in density and speed. Would be great to hear it performed - the virtual instruments unfortunately don't do it justice this time. Are these the instruments included with Finale, and not actually GPO4?

**sanyarem** · 02-13-2012, 06:07 AM

Originally Posted by Plowking

That's a great piece of music - I like how it slowly keeps building in density and speed. Would be great to hear it performed - the virtual instruments unfortunately don't do it justice this time. Are these the instruments included with Finale, and not actually GPO4?

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. Yes, these instruments are included with Finale. I am not sure which version of GPO it is from, but it includes a mix of GPO, JABB and CoMB, but contains all of none.

**sd cisco** · 02-13-2012, 10:21 AM

Michael, I enjoyed this music a lot! I liked the occasional dissonance the progressions and changes it goes thru. Really quite refreshing for me, I must say!

Thanks for posting!!

Best regards,
sd cisco

**rbowser-** · 02-15-2012, 09:47 AM

Well, now, Michael - This an extremely well done piece. The gently eerie opening, and then the mood slowly but surely becoming more intense, with dashes of clashing dissonance here and there - It's great! Congrats on producing yet more fine music.

Randy

**sanyarem** · 02-15-2012, 06:13 PM

Thank you very much, Randy and sd cisco. I'm glad you both enjoyed listening! I noticed you both mentioned dissonance, which makes me happy. A lot of music I wrote prior to this used almost no dissonance. I was quite frightened of the idea, and did not want to overdo it. As a result, chord progressions were often really simple, and melodies often would not only fall strictly within the key, but would only play notes that would fall in the underlying chord...which just blows my mind when I think of it now!