SYMPHONY NO. 4 (Sosnowski)

[etLux]

These works are really great. I am just amazed that you did this David "in your spare time." Super quality work and worthy of emulation. Thanks again for posting these. If you folks have not heard this, you really should take the time to listen. It is not very often you get to interact directly with a composer of works of this size and quality.

Thanks David

Best wishes

Jim

Thank you, Jim, for your extremely kind comments!

All the best,



David
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David Sosnowski
www.DavidSosnowski.com

[etLux]

Hello David! It is about time you posted something of yours in the listening room!

Hello Michael! My pleasure, of course, to contribute a bit to Randy's Summer Festival.

Talk about epic! This is incredible, both in size and scope. Your No. 4 is intensely intricate, and really does a great job of splashing aural color at every possible moment. I loved the piano chord at the end of the second movement: suddenly bare and echoing into forever.

I changed my mind about that ending at least a dozen times back when I was writing the piece. At the time, though these movements were designed together as a symphony, I'd had second thoughts and introduced the movements as individual pieces. While I wonder still if that ending works so well were the second movement presented alone, after some years to think about it I'm finally sure it works in the context of the symphony... lol.

The start of the third certainly provides more of a contrast to the rest of the symphony. I really enjoyed the calm serenity of the slowly moving strings after the pure, perhaps unsettling, motion of the first two movements. Thanks for sharing this incredible work!

Many thanks for your kind thoughts, Michael!

All the best,



David
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David Sosnowski
www.DavidSosnowski.com

[etLux]

Hi SD,

David;
What a stupendous and impressive posting!! I have taken the liberty of downloading all 3 movements and get them together, on a CD. That will make it easier to listen to each movement consecutively, as was intended, I am sure.

Thanks so much for the abundantly kind thoughts, SD, here and below!

I should mention that I do encourage making one's own CD's of any of my mp3's for those of you who would like to. In this case, it's also available as a CD on Amazon, CD Baby and Kunaki if that's easier.

Your skill and creativity are unrivaled, in my view. Those horns with the slow attack, the amazing percussion - the writing and the sophisticated POV, the style; you are a remarkable composer, to say the least!

I'm never quite sure how to respond to such lavishly generous opinions... so I'll just say thanks again, SD.

I am equally impressed with the "sound" you are getting with the renders. If it is not too much to ask, might you review your setup? Type of computer, soundcard, your choices for fx and ambiance. I'd like to know, if it is possible for me to know, as much as possible about how you achieved that end of the production.

This is all done in Finale, one version or another, straight notation, all Garritan. Look at the scores posted on my site, and that's exactly what I used to render.

As far as equipment, nothing special. I use Dell desktops, fairly ordinary, with whatever CreativeLabs SoundBlaster card that happens to come in them at the time.

Post production is basically nil, other than setting overall level. The reverb is probably Garritan's native Ambience -- though in later recordings I've often used SIR.

Hope that helps!

But, to return to the writing for a moment; any and all would do well to listen and absorb what you have done and understand that what they are hearing is truly "new" music and that it is World Class music, well informed as to style and content, with all influences so fully integrated, the resultant composing is original and very powerful.

Credit where due, everything I do is firmly entrenched in our Western musical heritage. There is such incredible richness there, so many great Masters to teach me!

David, you have done a great job, and also I was very impressed with your website, looks super organized and also displays your many other compositions. And a great notion too, to employ an archivist!!

Thank you for posting and sharing!

sd cisco

Again SD, thank you for the great kindness and enthusiasm of your comments. Needless to say, it makes my day.

All the best,



David
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David Sosnowski
www.DavidSosnowski.com

[passagio]

Listening to the first movement now. Can't decide whether i"m more impressed by the realization or the composition... no, easy answer. Always starts with the composition, though I daresay, the acoustic skill on display is nothing short of inspirational. The mysterioso is a scintillating opening, and the return to that feel sets up a luscious contrast to the playful motives in the Gershwinesque voicing. The jagged topography lends the movement such energy. Will get back to you when I've heard the other two movements. Bravo!

[etLux]

Hi Randy!

Today, July 25, 2012, we're a few days into The Listening Room Summer Festival, and it can be dubbed a huge success.

We haven't had this kind of liveliness light up the Forum in eons.

New and "old" music alike keeps popping up like flowers blossoming in time lapse film. Along with new projects, people like DPDAN, Michael "Sanyarem," Michael Wiktor, Frank D., Jim "jdsnyderii," and now David "et lux" are bringing back some great projects previously posted here - and I hope all of our new members are having a listen, and getting a good picture of how spectacular our Garritan Listening Room can be.

This was such a great idea, Randy! And wonderful to have
so many of our forum members -- veterans and new members
alike -- participating!

As David briefly explains, the three movements of this exciting symphony were originally posted one-by-one on the Forum. Now it's an event unto itself, to have these gathered together in one post. The sum total is a thrilling, continuously inventive, highly informed and meticulously realized mass of music that everyone will be the richer for having heard.

THANK YOU, David.

Randy

And thanks for the kind thoughts, my friend. I've been a bit
under the weather with summer allergies recently, but I'll be
back for much, much more listening, soon.

All the best,



David
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David Sosnowski
www.DavidSosnowski.com

[Frank D]

Hi David,

I hope the allergies are on the lam and you're back to howling at the moon! LOL

As you know from my comments elsewhere, I absolutely loved these pieces ... maybe it was me howling at the moon!

The thematic development is probably something that would take me quite a few moon cycles to comprehend, but I think what I can walk away with is how you approached the phrases and instrumentation. It really made me think.

What made your piece so refreshing for me was that your statements didn't have to go on and on for a dozen measures; sometimes they just burst in and out in a measure or two. I loved that ... it was unpredictable and made such impact, all the while maintaining a lightness to the music.

The other aspect I loved was the way you used your ensemble: It was a virtually endless succession of every conceivable combination of instruments. Sometimes a solo voice, maybe a duet, then the full ensemble, back to four instruments, then another solo voice, etc. The long and short of this is that the colors, just like the phrases, stayed fresh and unpredictable throughout.

I would imagine the musicians who would perform this symphony would really enjoy the hell out of playing it; they would have to stay in it for every measure ... their parts enter all over the place; their interest level would be so high making the performance very special I'm sure. Let's just say there would be no crossword puzzles worked on during this work! LOL

I hope I can keep your approach to phrases and instrumentation at least in the back of my musical mind for some future jazz piece ... it would translate very well into that genre (Bill Russo's 'Mixed Orchestration' did the same thing, albeit in a different way).

Of course no Frank comment would be complete without my telling you the somewhat jazzy trumpet really makes this piece; it provides just enough screaming and attitude to kick the entire work up a notch (and the trumpeter will have a 'couple of things' kicked up a notch after playing these parts!). But, yes, I agree that a modern-day trumpeter w/ classical and jazz chops (like a Marsalis or Sandoval) should be able to cut it with little problem.

Thanks again David for bringing this to the festival!

Regards,

Frank