# Tennessee River Portrait - Symphonic Tone Poem



## Paul T McGraw (Mar 26, 2018)

My musical portrait of the mighty Tennessee River waters from sparkling mountain springs, through the second largest gorge in the United States (after the Grand Canyon) and on into the still waters of Kentucky Lake and the confluence with the Ohio River. I have included a link to the piece on Orfium and also the score for anyone interested. I am also posting this on the VSL forum and Redbanned. I will be very grateful for any comments or thoughts. We all need feedback.

Winds - VSL
Brass - VSL
Percussion - VSL
Solo Horn - VSL Triple Horn
Solo Trumpet - VSL Bb Trumpet
Solo Violin - VSL Solo Violin I
Strings - VSL orchestral strings doubled with Spitfire Symphonic strings mixed 50/50.

Room - MIR Pro Synchron Stage with just a little VSL Miracle algorithmic reverb.

The score in PDF format


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## Dr Belasco (Mar 26, 2018)

I like it. Has a very slight Wagnerian vibe at times. One thing you might revisit or not, is the timps. With some crescendos they seem to be too mp when they need to be f to ff.


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## synergy543 (Mar 26, 2018)

Paul, you've done a great job creating an impressionistic image of the idylic and sometimes wild river in this Americana style reminiscent of Grofe and Steiner (as in the Adventures of Mark Twain). I'm also very impressed with the brass work and hadn't realized it was all VSL (I thought you mixed it with OT or Spitfire). You've really achieved a nice balance in the brass harmonies. Are these all VSL Dimension Brass? An impressive large-scale piece with a very effective story arc!


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## Rodney Money (Mar 26, 2018)

Loved it, Paul! It gave me chills, and I was diggn' that warm solo trumpet sound at the end.


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## Paul T McGraw (Mar 26, 2018)

Dr Belasco said:


> I like it. Has a very slight Wagnerian vibe at times. One thing you might revisit or not, is the timps. With some crescendos they seem to be too mp when they need to be f to ff.



You have a very good ear for influences. My adult son and I were listening to Wagner's "Das Rheingold" from the Ring. My son thought that Wagner's depiction of the river was too tame and that I could do better than Wagner. Well, I was intrigued. In thinking about "Das Rheingold" I got the idea to do a piece about the mighty Tennessee River, and explore all of the aspects of that great river.

Mixing is my Kryptonite. So I will take another look at the timp. Thanks for the heads up. And thanks for the positive feedback!


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## Paul T McGraw (Mar 26, 2018)

synergy543 said:


> Paul, you've done a great job creating an impressionistic image of the idylic and sometimes wild river in this Americana style reminiscent of Grofe and Steiner (as in the Adventures of Mark Twain). I'm also very impressed with the brass work and hadn't realized it was all VSL (I thought you mixed it with OT or Spitfire). You've really achieved a nice balance in the brass harmonies. Are these all VSL Dimension Brass? An impressive large-scale piece with a very effective story arc!



Thank you so much! I really appreciate the positive feedback. I hope it really did provide some pleasure. 

I own Cinebrass and Cinebrass Pro, Berlin Brass, Spitfire Brass, Chris Hein Orchestral Brass, and all of the VSL Brass. After auditioning all of them for various parts, I ended up with all VSL. I love the tone of Berlin Brass and Spitfire Brass. They both sound excellent. But neither is as flexible as VSL brass, in my opinion. I am thinking about going back to a couple of my earlier pieces and redoing them with all VSL.

I even did a version of this with almost all Spitfire Orchestra. I still had to use some VSL brass because Spitfire's brass coverage was not complete. You heard that version.

In this final version, when there was an exposed line, I used the VSL solo instruments: Bb Trumpet, Triple Horn, solo Trombone, solo Bass Trombone and solo Tuba. Otherwise, I used Dimension Brass when the brass is playing tutti. The Dimension Brass blends perfectly, yet still sounds like 11 separate musicians. 

Thanks again for listening!


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## Paul T McGraw (Mar 26, 2018)

Rodney Money said:


> Loved it, Paul! It gave me chills, and I was diggn' that warm solo trumpet sound at the end.



Thanks Rodney! Chills, wow. I originally was thinking solo horn for that line, but then I thought about YOU, and decided to make it solo trumpet. I think I made the right choice. Thank you so much for listening!


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## Rodney Money (Mar 26, 2018)

Paul T McGraw said:


> Thanks Rodney! Chills, wow. I originally was thinking solo horn for that line, but then I thought about YOU, and decided to make it solo trumpet. I think I made the right choice. Thank you so much for listening!


You made my night, my friend! I am truly honored and your words warm my soul.


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## Hybrid X (Mar 27, 2018)

You´ve done a great job! This track floats from one emotion to another, yes indeed, as the name indicates! Enjoyed it from the start till the triumphale finale.


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## muk (Mar 27, 2018)

Great work, both on the composition and the mockup!


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Mar 27, 2018)

Hej Paul,

Thank you for sharing your Compositon and Music. I wasn´t sure where to begin with my feedback. First I thought to tell you: Damn, lower that Triangle and move it a bit back into the sound, my ear is popping :D. And then I thought: Man, lets get not to technical..again.

So this time I keep it simple. I enjoyed the overall composition. What I actually like is the ambiguous character in the harmony of your music which you carry throughout your piece. That is really cool because it lets the listener a lot of room for interpretation and don´t put so much force on how to feel about the music. You have a good sense for lyrical writing with solo instruments which I enjoyed here. The orchestration part is nice and reveals a lot of details and it flows nicely. Sometimes there are spots where I am lost a bit where your orchestrational or compositonal focus is. It is not so clear to me. Maybe that becomes clearer when I listen to the piece more.


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## Paul T McGraw (Mar 27, 2018)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Hej Paul,
> 
> Thank you for sharing your Compositon and Music. I wasn´t sure where to begin with my feedback. First I thought to tell you: Damn, lower that Triangle and move it a bit back into the sound, my ear is popping :D. And then I thought: Man, lets get not to technical..again.
> 
> So this time I keep it simple. I enjoyed the overall composition. What I actually like is the ambiguous character in the harmony of your music which you carry throughout your piece. That is really cool because it lets the listener a lot of room for interpretation and don´t put so much force on how to feel about the music. You have a good sense for lyrical writing with solo instruments which I enjoyed here. The orchestration part is nice and reveals a lot of details and it flows nicely. Sometimes there are spots where I am lost a bit where your orchestrational or compositonal focus is. It is not so clear to me. Maybe that becomes clearer when I listen to the piece more.



Next piece, NO TRIANGLE. Ha, I guess I need someone to warn me about excessive triangle before posting!  I will for sure try to fix that.

Thanks for your positive comments. The harmonic language I used is a sort of blend of influences from Dvorak, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky. I was actually trying to sound a bit more Wagnerian this time, but that is not easy. I really appreciate hearing from you because I know you have a fabulous ear for orchestration. There are two spots in the piece where I indulge in a brief fugal section, and I suspect that is where you felt I lost focus. I really appreciate your taking the time to listen! Thank you!


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## Craig Duke (Mar 27, 2018)

I enjoyed that Paul. It tells a story.


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Mar 27, 2018)

Paul T McGraw said:


> Next piece, NO TRIANGLE. Ha, I guess I need someone to warn me about excessive triangle before posting!  I will for sure try to fix that.
> 
> Thanks for your positive comments. The harmonic language I used is a sort of blend of influences from Dvorak, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky. I was actually trying to sound a bit more Wagnerian this time, but that is not easy. I really appreciate hearing from you because I know you have a fabulous ear for orchestration. There are two spots in the piece where I indulge in a brief fugal section, and I suspect that is where you felt I lost focus. I really appreciate your taking the time to listen! Thank you!


No worries, keep the triangle coming.

Regarding the fugal section..probably..I am not very big on that subject and academic, I just go what stucks with me. I use as a minimalist counterpointed stuff just to fill in gaps. So this is my amateur way of telling that I am sophisticated lol! :D or not! :D


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Mar 27, 2018)

Paul T McGraw said:


> Next piece, NO TRIANGLE. Ha, I guess I need someone to warn me about excessive triangle before posting!  I will for sure try to fix that.
> 
> Thanks for your positive comments. The harmonic language I used is a sort of blend of influences from Dvorak, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky. I was actually trying to sound a bit more Wagnerian this time, but that is not easy. I really appreciate hearing from you because I know you have a fabulous ear for orchestration. There are two spots in the piece where I indulge in a brief fugal section, and I suspect that is where you felt I lost focus. I really appreciate your taking the time to listen! Thank you!



Lets stop joking: lower the triangle a little bit in volume and use less close micings or add more reverb on it, lowcut a bit the high frequencies (on the stick signal) there to put the triangle a bit more into the mix. The rest is fine.


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## Paul T McGraw (Mar 27, 2018)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Lets stop joking: lower the triangle a little bit in volume and use less close micings or add more reverb on it, lowcut a bit the high frequencies (on the stick signal) there to put the triangle a bit more into the mix. The rest is fine.



Got it. Thank you!


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Mar 27, 2018)

Paul T McGraw said:


> Got it. Thank you!



It was a minor thing really. How did approach the composition? Did you sketch that track out on 2 handed piano? How do you compose that material? You know me. I sketch out most of the shit I write on piano, so I am interested there.


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## chimuelo (Mar 27, 2018)

A snapshot of a beautiful river before 2006 when we started sending Coal to Europe and China using those massive Barge Trains...drove the fish down to 50 feet, except those scavenger Blue Cat.

All joking aside it was beautiful and and critiques above are pretty spot on but I also hear Wagnerian influence which kept me quite curious.
Beautiful piece. A bolder version of Seigfrieds Journey up the Rhine.


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## MichaelM (Mar 27, 2018)

Wow Paul, sounds great! There were moments there where i was reminded of Delius's early tone poems. Great orchestration.


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## Rodney Money (Mar 27, 2018)

No one has mentioned Copland or Smetana yet. I definitely hear some of those guys in there, and come on, that trumpet solo is totally "Moneyistic!" It is in Bb and uses no accidentals for that melody, lol.


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## OleJoergensen (Mar 27, 2018)

It was great! I agree, the brass sounds really good and dynamic!
Some places, when al the orchestra is playing, the woodwinds drowns a bit. Looking at your score, the instrumentation, I think the woodwinds will penetrate a bit more.
A couple of times I felt a bit lost, but I liked that. It really pictures a great river, with many different movements and at the same time the water floows in the same direction. 
Thank you for sharing.


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## wlynn (Mar 27, 2018)

Wonderful Composition Paul, and thanks for posting the score - always helpful. I too hear a little Copland there. I lived just across the river from Chattanooga for a few years. Your music brought back memories.


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## Paul T McGraw (Mar 27, 2018)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> It was a minor thing really. How did approach the composition? Did you sketch that track out on 2 handed piano? How do you compose that material? You know me. I sketch out most of the shit I write on piano, so I am interested there.



I always notate first, using Sibelius. In working on this piece I created the primary theme, then the secondary theme. Then I sketched out the entire piece, little by little, with plenty of false turns and corrections along the way. In this case, I wanted to use the arpeggio figures for transitions in homage to Wagner. These arpeggio figures took on a sort of life of there own and became the equivalent of a third theme. But I'm sure the details are rather boring.

My sketch included the strings (five staves), plus a staff for horns and a staff for woodwinds. And you might make fun of me for this, but I also always create a grand staff to keep track of the harmonies I am using. I do this for several reasons; to make it easier to do the full orchestration, to remind myself the next day what I was thinking, (as sometimes late romantic harmonies are not all that obvious), and to help me plan and execute the structure both harmonically and thematically. Once happy with the sketch, I asked two friends for feedback at that point to make sure I was not deluding myself that the end result was worth a listen. Then I finished the full orchestration in Sibelius.

I next did the midi performance in Cubase. That part took me several months since I have too many libraries and ended up with multiple versions using different libraries. In the end, the all VSL version seemed the best to my ears. That was probably more detail than you wanted. So sorry if I bored you with all that.


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## Paul T McGraw (Mar 27, 2018)

I want to thank my friends @Rodney Money and @synergy543 (Greg Moore) for listening to my sketch and providing feedback and suggestions.

"No man is a failure who has friends." quoted from Clarence, "It's A Wonderful Life."


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## ptram (Mar 28, 2018)

Paul, it's a very evocative piece, with a strong sense of narration. I like the colors and the impression of flowing. Beautiful orchestration, among the other things!

Paolo


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## Cass Hansen (Mar 29, 2018)

Awhile back you indicated to me you were about to post a piece of your own. Well I have to say this has been worth the wait.

I’ve listened to this now three times all the way through and what strikes me the most is how structurally solid this piece of yours is. Arguably Richard Strauss is the paragon of Romantic Tone Poems and for good reason, they simply work. You really captured his integrity and wherewithal when it comes to this form. You connect all the parts seamlessly and they “flow” (as a river should) from a mineral springs beginning to a collosal end.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t say how solid and sonically magnificent your brass tuttis are. By far the best I’ve heard on this forum for realism and power. Bravo! I’m not familiar with the Dimension series of VSL but boy I’ll check it out now!

I guess I should end this with some kind of comment to think about as far as rendering since this is a rendering forum per se , one objective and one subjective. 

The flute and oboe placement bothered me and distracted my attention every time I listened. The flute is flanked towards the left side of the stereo field while the oboe is on the right side. Normally in the orchestra the oboists sit next to the flutes because they play similar lines. (unison, octaves, 3rds, runs) for blending. I’d pull them together a bit.

The subjective comment is that the last note is a tad too short for this piece. You have this magnificent build from solo trumpet to end –a truly grandioso ending and “chop” it’s done. I don’t mean you have to have one of those long tonic chord holds that last 5 seconds to get the point across like so many romantic scores have, but I do feel it being a tad abrupt/short for what has just gone on before it. Just slightly incongruous to my sensibility but then again this is a purely subjective thought. 

Again, I can’t state how really impressed with what you did here. Glad I got to finally catch one of your inspirations/creations. You are very gifted!

Cass


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## Paul T McGraw (Mar 30, 2018)

Cass Hansen said:


> Awhile back you indicated to me you were about to post a piece of your own. Well I have to say this has been worth the wait.
> 
> I’ve listened to this now three times all the way through and what strikes me the most is how structurally solid this piece of yours is. Arguably Richard Strauss is the paragon of Romantic Tone Poems and for good reason, they simply work. You really captured his integrity and wherewithal when it comes to this form. You connect all the parts seamlessly and they “flow” (as a river should) from a mineral springs beginning to a collosal end.
> 
> ...



Thank you so much for all of your comments. I am very flattered. I am particularly pleased that you note the structural design, as I worked very hard on that element. 

I take your comments about the position of the oboes and the final note very seriously. I plan on thinking about both points and giving them additional consideration. 

You have given me enormous encouragement to continue creating music. Thank you!


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