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A Pastoral Hymn for String Orchestra - With Realistic Strings

mediumaevum

Active Member
I've only recently come across Arvo Pärt, Ola Gjeilo and Eric Whitacre and I was so inspired by their harmonies that I tried to use them for my style of music.

Though still more "traditionally" harmonized I do believe my piece here has elements from Pärt, Gjeilo etc.

I hope you like my composition, it's still work-in-progress so please let me know of your thoughts, ideas for improvement etc.

UPDATE: Now with video and even better string realism!

 
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I think you have a nice starting point here, but being a little bit familiar with Arvo Pärt (and his tintinnabuli), I'd say it's not really that close to his ideas. Your piece is as you say more traditionally harmonized, with regular chords all the way through. I can see the sparse arrangement being inspired by the ones you mention though.

Room for improvement would be for you to add more variation, dynamic wise it's quite flat all the way through, and with the strings sounding quite synth-like. Work more with the mod wheel and let the piece breathe, and composition wise I'd recommend to set a theme and then develop it.

Good luck and keep up the good work!
 
I think you have a nice starting point here, but being a little bit familiar with Arvo Pärt (and his tintinnabuli), I'd say it's not really that close to his ideas. Your piece is as you say more traditionally harmonized, with regular chords all the way through. I can see the sparse arrangement being inspired by the ones you mention though.

Room for improvement would be for you to add more variation, dynamic wise it's quite flat all the way through, and with the strings sounding quite synth-like. Work more with the mod wheel and let the piece breathe, and composition wise I'd recommend to set a theme and then develop it.

Good luck and keep up the good work!

Thank you for the critique. I adjusted the violins and also made it a bit longer.

The violins at the start of the piece are solo violins playing really, really soft, it will also sound a bit synth in real life.
 
NOW the strings have dynamics. I treated each and every note in their own unique way.

I now finished my composition.

Would be grateful to get some feedback on the composition, arrangement/orchestration, MIDI-CC (Dynamics) and the video.
 
More like an arrangement of an early American hymn tune than Arvo Part - due to the traditional harmonic simplicity. I think the strings sound great. [Arvo Part can have very sparse textures, but they are not harmonically traditional]
 
More like an arrangement of an early American hymn tune than Arvo Part - due to the traditional harmonic simplicity. I think the strings sound great. [Arvo Part can have very sparse textures, but they are not harmonically traditional]

Thanks. As I wrote in my OP, this is inspired by Pärt (amongst others) yet still traditionally harmonized.

The Pärt-inspiration is not so much in the harmony as it is in the way the violins are played very softly. I haven't heard it elsewhere from other composers, playing the violins that soft.

The harmonies are traditional, but with some few elements from, say, Gjeilo, Pärt and Whitacre.
 
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