Yet another Woodwind Quartet piece

Heyoo!

As is the case with many other of my pieces, I had some time this weekend, and I thought it would be cool to write some short musical idea.

I really enjoy trying to compose music with this inherent "energetic" component, which makes the piece feel ever-changing and exciting. I had another go at a woodwind quartet, to see if I could improve my writing for this ensemble (compared to another one I wrote a while ago).
I didn't have time to study too much for this particular ensemble (or similar, i.e. quintets), so the orchestration might not be much better than I would've done months ago; although, I do feel I've made some improvements on the compositional aspect/developments of the (two-ish) themes.

Obligatory: yes, I've heard and I'm familiar with Mike's Berlin Woodwinds demo, I've transcribed most of it months ago and I've learned some cool things from it; I wasn't directly inspired by it, but you can hear that it was definitely in the back of my mind.

Here's Noteperformer rendition and PDF of the score:


https://www.dropbox.com/s/dtzh7f4858cgv5e/woodwind_quartet_2.pdf?dl=0

Hopefully this piece is not gonna get ignored like the last one I posted here

 

Haha I was referring to this little thing I wrote a month ago https://redbanned.com/threads/the-land-of-wonders.616/ that received no comments. How could it be such a bad piece to not deserve any attention!

Any criticism is welcomed for both pieces!

 

Thank you very much, you're very kind!
Ironically, with all the music I compose, the ending just writes itself 99% of the time. If I worked out my main melody enough and I know it inside out, then an ending that is always satisfying is the final repurpose of that melody with the most "complete" harmonic progression. Most of the times the finale is a dynamic climax (the biggest version of the melody), so I usually do it with the whole orchestra playing "forte", and with optional countermelodies. This all applies and is effective when the piece is a standalone, and requires some sort of dramatic "closure". Of course this is only one way of doing it, and it's surprisingly straight-forward!

I also really enjoy intertwine the different motifs of the piece at the same time, by having the B theme be a counterpoint melody to the A theme - like I did in this piece. I can't always do it because of the inherent nature of the motifs I'm working with, but when it works out it's very rewarding.

The endings are by far the laziest sections of my compositions, and I spend next to no time on them. Whenever I get to the point where I have to orchestrate the ending of any piece, I generally shut off my brain because most of the times I'm like "oh, it's gonna be one of those things with violins in octaves, trumpets screaming, etc.". You, as the composer, already know where the "story" is going. You know how big your biggest climax is, and from that point you can work your way back with how you wanna present your themes, and how to arrange them. In a way, I already subconsciously know how the ending is gonna pan out, so it's almost like I already wrote it in my mind when I'm starting a new piece. On the other hand, making everyone play and doubling lines (and thickening the orchestration) for a climax is way easier than carefully balancing the orchestration for any other section before it!

Hope this is helpful! Thank you for your comment

 

It indeed is! I love it

I was wondering if my melody was either too short or not strong enough, so thank you very much for this comment, it's very useful!

I'm very glad you like it, I'm flattered!