Symphony #13 for the Virtual Orchestra, 3rd movement (adagio)

[Jerry Gerber]

This is the slow movement of the new symphony I'm currently working on.  It may also become the soundtrack to my next astro music video.  It took me quite a while to begin liking this piece as I know the pitfalls of writing an adagio and had to work hard to overcome them.   If you want to look at the score, remember to open it in  a new tab or it will cut-off the playback of the recording.

Jerry

https://www.jerrygerber.com/symph13mvt3.htm

 

 

[Martin Schiff]

I like the music, but it is kind of flat dynamically. After looking at the score, I can see why. There are no dynamic markings, or crescendos or decrescendos. That would add a lot.

[Jerry Gerber]

49 minutes ago, Martin Schiff said:

I like the music, but it is kind of flat dynamically. After looking at the score, I can see why. There are no dynamic markings, or crescendos or decrescendos. That would add a lot.

Hi Martin, I am pretty sure the dynamics are right for the piece.  I'll go back and take a listen to see if I really want to change anything.

There are crescendos & decrescendos, I have no idea why you're not hearing them.    The movement has a dynamic range of 8.03 dB, which is, I admit, a bit lower than many of my symphonic movements.    When I listen to it at a moderately low level, it sounds fine but if i crank it up too loud, it does seem a little flat dynamically.  When I master the entire symphony I'll mix this movement at a lower amplitude.

The lack of dynamics in the score has nothing to do with the recording, which contains all the dynamics in the MIDI sequence.  I don't put dynamics in the score (nobody wrote out dynamics until the 19th century) because there are no players.   Same with string bowings and wind/brass breathing marks.  If there were players I'd put them in.   I know how to do that.  But for digitally produced music they're redundant. 

I wrote a brief article about why I don't put these marks in the score, which irritates a lot of composers who write for live players,  but I am not concerned with that tradition:

https://www.jerrygerber.com/markings.htm

Here's the waveform, you can see it has dynamic range:

Edited May 1 by Jerry Gerber

[Jerry Gerber]

I think Martin was right.  I forgot to add the volume envelopes to the piece.  The dynamics are better now..

 

 

[Martin Schiff]

Yes, it does sound better now.