Snegurochka Overture in F major Adagio e dolce

Essentially this is a short tone poem reflective of the emotional warmth of the winter season. Winter is by far my favorite season, and the sugary-sweet melodies and harmonies of this piece reflect that affection.

This is the final version of a long line of renditions that spans almost my entire orchestral compositional history:

- The main "A" section started out as an unfinished and much simplified solo piano piece, and the minor-key "B" section started out as a short étude for solo classical guitar. [late 2006]

- For my end-of-the-year project in my twelfth-grade AP Music Theory class, I arranged and further developed the two sections into a single movement for string quartet. Unfortunately, the "class premiere" went awfully, because they didn't rehearse it enough (only once or twice!), and I was so embarrassed that I never want to see the teacher again. >_< [early-to-mid June 2007]

- After the class ended, I orchestrated it more interestingly, and this is the version you'll hear now. [late June 2007]

Scored for:
- Celesta
- Violin 1 section
- Violin 2 section
- Viola section
- Cello section
- Soprano section
- Alto section
- Tenor section
- Bass section
- Harp
- Harpsichord
- Contrabassoon

Well, here's the actual music:

Snegurochka Overture in F major - Adagio e dolce

Thanks for checking this out. I look forward to receiving your feedback/comments/criticism.

<center><table border=1><tr><td>Score: Snegurochka Overture in F major - Adagio e dolce
Snegurochka Overture in F major – Adagio e dolce.pdf (168.2 k)</td></tr></table></center>

Hi Matt,

I really enjoyed the recorded mp3! The celesta adds the "sparkle" that I associate with winter - we live in Michigan, and get a lot of snow, and the kind that sparkles through the air when the sun is coming up and shining on it. As a matter of fact, your whole piece here reminds me very much of what it's like to get up in the morning before everyone else, and the sunlight is peeking over the horizon, with the snow-crystals in the air. The sun continues to rise, and then the frosting on everything else starts to shimmer, and soon (if it's a clear day) all the puff-frost starts showing on everything. It's absolutely beautiful, as is your composition

So, I'm curious about how you entered the notes. Did you record them into Composer using a MIDI instrument, or did you have them already in your head and use the mouse to enter the notes, or ... ? Do you have a .not file that you could share with us, or is it too large? I did appreciate seeing the pdf of the score, but I find it helpful and instructive to be able to watch the notes highlight while I'm listening. I also realize that the mp3 gives you the opportunity to let others hear how you want it to sound, and that's a very important point

Please keep up the good work, and do let us hear more. I'm going right now to your other posts to hear what you've been doing

ttfn,
Sherry

p.s. I'm also curious about the sound source you used for your recordings.

ttfn,
Sherry

Hi Matt,

I listened a couple of times to this and was most impressed, especially by the second half.

I do agree with Sherry. A .not file is much easier to read as one listens, move back and replay a striking passage, etc. This is also true of a .mid file, though all annotation is lost there. The files size limit for a .not file is 500KB. However, that increases a lot if you send it zipped. The file I submitted the other day was reduced from 523KB to about 175KB by zipping it. The zip program I use is Zip Genius, which is free and pretty powerful.

all best,
mgj

Hey guys,

Thanks for the comments! I always enter the notes via mouse. Not very "artistic", I know, but I'm really not much of an instrumentalist. ^_^

I know what ya mean about the pdf being hard to follow. Personally I find it very difficult to follow a score when listening to music. Unfortunately, this is a little embarrassing, but I don't actually use Composer. >_< *hides*

Yeah, I found this place by googling for a place where composers could share their music with each other. It's nice to see a community where composers can exchange ideas. God knows the non-musically-inclined tend not to pay attention to the small details that composers work so hard on. XD

Thanks again for the responses guys. =]

I thought it was beautiful. A very simple chord progression, skillfully enhanced and excellently orchestrated. As I'm rather used to following along with orchestral scores, I had no problem following yours. I would love to hear a live version, with quality players. Keep up the good work!

~Daniel

"I would love to hear a live version, with quality players."

So would I, Daniel, so would I! (>_<)

Thanks for the comment. =]

Howdy Matt,

Re. sharing files. You might be able to get a .mid file exported from whatever application you are using for your compositions. Check for a "File/Export" or "File/Save as" command, and see if the option is there to export a .mid. Any Notation user can then use their software to transcribe that .mid into notation which they can then watch as it plays, though it may be more "stiff" (quantized) if you did much tweaking to the performance.

Please do feel free to try out Composer - we have a free 30 day trial available for download at www.notation.com/Download.htm

As for entering notes with a mouse - I actually envy you a bit in that respect, as I'm absolutely no good at getting my music into the program that way. Being a lousy transcriptionist was one of the main reasons I started using Composer

ttfn,
Sherry

Hey guys,

Well, I saved it as a MIDI. I'm a little reluctant to post it because I'm a real control-freak when it comes to how my music is heard, but here it is. XD

<center><table border=1><tr><td>Snegurochka Overture in F major – Adagio e dolce
Snegurochka Overture in F major – Adagio e dolce.MID (44.4 k)</td></tr></table></center>

Howdy Matt,

Thanks for uploading the .mid file! I can understand your desire for your music to be heard the way you want it, and uploading the mp3 at a site with a link is the perfect (and recommended) way to share that vision

Like MG mentioned, it's nice to have the .mid or .not file, because then if there's a particularly intriguing passage, it's much easier to jump back and see how you did it. Or if there's a single instrument I'd like to focus on, I can solo that instrument and hear what's going on. It's also nice for those of us who might enjoy your piece so much that we'd like to "play along", because we can mute the part we'd like to play, and try our hand at playing along. Though you may not want to hear that as much ;) it's a very helpful aspect for stretching one's musicianship, and I've found it to be very helpful in my own musical growth. One of the reasons we share our music here is not only to show other folks what we've done and get some feedback, but to help and encourage each other to grow musically. Seeing and hearing compositions such as yours is stimulating!

So thanks again - this is indeed a beautiful piece, and I'm enjoying seeing it "play live" - I'm going to set it up on my GPO (Garritan Personal Orchestra) I have a pretty nice GM "amalgamation" soundfont that I've put together, but GPO is even better. I'm just curious about what sound source you used for your recording, if you don't mind sharing.

ttfn,
Sherry

Hi Matt
Also thanks for sharing the mid. file of this beautifull song.Where did you get the idea ? Like Sherry and MG,I always try to look at the partiture and I like the restraint way in which you used the various instruments to accentuate the beautifull melody.
I could not resist playing along with this song with my fretless bass,which I hope you don´t mind.
Is there more to come ?
Regards
Djim

Hey guys,

Glad you could put the MIDI to good use!

Sherry, this is quite a coincidence, but I actually use GPO as well. It's a beautiful set of patches. <3

Djim Tio, thanks. The parts in F major started from me simply playing around on the piano back when I was an extreme novice at the instrument (although to be honest I'm still not much better, heh). Then, after notating it, I wrote the rest of the F major cues simply by inputting the notes straight onto the computer (so mundane, bleh). As for the section in C minor, it was late at night and I was attempting a solo guitar piece with somewhat of a Russian Romantic flavor. The guitar piece was actually longer that the "B" section of this overture. I suppose I didn't include it because I didn't want to stray too far from the main themes, but now that I think of it, I might want to incorporate these unused themes sometime in the future to make the piece a little more interesting.

Anyways, thanks again guys for the comments! And indeed, there will be more to come. ^^