Rev3 changes (file still available with "_R3" name suffix):
Rev2 changes (file still available with "_R2" name suffix):
- Improved dynamics, especially in the slow sections built on long string swells;
- Adjusted some articulations in the energetic development sections;
- Adjusted tempo map subtly to better suit each section.
As a result, the piece should feel a bit more natural now. Granted, there is no MIDI-substitute to recording a real string orchestra with a real piano. Might actually happen one day, though definitely won't happen within the March 24 2025 timeline.
Rev1 documentation (file still available with "_R1" name suffix):
Started by opening the provided MIDI file in Logic just to check out the chord progression and to think what can be done with it. Since the given sample chords sounded kinda plain with parallel motion and no voice leading, I began to mess around with the mouse in piano roll editor. After a while, something resembling 4-voice counterpoint started to emerge so I decided to keep going in that direction.
After I had my main theme fleshed out and harmonized using counterpoint voice leading, it felt a bit bland having just a piano alone playing this 4-voice thingy, so after some trial-end-error I ended up with a five-part chamber orchestra (or a mouse-drawn MIDI-imitation thereof) using stock instruments from Logic’s sound library: “Studio Grand”, “Studio Violins”, “Studio Violas”, “Studio Cellos”, “Studio Double Basses”.
Before I finally settled for the five-part chamber orchestra though, I had tried string quartet first (2 x violin, viola, cello), but the quartet sounded kinda weak without the piano and when I added the piano back in then I really felt it needed the double bass as well, so I dropped 2nd violin part in favour of the double bass - this particular set of instruments turned out to support each other well timbrally.
Hearing the main theme played by the orchestra, I noticed that it works better if I flip the first and second halves of it. By doing that, I also flipped the first and second halves of the chord progression. This should be OK rules-wise I hope, since the only difference between the halves is the "D minor (sans 5th)" at the end - in my version, that chord now appears in the middle of the theme instead of ending it.
Now that I had a main theme and a set of instruments to play it on, I wrote the side theme and the development section, a transposed variation on the side theme and a coda. I am acutely aware that as of Rev1, the thing does occasionally come across a bit like separately written sections artificially glued together. Also, a lot of MIDI dynamics are still TODO. I might attempt to improve on these matters in upcoming revision(s).
How do we go from there?