This piece is the first of four movements. Composed and sequenced in Sonar using the VSL Orchestral Cube.
Mixed in Sonar and on the Yamaha DM2000 mixing board.
 
Audio:
http://www.jerrygerber.com/mp3/Eighth%20Symphony%201st%20movement.mp3
 
Score:
http://www.jerrygerber.com/scores/symphony8/symph8prt1.pdf
 
Jerry
www.jerrygerber.com
 

Jerry,
 
Spectacular work, the VSL orchestral samples are quite amazing in quality.   Do you compose the entire piece on piano and then divvy out the parts or have you already envisaged the orchestration and start with the individual parts?   Seems to be quite a complex under-taking and must take you a long time to pull together. 
 
I remember seeing a Jerry Goldtsmith documentary once where he mentions that if he gets 1 or 2 minutes of music done he has had a really productive day.  Really enjoyable listen. 
 
Regards

Love it

The instrument sounds are incredible and I really enjoyed anticipating where the music would go next. I very much enjoyed listening to this and I wouldn't even begin to know how to critique such a wonderfully intricate piece of music, but here goes. On my laptop the horns were pretty bright and seemed to overwhelm the underlying strings, but as I said, I don't know enough to say whether or not such a thing is ill advised.
 
Really inspirational stuff, thank you!

As usual, Jerry, this is an excellent piece of MIDI orchestration. Sounds really authentic.
 
A great composition too... I enjoyed listening to it, so thanks for sharing.
 
cheers
 
andy

markno999
Jerry,
 
Spectacular work, the VSL orchestral samples are quite amazing in quality.   Do you compose the entire piece on piano and then divvy out the parts or have you already envisaged the orchestration and start with the individual parts?   Seems to be quite a complex under-taking and must take you a long time to pull together. 
 
I remember seeing a Jerry Goldtsmith documentary once where he mentions that if he gets 1 or 2 minutes of music done he has had a really productive day.  Really enjoyable listen. 
 
Regards

Hi Mark,
I compose in Sonar, in the staff view, although I am always going back and forth between the event list and the staff view for MIDI programming of patches, articulations, attack and release times, etc.  It takes me about 2-3 years to finish one symphony, I am about half-way through the last movement of #9. 
 
I'm lucky if I can get one minute a day, it really depends upon the density of the music.  Many instruments, lots of counterpoint, and it takes more time.  I'm composing and notating, but also sequencing and interpreting, so that also takes more time than just composing. The more detail, definition and expression you want in your virtual performance, the more time and effort is required.
 
Jerry
www.jerrygerber.com
 
 

Wow...  that be some good stuff.   I can understand why a minute or two per day is reasonable.  There are so many layers, transitions, melodic and rhythmic changes.  Just the number instruments involved and the way in which they hand off the lead to each other every few bars (like a real orchestra) is very impressive. 

Brilliant counterpoint + wonderful sounds= ear candy. Love it! Hard to believe such convincing performances are possible virtually in the same DAW I use.

LarryAlex
Nice work, Mister Jerry.  I like it.  Very good development throughout.  The sampled instruments are remarkable.
Thanks for sharing it with us.
 
BTW, are you related to Joanie Gerber, the wonderful radio and TV voice-over person?
 
Best,
Larry Alexander

 

Hi Larry,
Glad you enjoyed it!
No, I don't think I am related to Joanie Gerber.   It's a pretty common last name. 
A guy named Gerber studied with J.S. Bach (Heinrich Nicolaus Gerber (1702-1775).
 
Jerry
 

Excellent work. Thanks for sharing.
 
Regards,
 
sja