June, 2019 (alternative topic): What is your favorite chamber ensemble?

[sandalwood]

What kind of chamber music ensemble (from solo up to a nonette) do you feel most comfortable writing for? Why? Is it also the type of ensemble in the standard repertoire you most enjoy listening to?

[RJB54]

Even though I am a woodwind player I find myself writing for strings (quartet, sextet) a lot. I don't know why but often find that I am hearing a string sound when starting a new piece.

In second place would be woodwind quintet as I like the color possibilities.

[Michel.R.E]

I'm finding myself writing a lot for strings. I seem to have a knack for using strings in inventive and colourful ways.
of course, playing the viola helps.

I'd LOVE to write a piano trio (pno, vln, vcl) but am far too intimidated by the Ravel trio.

So I'll stick to string quartets!

[Jerry Engelbach]

I'm not prolific enough to have evolved a favorite form of any combination.
 
But what I have written seems to favor a string backup ensemble with wind soloist.
 
Except for recorders and a brief flirtation with trumpet, I haven't played a real wind, but I particularly love the sound of oboe and cor anglais.
 
Cheers,
Jer

[tbmartin]

For people who've seen my posts over the years, it's no surprise that sax quartet is my major focus. It's the instrument I play, and I get to play and hear my own pieces performed. I like the relatively consistent sound of the instrument from top to bottom for each individual horn, and across the group's combined range. There are nuances of course, especially in the bari's upper range, but having that consistency has helped me focus on the structure and style of the composition by taking "color differences" out of the variable mix.

I've also written for up to 8 saxes, and that's really not that much different because all it adds is the possibility of "thickness" and not new colors.

From there, however, I'm branching out to full concert band.

[RJB54]

So I'll stick to string quartets!

Of course, there's nothing intimidating about string quartets. 

[Michel.R.E]

So I'll stick to string quartets!

Of course, there's nothing intimidating about string quartets. 

HAHAHA
Yeah, I see your point.

But having grown up as a concert pianist first and foremost, the Ravel trio (which I played when I was 17) holds a particular place in my heart (like the Prokoviev 2nd piano concerto). As such, I find the technical details of that particular work incredibly intimidating. It contains the most difficult music ever written for that particular formation.

[gogreen]

For a while now I've been fascinated with brass sounds, so in the last two years, I've written five brass quintets. I'm currently working on a brass choir piece (2 trumpets, 2 horns, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, and percussion). I'm placing bets that my next stop will be brass band. 🤔

Art

[tbmartin]

.... I'm placing bets that my next stop will be brass band. 🤔

Art

England is lovely this time of year....

[gogreen]

England is lovely this time of year.

Hah! It's tempting! Unfortunately, before I'd dive in to brass band writing, I'd have to brush up on brass band scoring techniques.

Art

[Michel.R.E]

I'm due to write another woodwind quintet.
I enjoyed writing for winds (having played bassoon in my college days)... already done a quintet, and a quintet with piano (no horn).

maybe I should break free a bit from string writing and make some wind.

[sandalwood]

Another commission?

[Michel.R.E]

oh, no, not a commission.. I meant more "due" as in "it's time that I took on a wind quintet".

right now the only commissions in the pipeline are a piano concerto (not confirmed) and a 2nd string quartet (not confirmed either).

[sandalwood]

Emerging urge of a musician to write for a certain ensemble...isn't that very Shakespearian! He might have a lost sonnet buried somewhere reading something like

How's the musician ordain'd to write for lute all'f a sudden,
Lusting like the silkworm's urged to commence weaving its cocoon
 

Fingers crossed for securing the tentative commissions and many others.

ps. My finding  the urge to write for a wind quintet Shakespearean is very genuine but I might be a bit touchy on the extent of my success mimicking his style

[tbmartin]

How's the musician ordain'd to write for
lute all'f a sudden, Lusting like the silk-
worm's urged to commence weaving its cocoon.

There, I fixed your iambic pentameter. (Well, at least there are 10 syllables per line. Iambic?, not so much and the rhyme scheme, well, .... it's a work in progress....

(All in fun, of course! My poetic skill is greatly constrained to the occasional Haiku and limerick.)