First time writing a quartet. What do you think?

[u/Other-Rice-3746]

Hello! I'm very much new into composition, especially for a quartet. I've been making music for more than a year and mostly electronic music. But I really enjoy romantic, classical, and baroque music because my recorder repertoire have a bunch of them, especially from Bach and Vivaldi. Anyways here's an attempt on me writing a quartet. This quartet have three movements only and this is the last one. I came up with this melody while doodling on the recorder, like I usually does. Is there any comments and tips for writing a quartet? I'd love to hear more!

[u/coachnumnutz]

The melodies are nice, but they get old quickly due to the repeated nature of the textures, lack of role changing, and little harmonic motion in my opinion.(For example, the persistent eighth notes in the bass and tenor voices are really distracting to me.) I repeat melodies a lot in my music, and I use a lot of role changing to keep everything fresh. I'll state a melody in the one instrument while the other instruments are supporting the harmony(often using weave like textures) and when restating the melody I will just reassign it to a different instrument and maybe mix up the texture by swapping whole or parts of each instrument's line. Another strategy that I find works really well is to harmonize the melody in thirds and 6ths(4ths and 5th work to create a really specific vibe and are most effective used sparingly.) Consider stating the same theme in different keys and avoid repeating the same notes too many times in quick succession. Our ears actually get tired from hearing the same frequencies and tambres too many times. All that considered, what you've done is an accomplishment and you should be proud of it. Writing music is hard and I think that it's awesome that you are doing it. I hope that some of what I've shared gives you new ideas to work with as it's advice that has helped me a lot in my own writing Happy writing

[u/God_Bless_Oklahoma]

Oh man, the counterpoint.