After listening to the recording, I added in more markings to make the changes in vibrato more obvious to the performers, since it affects the colour and quality of the sound greatly.
I found the best versions of each section in the piece to join together, but due to the continuity in sound from section to section/bar to bar, sometimes the crossfade in logic wasn’t enough, so I had to manually fade in and out the different recordings (see right).
In future I would like to record this piece in a studio (with a room mic and a mic for each person), instead of just one zoom recorder. Overall, the desired moods/atmospheres were achieved, although I think I would like to lengthen the aleatoric section so that each new pitch set (and the changes in mood that brings) has longer to 'set in'/more time to enjoy each 'colour' (I couldn’t do that here due to the time limit).
Despite this, I'm proud of the result and am excited at how this piece came to life! Moreover, my quartet (aptly named Quart-Ed) has decided to add this piece into the programs that we plan on presenting to schools (this piece serving a number of purposes - showcasing and encouraging the multiple identities of musicians, demonstrating extended string techniques in an accessible way, an example of programmatic music, and potential for scaffolding the creation of soundscapes using handheld percussion instruments).
After mixing, I added in the changes to the score from the recording session including:
- cues (notated through blue downward facing arrows through each part)
- gradually moving to and from the extended techniques (to and from the harmonic, swell in harmonic trill, and moving to and from the bridge gradually).
I exported this file to a pdf so that I could see the layout more clearly. I marked up some of the places where the layout wasn’t perfect or details missing, and went back into Sibelius to fix them up for the final version. I also ran it by a friend and they pointed out some spacing issues.