A real-time look inside my MIDI editor as I compose the first movement of my Violin Concerto in A minor — a large-scale chaconne for solo violin and string orchestra, written entirely without winds or piano.
The movement is built on a rhythmic ostinato in the bass — one eighth note followed by three staccato eighth notes, repeating relentlessly across 16-bar harmonic cycles while the harmony, texture, and virtuosity evolve above it. What you're seeing in this video is every single voice of the orchestral score open simultaneously — Violins I, Violins II, Violas, Cellos, and Contrabasses.
The compositional language is baroque counterpoint with romantic harmony — strict voice leading discipline combined with chromatic intensity and emotional depth. The movement modulates across three keys — A minor, D minor, and B minor — each carrying a distinct emotional weight, from dramatic, to noble, to tragic.
The solo violin enters after a substantial orchestral introduction, playing lyrical double stops, virtuosic runs alternating between sixteenth note and sextuplet patterns.
All instruments are virtual — rendered with Miroslav Philharmonik 2 and processed with a Samplicity Bricasti M7 impulse response in a large concert hall preset.
Composed, arranged, and produced entirely by me in Reaper.