"La Sécheresse" - should be called "19 Crimes"

I took music theory (and conducting / piano / french horn) back in the 70s. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then, and not a few bottles of wine (including 19 Crimes) have seen their inglorious end at my table, so very, very little of Dr Durham's course material occupies any place of prominence in the recesses of the old grey matter.

Still, I like painting with sound, and today, in this more embracing, tolerant age, one can do so and share with like-minded individuals. Wow, things have changed.

I'm offering this little piece for woodwinds, horns and strings for your critique. It's in G minor. As I said on my scores page, "La Sécheresse" is french for "The Drought". The piece was inspired by accounts given me by people who have seen the dreadful plight of the Australian farmers first-hand. The sheer disaster Australia is facing from almost a decade of non-stop drought can hardly be exaggerated.

About the piece itself: true composers will cringe at some of the (to me, hidden) parallel fifths and other crimes: feel free to point them out. I've already cleaned up some of the more agonising phrases, but I'm sure some remain. I do wish that there was a better place to post WIPs than on one's score list, but oh well. Open to suggestions for this as well.

I will continue tweaking, but intend to export to Reaper and Garritan VSTi for the sound I want: MuseScore is fantastic for sketching, and Reaper, for rendering. Which is why there's a separate stave for pizzicato and arco. If someone familiar with Reaper can make suggestions of a better way to manage this in Reaper (as opposed to separating pizz and arco), I'd love to hear.

Here's a link to a better-sounding version as rendered by my system (http://www.tightbytes.com/music/LaSecheresse.mp3)

..and the MuseScore file:
Secheresse.mscz