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Thanks for sharing. I'll be sure to look at it more in depth, I just noticed it now. I used to take a bunch of different classical pieces and invert the whole thing, a full retrograde invert. Meaning Beethoven-flipping-the-sheet-music-upside-down style, then transpose all the parts to their registers. From there you may need to make a few bass adjustments, but you have all kinds of new upside down music awaiting you, and lots of it is good. I think Beethoven did some of that too, in his symphonies. His 3rd for example, has a number of melodies the same upside down. The rules are different in the parallel universe though :) Some compositions I will work back and forth between both dimensions. Flip the sheet music over, write some more to fit that end. Or invert without flipping. Thy become different shades, constantly weaving things into new colors and possibilities.

Aniolel, here is your first lesson on orchestration. Read the attached pdf as it explains everything you need to know. There is no deadline for the assignment but as I will be away next week you can wait until the 7th August to post it up. Siwi Orchestration lessons 1.pdf

K lemme just say that this idea that "classical music is complex for the sake of being complex" is horseshit. Certainly there was a period immediately after the second World War during which some people (Adorno) strove for music that eliminated ties to traditional elements like conjuct melody etc etc. but even music like what came out of Stockhausen and Boulez isn't complex "just 'cause". The language is merely a means to an end, that end being artistic expression just like what comes out of Tom Waits or Lady Gaga or whatever.

Samuel Barber is my god apart from God which is not really a good thing, but he is by far my favorite composer. I really have not heard anything written by him that I was not fawning over the brilliance of except maybe the 3rd Essay for Orchestra which I am not that fond of. Aaron Copeland comes in 2nd place for me. I really love Copeland, but he is not Barber. They are just very different. Those are examples of two pretty early on contemporary composers. You might even still call some of their stuff romantic or with romantic leanings. Some of my favorites by them (which are my favorites of anything) are: Barber Summer Music for Wind Quintet Medea's Dance of Vengeance Adagio for Strings Second Essay for Orchestra Excursions for Piano The First Symphony Cello Piano Sonata Violin Concerto Copeland Rodeo El Salon Mexico Third Symphony Billy the Kid Quiet City Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson If you want my opinion on the greatest still living composer it would be Robert Aldridge. I adore this man's work. He is an American composer. He fits into this kind of jazz oriented contemporary nitch that really is a style all unto his own. Some of his music has that open field, on the forefront, optimistic kind of feel like Copeland. A lot of it doesn't. He wrote literally one of my top 5 favorite operas and I place Turandot as my #1. It is called Elmer Gantry. There will be a recording of that out this month some time very soon and I literally cannot wait. Some of his best works (IMO): Elmer Gantry the opera This Tango that he wrote for a Violin and Orchestra Piano Trio - brilliantly colorful and energetic piece String Quartets #1 and #2 Violin Concerto (Ah God - this is gorgeous) And he just recently wrote a 4 movement piece for orchestra and choir called Parables which was pretty grand and spectacular. It actually premiered in Topeka Kansas were my sister goes to school. I got to go out and see it performed live for the first time. Most of these can be found and listened to in full on his website: http://www.robertaldridge.com/media.php My other favorite living composer is Australian (well favorite classical composer). His name is Carl Vine. The reason I found out about him is because of his Piano Sonata. This is a brilliant piece of music. It is contemporary and it is jazzy and it is epic and it is rhythmic. I love it. One of my favorite piano pieces. Part 1 Part 2 I hope you love some contemporary/modern/whatever you want to call it music when you are done going through some of this stuff. It is my favorite stuff.

My symphonic wacko variation, on bach's Prelude No. 2 in c minor. funky and stuff!