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An opera cycle consisting of three operas with plots derived from the Bible. The first detailing Lucifer's rebellion, the creation, and the fall. The second depicting the nation of Israel and all of humanity sliding back and forth between righteousness and sin. The third one being about Christ's birth, crucifixion, and resurrection. Although I started it, I haven't even gotten close to finishing it at all because I'm just not good enough to pull it off. The vision is too grand for me to try and accomplish yet.

Tchaikovsky beated me to virtually everything I would have loved to write. Then John Williams beated me to what was left :P . Anyway, while reading this thread I felt like I could have said "most of the above". And of course, I've still got plenty of unfulfilled dreams: 1) Something worth ripping off. 2) A large-scale symphony (perhaps not Mahler-sized, but close enough in terms of orchestration and scope). I dream of it as being my Sixth or Seventh, but what's blocking my way to it is that I must finish my Third, Fourth and Fifth before even getting there :cool: . 3) A full ballet with a charming, yet not ridiculous plot. 4) At least one opera (yes, I would like to write that someday). 5) Scores to match my favorite novels, good enough to become associated with them forever. 6) Scores to match my own novels. 7) At least one piano concerto. Quite a tall order for a non-full-time composer who actually is on a break :dunno: ...

Onno, it could be that I'm going off to college in about a week and half way across the continent, not able to see my family and completely leave this place behind... and my audition music is freakin Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphases, which is a bit difficult. I'm sure once I get to school, I'll be bursting with new ideas. Thanks everyone for your help! Tuohey, that's what I usually do, and I have been getting better, I've worked under fast deadlines enough to not wait for a burst of inspiration, but this time's different, I'm not quite waiting as much as my mind is at a complete blank. It's always easy once you get past that intimidating score of empty staves, once I get past, it inspires itself, it's just that I can't seem to start. This time, instead of having nothing to say and nothing to write, I have an urge to say something, but I have nothing i can write down. ken320, I just bought an oboe, I have no money! and I'm buying college now, I'll never have money until I'm 40! But I've been looking for ways to save up for a good sequencer, and I have been playing with some online apps, but I'm not exactly an electronic composer, this piece is for the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra. Thanks a lot everyone! I hope this proves to be useful for anyone else who finds themselves in this situation, you all have some great advice, and it helps to be reassured that my career as a composer won't end at the age of 18 :P

Just a thing that can happen to all of us, tousand and none ideas, and nothing comes from any of it. Every idea being discarded as crap. Take a walk, get away from it all, stop the 'I must have a good idea' thoughts. Let the wind blow through. Don't use alcohol, you'll only get a headache. A joint might relax you. Usually there is some problem in the background to be solved that keeps you from having inspiration. Make time to solve that and everything will come back. During my teaching at the academy I had once a student who always had 5 or 6 ideas when it came to assignments, she sometimes had more than one executed.Then at one time she came up with little, When it was time to submit the assignment she came up with ... nothing. So unlike her. We had along talk in the academy's lounge, somewhere in the back of her head she had the idea that her parents were breaking up. I advised her to take sometime off and talk to her parents. Two months later she returned to the academy and was again bursting with ideas. I had these times aswell, dont push yourself, relax, nobody dies from lack of ideas, go to a museum, read a book, see a movie, talk to friends. Good luck!

This piece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zqwqeciKEI Unfortunately i was beaten to it by a couple of centuries :/

Serena Ryder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppi1uDvc44w The Unthanks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwSW5KBarWw Melody Gardot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qphknagXqA Diana Krall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBnWGAQQw1w Mary Gauthier http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5MG1ZfFiZ8 Juliette Greco http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rFWm7SSkyE His Name Is Alive http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfqktBTuHxM The Civil Wars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrOUwbsy12E The Blue Nile http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQx-6cUyHVo Shirley Horn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jtdvdy776o Dead Can Dance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkFWUF86cvA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itwL5y0He-k Beach House http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2_H3PCTgJk A N D ... Tatiana Hargreaves http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQGVvT7Xsxw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1vlO14pg_g this blows my mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAAumxlX6Wo

In strict classical harmony the seventh of any seventh chord (in any inversion) is the dissonant note and therefore the one that must be resolved (usually down by step). Some seventh chords contain tritones (which also must be resolved according to traditional harmony rules) and therefore multiple voices have to move, but in a minor or major seventh one can resolve the dissonances one note at a time (eg Fmaj7 [E is dissonant, resolves down] -> Dm6/5 [D is a correct resolution, but C is dissonant] -> Bø4/3 -> E7 [G# and E are correct resolutions, but D is dissonant] -> Am. One could theoretically resolve to Am earlier by cutting out the Bø4/3, but this would create consecutive fifths between the Dm6/5 and the E7, so the chords would have to be revoiced. One could also create a "cycle of fifths" progression by resolving two notes at a time - Fmaj7 -> Bø4/3 -> Em7 -> Am4/3 -> Dm7 -> G4/3 -> Cmaj7 etc) To answer your original question, the E of an Fmaj7 chord does have to resolve to D (or F, in which case it's not an Fmaj7 chord at all but a plain F chord with an appoggiatura), but Fmaj7 and G can't be placed side by side in the first place because of the consecutive fifths (you'd need to interpose some other chord, e.g. a D6/5). To answer your second question, that would be correct under the following circumstances: (1) the Am7 chord on the first beat is a "double appoggiatura" to the F6 chord on the second beat; (2) the Am chord on the second half of the 2nd beat is a passing chord between F6 and B7 (4/2) (G6/5 would also work); (3) the treble A moves down to a G. I would also move the 3rd up an octave as the chords will sound better and cleaner that way. This is an example:

In no particular order: Tom Petty Gillian Welch Patty Griffin The Generationals The National The Dead Dar Williams Indigo Girls Cecelia Nina Simone and all the old dead blues guys and anyone who has ever played at Club Passim. (: