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Instructor: @Monarcheon Students: max. 10 Expectations: Composers will learn about music from the contemporary/modern period, analyze it deeply, and will write music in this style. This should span over about a month and composition assignments will be used. Week 1: Bartok - form Week 2: Webern - interval set/vectors Week 3: Messiaen - rhythms/time Week 4: Cage - intro to musical philosophy AKA "real theory" Special Notes: This is our first test long-form masterclass... structured to be more like an actual class. It's a test because I don't know how many people will be interested/care. Let me know if you're interested in the comments.

A little piano piece I wrote over the last day or two. The initial idea occurred to me late in bed one night while I couldn't sleep. It's probably one of my least tonal pieces so far, although I wouldn't go so far as to call it 'atonal'. I'm really having some fun exploring the sounds and harmonic colours possible once I start accepting a little dissonance into my style. I'm starting to seriously think about compiling a bunch of small piano pieces into some sort of collection - I seem to be writing a lot of them lately, and I intend to continue doing so. My aim is to write one short piano piece at least every two weeks.

I love composing music on musescore and I made this Waltz in B major (Because I never have seen a song in B major for the piano yet.) I can also play this on the piano. The_waltz_of_the_hills..pdf The_waltz_of_the_hills..mp3

My first timpani concerto, written almost a year ago for a friend of mine who wanted something new. I apologize for the third movement. It's written that you use a superball and cymbal bowing on the timpani but of course my program cannot replicate. If you encounter one of these sections feel free to fast forward (there's a lot of silence) until there's actual written material. Enjoy.

I changed all the progressions to start with the root. I left the bar 14 C as a C because I thought it sounded better with the F chord and a C than with a D chord and a D. I also added some Dynamics. The_syncopated_rag.pdf The_syncopated_rag.mp3

Thank you! I was never really sure, while writing, of what I was going to do at the 'climax' of the piece - it had to build up to something. What I wrote is just what occurred to me at the time - it just felt 'right' to me. So it would pain me to lose it, of course :P But I'll ask my tutor and see what he thinks.

Another excellent set of Sentintiae! One thing I would say is to be careful when you have passages of double stops as they might not always be practical.

Just know basic music writing/theory/rhythm skills. Be ready to have an open mind, as the subjects will get advanced quite quick. For everyone else, I'm going to try to aim for 5 people in the class before I get started.

I love it, a phenomenal job for a first piece. I would also recommend for you to downsize your orchestration for your next piece to two or three parts, so you can focus on building the skills of writing melody, harmony, and chords. Eliminate the parallel movement you have in the violin and viola duet, and overall your harmony could be better in some spots. I liked the melody in the violin section after the duet, but the rest of them could be improved as they were not very memorable or singable as @Rabbival507 said. Also, the hundred twenty-eighth note or semihemidemisemiquaver you included seems a bit excessive and inconvenient to read, so instead maybe just change it to a staccato 16th note. Thank you for sharing, I look forward to listening to more of your music!

I appreciate it, but very few of my works have any scene or visuals in mind when I write them. It's interesting to hear what other people think though.

It's fine. I would suggest you do a little more sound design to make the dulcimer sound a little bit more improvisatory just like the flute, and less like a scripted event. Film-esque music plays on this idea lot, and it could be useful here. I also think the ending was far to abrupt. At least have some reverb or something to not cut off the experience.

Why did you start from a full orchestra? Actually, I have to say... I started from the full orchestra and only then realized I should write for less instruments and focus on other things. For a first piece... wonderful! ten out of ten, really. I don't want to ruin the true "you" you have in this piece, since that's the first one you've ever written and no one ever gave you a feedback until now. I will give you a helpful hint though: Try to sing the melodys you're writing. Many of the orchestral players use their air to produce the sounds, if you can't say it you can't play it, so make a break for them to breath in. Try to separate them into little groups of notes, under whats called "slurs" (look it up), every time you stop for air end the slur. That'll make it clearer both for the conductor and for the players. I hope that was helpful. if you want any further help write @Rabbival507 in your message so I'll get a notification for it.

I'm really interested.

I've made a new rag time to practice using a rhythm in different ways.

I also have tried composing a nocturne in F sharp minor. The_forest_nocturne.pdf The_forest_nocturne.mp3