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Hello everyone, It has again been a while since I have posted anything, and I have a new piece to show you all: the Fantasy-Variations in G-sharp minor. This piece was written in 2020. The theme is based on an aria from the 1967 opera "Grigory Melekhov" by the composer Ivan Dzerzhinsky. Ivan Dzerzhinsky (1909-1978) was a Soviet composer and pianist, best known for his operas and popular songs. His most famous work is the 1935 opera "Quietly Flows the Don" (based on the novel of the same name by writer Mikhail Sholokhov), which was a success at its premiere, and which launched Dzerzhinsky's career as a composer. He continued writing operas over the next several decades, including "Virgin Soil Upturned" (from which the duet "The Cossack Song" has since become popular among Russian ensembles), "Fate of a Man", and of course, "Grigory Melekhov" (also based on Sholokhov's novel). Aside from operas and vocal works, he also composed piano concertos and piano suites. His music usually is quite traditional and accessible, many pieces bearing similarities to Mussorgsky and even Puccini. With the exception of "The Cossack Song", his works receive very few performances today, and they are almost entirely within Russia. Furthermore, he has been labeled a "hack" by musicologists for his musical style, and for his status within the Soviet Union. I wrote this piece because I thought Dzerzhinsky's melody was too beautiful to be forgotten, and I wanted to make it available to other people, as well as to add something new to it; this is not meant to be a political piece. All that said, I hope you all enjoy the piece. 🙂 Also, for those of you who are interested, here is the original theme:

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Hello, Myself and Guillem have been collaborating on a project centered on galant pedagogy. We came up with a simple structure that follows well known schema (illustrated below) for a theme in the form of a minuet, followed by a number of variations to demonstrate ways in which schema can be manipulated. We agreed to write for two parts only for simplicity's sake, and to better clarify the schema involved. The schematic structure is as follows: A Meyer (Theme) Modulating Prinner B x2 Monte (IV-V) Meyer (Theme) Prinner Guillem's score contains the skeleton which defines the Schema. On my score, I have indicated the voice leading that defines each of the schema for your reference. I would like to see others try to compose their own variations too... perhaps we can develop a greater interest in Galant Pedagogy within this forum. All the best, Markus & Guillem

Kontakt is a good sample engine in my experience. I also had to upgrade my ram a while back and although it sometimes gets taxed, it runs pretty darn smooth. I think eastwest is less taxing on my cpu than kontakt, but context (or should I say, kontext) dictates this. I think eastwest is a smart option, cheap, efficient and comes with composer cloud. However, you can load a lot of 3rd party vsts into kontakt that aren't expensive, so it's nice to have both.