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Tried my hand at @Ivan1791's challenge just for fun and whipped up something quickly. I think it's pretty fun! The justification for the last variation is that each beat in the right hand uses (0148) which is the "dissonant" chord's pitch class set. Enjoy!

A match ensues between a Gladiator and his opponent! There are weapons strewn throughout the arena. It is a fight to the death - if only the odds were in favor of anybody surviving... This is a piece sparingly scored for full orchestra. Once again I apologize for the quality of the non-stereo mp3. Thanks for listening and I would appreciate any comments you might have. Am I posting this in the right forum? It's not exactly incidental music. I wrote the description to this piece after I had already finished it. Since I don't have a score, I'm also including the midi file (thanks to chopin for fixing issues I've had with including the midi file in my posts) 😃AGladiatorEntersTheRing.mid

Besides having a great sound library, I think what makes this sound really realistic is your use of dynamics and accents. I love the way you use dissonant triplet chords in the winds to accompany the themes (I guess especially in the 3rd movement).

I know the piece you mean, J.S. Bach addapted it for Keyboard from Marcello's Oboe Concerto. But I think something in the style would work better with your melody. Also posible to integrate melody and accompaniment both played by the guitar, but of course it would be more difficult to play for the guitar 🙂.

Another interesting and thought-provoking piece! You have a very unique harmonic language. Would you mind talking about some of the harmonic devices you used? It sounds like you use some more Modes of Limited Transposition? So since you don't have typical CPP cadences available, how do you handle cadences? Could you perhaps point to a few examples of how you used cadences? This is the thing I have always struggled with when listening to this kind of music. My ears are searching for some kind of harmonic resolution that never comes (unless the cadence is prepared in some other fashion, using changes in dynamics or orchestration for example), maybe because I'm so used to the typical dominant-tonic relationship. I always have trouble understanding where one phrase ends and another begins. To give you an example, from the beginning all the way to Rehearsal A, the chords in the lower voices are pretty much entirely carried by the low strings, bassoons, and clarinets, while different voices enter and exit with the melody (the oboe, then the violins, flutes, etc.). Since the overall texture doesn't change much, it's hard for me to tell when phrases begin and end. For example, in m. 13-18: is this three separate phrases, with the flute carrying the melody in 13-14, then the oboe with a new phrase in 15-16, and a third phrase in the flute in 17-18? Or is m. 15-18 one phrase, begun by the oboe and finished by the flute, with the flute in m. 13-14 leading into this phrase? Or is it one long phrase from 13-18 passed between the flute and oboe? Since the overall texture doesn't change, and there are no dominant-tonic resolutions (unless I'm missing them), it's hard for me to tell, and this entire section kind of runs together from a phrasing standpoint, at least to my ears. Is there something I'm not hearing? The section from Rehearsal B to C, on the other hand, has much clearer phrasing to me, which I think is due to the more varied orchestration throughout this section. After the climax at Rehearsal B, you drop the orchestration down to just a clarinet and bassoon, which prepares me to hear a new phrase starting at m. 37 when the rest of the orchestra comes in. Then at m. 41, the orchestration changes again to a much more sparse texture which tells me the last phrase ended and another one has begun. The contrast also makes it more satisfying when the rest of the orchestra returns in m. 47, indicating the start of another phrase. Overall I had a much easier time feeling where the phrases begin and end through this section than the preceding section. Even though there no harmonic cadences, the cadences occur due to changes in dynamics and orchestration. Please don't take any of the above as negative! This is an idiom I haven't written in, so I'm asking this for my educational purposes. Since you're a composer with a well developed language in this style, I'm interested if you have any insights that might help me listen to and understand this music better. Another thing I was curious about was how you were thinking of the rhythm in the 7/4 time signature - whenever I hear music in odd meters like this, I tend to think some kind of grouping of 2's and 3's. (For example 3-2-2, or 2-2-3, or even 3-4, for 7/4). I interpret the oboe melody at the beginning as a 3-4 in m. 5, then 4-3 in m. 6-8, was this your intent, or something else? I also thought the ending was a little abrupt, but I think it's because up to this point we haven't heard the Lydian sonority you used starting at Rehearsal J (unless I missed it somewhere) and it contrasts sharply with dissonant harmonies in the rest of the piece. You might try using a similar texture earlier in the piece. That way when the listener hears it at the end it will be familiar, instead of something they haven't heard yet. Did you make this in a DAW, or is this Sibelius playback? Thanks for sharing! This is a phenomenal work and I look forward to hearing more.

I iii = epic freedom (I guess). Or is it bVI i? I guess it depends whether you hear the tonic as the first chord or the second. It is amazing how much you've done with this simple chord progression and the melodies you manage to come up with for it. Its almost trance-like in its repetition. I guess it would be difficult to write a finale/ending for this kind of piece. Fading out seems appropriate.

Thank you. I think it sounds similar to a cluster chord too. I've never noted a cluster chord like this before. I like the idea of woodwinds at the end. I was thinking; staccato oboe with a layered alto flute.

I like it, maybe in the next section incorporate more woodwinds. Hold on ill listen to the second one. It seems almost like a song in the key of a cluster chord, which I actually find very cool. Maybe some loud points in the staccato brass to give it more contrast, and then you can like build little lines around that, idk that's what I would do. It sounds great though.

I like the power of the brass section there 🙂 Is it finished? Do you have the score? It would help to see the orchestration.