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The sharp stalagtites hang from the ceiling as you climb the sheer cliffs of the Stalagtite Cave. You notice many a dark abyss surrounding you as bats overhang the many arches of stone. Creepy crawling insects slither through mounds of bat droppings, and you must tread carefully to not be engulfed by guano. Many a creature have lived in the darkness for so long that they have lost their ability to see. I tried to create a creepy atmosphere with this piece. Especially the end is meant to be a particularly creepy chord - let me know if I've succeeded. Also this is my first time publishing a pdf score with the help of MuseScore 3. I tried to give the harp plenty of time for pedal changes but I didn't actually write them into the score. I guess I'll include the midi out of habit. I still havn't worked out my issues with recording mp3's so this is a non-stereo mp3. Enjoy and let me know what you think! Any comments or suggestions would be welcome (especially about the score - if there are things missing or mistakes and such). StalagtiteCave.mid

Below is the first movement of My piano concerto in C minor. The challenge is to write a cadenza using the themes of the concerto in what ever way you see fit. the only rule is it must be under four minutes long and must end where the orchestra comes back in on the correct chord. aside from that you can do anything to the themes presented in the concerto. the Submission deadline is the first of August.

Here my new Choral work for voice, strings and organ. It has no lyrics yet, but it definitely has to be for some religious purpose. I think it is a very solemn, optimistic and bright piece. Any comments are wellcome (I also appreciate suggestions for the lyrics 🙂).

I'll work on it! Don't know what what I'll come up with as I've never written a cadenza based on classical themes, but we'll see how it turns out.

Thank you for your comment! I'll certainly work more on creating more dramaticism by more subtly orchestrating the tutti's. The sounds are indeed Note Performer. (I did tweak the panning of the instruments a bit)

Schoenberg isn't music, it's numerology. That's why it's not popular. Beethoven endures because Beethoven wrote good music that was rooted in the tradition. The common practice period was an outgrowth of what came before; not some totally new invention that defied all that came before it like serialism and all other manner of modernism do. The entire point of Shoenberg, like all modernism and atonalism, is to reject hierarchy in favor of "equality", generally as a political statement. However, there is no good art without discrimination and hierarchy. For example, dissonance is only beautiful within a hierarchy of consonance. "Music" like Shoenberg differs from Beethoven on this crucial axiom: The latter's music is born of techniques rooted directly in the listening experience, whereas the former's is rooted in subversive, pseudo-intellectualism. Such systems, which are present in all atonalism, are ultimately a dead end. You say for example that Shoenberg's music is "a thing to be dissected". This has never been the point of art and music throughout human history until the 20th-Century subversives like Kandinsky came along to mask their low ability. The point of creating art or music is an attempt to rival the beauty of nature herself. The Fjords of Norway and Hohenzollern Castle are alike in that they have stood for ages, and their beauty is still revered; it is self-evident across time. There is no need to "dissect" or "explain" what it all "means'. To gaze upon it beauty, and the mastery of craft it took to create it, is an uplifting experience in and of itself. These abstract conceptualists who insist that art and music are actually about or at least better when we can play some trite game to figure out what the artist is "saying" — which, as a funny note: These people say music is "subjective" in quality, but apparently it can convey the artist's intent objectively despite this — and that the "meaning" is what it's all really about, don't seem to realize that they could get their message across a whole let more effectively and clearly if they just wrote it down.

You have done a really good job. Congratulations on your finished piece.

Somebody's been studying holy cow!!

I love scherzos! (or is it scherzi?!) This very nicely portrays a sort of pastorale hunt in the woods that I guess you were going for. The tempo is just right although I suspect that most scherzi are a bit faster. I personally had no problem with the interrupting tuttis. The key change in the B section is very nice and a welcome warmth from the winds (also Ab major is a particularly 'warm' key). The ending had no build-up to it. Still effective though. Great job. I loved listening to this piece.

Very nice! Reminds me of the Strauss Burlesk, both for its quirky harmonies and for its acrobatic timpani part (which is probably a little too acrobatic here). A few notes: The bombastic main theme is repeated a few too many times, and all the tuttis have a "sameness" about them that only adds to the problem. It feels like the same 8 or so measures are being repeated with only an occasional break in between. A Scherzo (or Minuet) usually includes a contrasting Trio section, but I never get that sense of contrast here, because the B section is interrupted too many times by a bombastic tutti that either is or sounds just like the main theme. The third is missing from the final F chord in the main theme (m. 12, for example). I don't know if this is by accident or by design, but I suspect the former. Ideally, the grace notes on p. 10 should be eighths and sixteenths (instead of quarters and eighths). The woodwind sectional arpeggiation on p. 16 is very difficult to pull off in performance, and likely to be ineffective as a result. Maybe have just one instrument (clarinet, for instance) playing an upward arpeggio, and the other instruments starting on each beat (instead of each half-beat). The Horn 2 in m. 11 is playing a D when the other instruments are playing a Db. That said, I really like this piece. The orchestration especially is very well done. Good work, and thanks for sharing!