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a waltz I composed

Oh wow, thank you for this. I normally just add those things, like the 9ths, sus2 and 4, and 7ths w/o notating them.

Thanks, these chords sound good. I like the jazzy vibe I to when I listened to it.

Hi @JorgeDavid It's a long story of searching for new sounds. I couldn't find many information about how to use effectively any scale. So I did my own reaserch, I studied and wrote my own method and conclusions and I wrote a little book with dozens of examples. The book is in Spanish, I'm preparing an English edition, but I don't know when it'll be finished. He visto en tu perfil que eres español. Tengo un blog sobre armonía y composición donde estoy metiendo el contenido de este libro. O te lo puedo enviar tal cual, lo que quieras, no lo hice para ganar nada, solo para difundir. Si te interesa escríbeme directamente a pistolilla@gmail.com Un saludo.

Hi. Thanks for listening. In fact there are many different approaches for a scale like this one. You can emphasize a tonic or not, you can rely on the enharmonic feature of the augmented chords (C+ = E+ = Ab+), you can treat the piece as lineal (melodic, horizontal), you can take advantage of the possible chords that come out from the scale (C, Cm, C+, E, Em, E+, etc...), or even you can think that the basic scale (C, D#, E, G, Ab, B) is a Pitch Class Set (Prime Form (014589) and interval vector <303630>). The most important is to avoid any shadow of major/minor modes, that it, dominant-tonic progressions. There is a moment when I use all the notes of the scale at the same time vertically, in a sort of pandiatonicism, that's the part that sounds crunchy, I think. Regarding "I do wonder why you sometimes offset certain of the notes", if you talk about things like the one in the picture below, it's just a matter of texture and anticipation of the motif.

Hi, Peter. I like your Sarabande. The surprising modulations are cool. At times the bass moves parallel to the melody which obscures its independence imo. I took a closer look at the theme and reduced it to see more clearly the voice directions and came up with two alternatives. I wonder what you think,maybe the parallel motion was on purpose to help give the music that character of shifting register and modulation?

Yeah, at 2:16 I followed what sounded to me like a logical sequence of chords, but then I got trapped into a modulation to F# major, and I didn't want to go there, so I played some arpeggiated chords that don't make sense logically that lead up to the light high pitched piano plucks, which was actually inspired from the Maple Leaf Rag (see measures 7-12). I actually like how there's this buildup of these loud, jarring chord changes, and then all of a sudden it's followed by these light bouncy notes.

A place where it seems like you arrive at a harmony that you struggle to get out of: 0:41 - 0:44. A somewhat contrived sounding transition: 1:42 - 1:45. A place where you seem to just cycle through chords: 2:21 - 2:30. All the other places it seems like you lead the harmonic changes with the melody. Of course - this is just my opinion.

Where is an example of when it does this, and an example of when the melody leads the harmony? It makes sense now that I . I usually knew the harmonies I was gonna use for a part before I started working on the melody for that part. I knew the first part was gonna only use I and IV chords. When I added the E minor section, I knew the E minor section would lead back to G major through a IV-iv-iii-vi-ii-V-I progression, before I created the melody that goes with the progression. I knew the Eb major section was gonna go through ii-V-I progressions, and then go to an unexpected ii-V-II, before I made the melody. And later I realized that the last note of the first 4 note phrase established at 0:48 was the tonic of the V chord that leads to the keycenter a major third away. I decided to utilize this and cycle between those major third distanced keycenters at 1:00. (Aka, Coltrane Changes). I think it makes sense that you called this an impromptu-like waltz. The way I usually compose is basically improvisation in stop time. "Underwater" which I posted a couple months ago? I have no idea what I even played now, It was just playing an idea that I had played a few times before recording. In this instance, a lot of these melodies were created from me just playing over melodies. (not in the recording, I already set the melodies in stone before I recorded, this is just how I created them). Anyways, thanks for listening.

I think it's a great impromptu-like waltz but sometimes it seems like you're just cycling through various harmonies without a specific target/purpose in mind for your harmonic changes (not always though - sometimes your melody does lead the harmonic changes and I like that). The melodies/themes you use are very nice and often stress the extensions of any given chord which gives them a certain kind of beauty. The middle section around 1:36 seemed weak in comparison to the other material in the piece. When you stop all motion and restart slowly it kind of threw me off because there didn't seem to be a good musical reason for doing this (although I guess it does create a much needed rhythmic contrast). I like the extended ending. Overall I kind of like this style of piano music - it reminds me of the "build" music from The Sims. It's got a very catchy and care-free character which makes one able to listen to it for a long time without getting bored. Thanks for sharing!

Yes, exactly. Striving for maximum consonance is not always the best artistic goal. A C7b9 in third position might sound "ugly" in isolation, but in context, like resolving to an F6add9, it can be beautiful. A balance of dissonance and consonance is, in my opinion, important.

The thing is though I'm not really sure the OPs examples are two separate schools. Music that is beautiful is in line with what is natural to begin with. I would say the two schools of thought are more so this one, and the idea that music has to "say" something or that what it allegedly "says" is of greater importance than aesthetics.

I just compose music that I myself would enjoy listening.

I wanted to dedicate a piece to a loved one, so I composed a waltz in piano. Then I met with an orchestra composer to help me orchestrate it. Please, I would love feedback from this community. It is full of people who can give me their PoV and tell me for example "Trumpets louder would sound better in this part; or make this section softer". It is composed of 4 waltzes. The pattern is: 1) D Major; 2) G Major; 3) D Major; 4) G Major; Coda) D Major Thank you so much!