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I think it's time to present myself to this young composer forum, so I would like to show you my very first professional work, my piano sonata in c minor. A piece in for movements that I started composing in summer 2017 and I finished in early 2018. The sonata was originally based in 3 movements, so in 2020, during the pandemic I decided to make a revision of the whole score and to add an extra movement. So, I leave you here the link to the YouTube video where you can hear this piece: PD: If you like my music you could subscribe to my YouTube channel and share my music. Thank you and enjoy!

Brahms has been real quiet since this dropped. 😉

Hello to everyone, long time no see I guess. I have been thinking about doing a new challenge for a while and after talking with a friend of mine I decided helping him get more attention though this idea. He composed the theme for the challenge and here you have his channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsS32hvWf1viXAjgencKNg The original purpose is to compose a little set of variations obviously, but you can do literally anything with it as long as the original material is recognizable and it isn't too short (like 10 measures/15 seconds) or too long (like 30 minutes of music). You can take both a harmonic approach or use the melodic shapes of the harmonization as your material. I will set the deadline around the 28th of November of 2021. As always you can send me your rendition to my email ivanmusic1886@gmail.com in a Musescore format or MP3+PDF. Have fun! And if you can't compose anything for now or you aren't interested in participating, sharing the challenge with other people is highly encouraged and we will be thankful My friend also decided to join the forum very recently: @Ferran Carrasquer

A pleasant piece - nice gift. Well done. Like MJFOBOE I have a few suggestions - more about your style of orchestration as manifests in this piece. But...it's your work and if you feel happy with the style, great. You're the arbiter here. So all I have to say are things to bear in mind for the future. Like: this is a delicate, pastoral piece and still seems over-heavy on the scoring. Bar 9 clarinet doubling the oboe. Yes, it calls for a different timbre at that point but have you thought about handing the solo over to the clarinet alone or leave it as the oboe alone. Ordinarily I wouldn't comment because the unison of these instruments creates a different timbre, sure but the side effect is reinforcing the sound - here, the thickness. Same with the imitative entries on flutes and bassoons. May be better just to have one of each playing - you're asking for pp so à2 seems an unnecessary thickening. If you suddenly wanted f or even mf doubling them might be justified but at pp? Not sure how the brass is laid out - no player names but assume from the key sigs the top pair are horns, the lower pair trumpets in Bb. Again, do you really need horn 2 doubling an octave below? Though an excellent horn player could make those lower notes sound sweet, again with the rest pp, they'd probably sound intrusive. (If compelled to this arrangement for some reason, I'd ask the players to stuff their hands up the bell to muffle the effect a little). Next, giving the double basses independence. There's nothing wrong with this but be cautious particularly if they're close (in interval) to the cellos, and deep - they'll sound muddy, no matter what dynamic. In some contexts this is useful but that doesn't seem the case here. Again, I could be wrong. It's a nocturne and dark-ish so if you're happy with it, fine. A few bars later the basses double the cellos an octave down. This gives a solid bass even if quiet. By the way, what's going on in bar 17? Is the cello supposed to be playing in the alto clef? As you've written Viola and Cello, they're parallel minor 7ths apart through 17 and 18. With the basses at parallel 6ths beneath, the harmony is going to get pretty confused. You may get away with it with rendering from notation software but in real life it could mean trouble (were this work to be performed live - and don't dismiss that it won't!) For all that, this composition, the canonical interplay of parts is pretty clever. You do seem to have a knack with this kind of thing. And an orchestral feature you've picked up well is how you've marked the bass with the pizz basses and cellos in the opening. When you post the following pieces, please add bar numbers per 10 or whatever or rehearsal letters! Cheers.