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Here is my entry for this year's Christmas Music Event! It's not really a Christmas piece, but it is about snow and winter, and it does have quotes from a Christmas carol. It's the first thing that popped out of my mind in the 1st of December when I started writing the piece. The story/idea behind this piece was supposed to be a person's imagination of what it's like to have snow on their town in December since they live in another part of the world that isn't snowing. It was originally titled "It's snowing somewhere else" (still a good title in my opinion). But the piece felt like it showed a little bit more on the rhythmical side, so I changed the title to that. Score is now available! New title by Thatguy v2.0 (old title: Snow Dance) Hope y'all enjoy the piece and Happy Holidays!

or something like that Fade out because I don’t know how to end the piece. It feels like it could just loop forever

Hi, MissCello! To start, I love that what I've heard from you has been...well, non-cello music. It really shows your compositional prowess, and your talent for being daring in writing for ensembles that your main instrument isn't featured in. So far what I've heard is your wind piece, "Windchill", and this piece, a saxophone quartet. You'll continue to grow as a composer if you continue to write for different groups of instruments; I love the versatility of your musical voice! I'd like to share some thoughts on what I think your strengths are from what I've heard from you. First, I think you have great character in your music. Nothing I've heard so far from you sounds like you're emulating someone else, or that you're using another composer's music as a basis or inspiration for you own. Your musical voice sounds very much your own, a unique blend of your experiences and what you've learned from in your studies. You have a wonderful language, using from what I hear as a sultry, modern, and sometimes jazzy influenced direction with your motifs and melodies. There are so many composers that share their music on this site and I think, "oh, this sounds like Beethoven, or Chopin, or whoever". But with your music, I don't hear the pastiche remnants of past composers. This is something that you should be proud of, especially for your age (I'm guessing you're in high school?). What a great attribute to have, already branching out to find your musical voice without sounding like another musician! That's something no one can ever take from you, and something no one can teach. In music school, I was met with loads of composers who tried to sound like their heroes, only to be met with mediocrity and a strong sense of copyright infringement. You have lots of talent, I just don't want you to forget that along this review. In this piece, I love the rhythmic style at around 32 seconds in. You give us a clear motif that's catchy and easily digestible. I like how you play around with the theme, and eventually bring it back at bar 26, with even more harmonic dancing around it. A B theme at bar 57 is cool, taking us to a slower soulful section. Just watch the enharmonics, like the soprano at bar 67. Why Eb and D#? I'm curious to know how you were thinking about your language. Was it because of a particular scale, or were you thinking about chromaticism rising and falling regarding your usage of sharps and flats? I actually really like the spot at around bar 98 or so, because this was the first time you gave us a scarcity in texture. Just remember, it's always nice to hear only a few instruments playing at once, rather than a tutti type of feel throughout the piece. I wish more composers here realized this easy technique when posting here. So many like to have the whole ensemble playing all at once for most of the duration of their music, but I really feel like having sections like this one give the music a great nuance of a thinner texture, really letting the individual timbres of the instruments cut through and shine. I feel like this is a hard thing for younger composers to grasp, and you do it beautifully here. I like the return back to the original material, at bar 125. One thing I was thinking of was the one by one instrument entries of the instruments you do a few times in this. You always go from soprano down to baritone...but what if you changed that up? Maybe start with bari and go up to soprano, or any other number of ways in mixing that up? Maybe you like the way it "sounds" as sort of a textural motif, but was just curious on that. If this were my piece, I would have ended on the staccato notes in bar 153, without having the long notes in the following measures. I don't know, it just seemed a little out of place. Maybe you were going for the happy ending 😄 So, just so you know, I'm no expert. I think what you've written is a beautiful and very idiomatic piece. To me, it sounds like night music, a nocturne if you will. The saxophone in your usage gives me the impression of a dance at night, like cats walking along a picket fence up to no good, or a late night stroll for a couple going home from a night club. It's very picturesque, and was a joy to listen and dive deep into. Your music continues to impress me, and I like I said, you give such great character to your pieces. You had lots of rhythmic variation to this one, I love all the 2 against 3 types of rhythms you strategically employ throughout the piece. I know this is a finished piece, so any advice or thoughts I have for you would be for future compositions. One thing I would keep in mind is always developing a strong melody or motif. I think you did this fairly well, but there were times when I got a little lost in the rhythmic dancing around. You had such a strong motif and rhythmic device in your main section, but I would have liked if you continued that "theme" or developed it further. Don't be afraid to be simple; a lot of times that's the thing that can keep the listener most engaged in your work. Think of Beethoven's 5th, he used such a simple rhythmic motif to glue everything he did in that first movement together. I really like the pieces I've heard from you so far, but of course I'm interested in you cello music too! If you've written anything for your main instrument, I'd love to hear it, as I'm sure many others would too. I wish I wrote music as well as you do when I was around your age, and I'm really excited to hear how you continue to grow as a composer. You have an immense natural talent, and your instincts from what I hear are something no one could teach. You're already a fine musician, and I'm glad you've decided to share your music here on these forums. Don't be bashful! You have loads to offer other composers here, they'd really appreciate your feedback if you would give some others some advice on their music! You'll find that more would be willing to share some insight of their thoughts on your music if you reach out to listen to theirs. Great work, and thanks for sharing MissCello!

Hello! I thought I would share a piece I wrote back in late February-March for SATB saxophone quartet, my first experience writing for an all-brass ensemble, which taught me a lot as a strings player. The title comes from my experience with a neurological condition, synesthesia, where two or more senses are automatically interconnected. In my case, I associate each musical key with a color and see those colors in my mind's eye. This piece begins and ends in F minor, which is deep purple or violet for me. The score is attached below. I would love to hear any constructive criticism. I've been told there are no glaring technical issues, but I am curious how I could best bring out the saxophone's unique strengths. Thank you! 01 - Full score - Violet.pdf

A while ago there were forest fires burning near where I live which caused the whole landscape to be smoky and orange and hazy, which inspired me to write this. I experiment a little with polychords in this. This is probably the most harmonically advanced piece I’ve written, yet it never really strays too far from the key center of A flat. Not sure if I would publish this because it kind of just sounds like Reflets dans l’eau, but I thought’s it’d be useful to post it here anyway. edit: I never notated this and forgot how to play it lole

Hello all, Here is my submission for the Christmas music event. It's a simple SATB + Organ carol setting Christina Rossetti's poem 'Love Came Down at Christmas.' Made using the new MuseScore 4 with Muse Sounds choir sounding great! The organ is Jeux 1.4 soundfont. As such, the dynamics are not terrible balanced (I started this on MS3) but hopefully you can see past that for now. I did end up writing this quite quickly so it's not very polished. In particular, I know the organ interludes need work although I'm quite happy with the chorale itself. I'd be grateful for any thoughts and comments anyway.

Hi everyone. This week I've revisited my piece "The Sun Dappled Forest" (1st movt), and replaced all the electronic instruments with orchestral equivalents. Hope Peter approves! I've also added lots of new embellishments, that hopefully make it more interesting?

🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄🎄⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄🎄⛄ Here's my submission for the prestigious and highly esteemed 2022 YC Christmas Music Event. I decided to bust out my singer/songwriter boots and trot over to this realm of writing for the event. This song is about my wonderful days of working retail, and how loving and caring everyone was. They were days full of love and festivity, working at a store in a wealthy town, where you only meet those that are the most cheerful and wonderful in every way. I was treated with respect and care, soaking up every drop of Christmas cheer that oozed from their ever-smiling faces. The holidays were worry free, stress free, and a time where everyone joined in the comradery of this special time of year. I'll never forget the countless hours of the shopper's hospitality and love, filling my heart with joy in an overabundance I wish everyone could know. Merry Christmas everyone, it brings a tear to my eye remembering these wonderful and memorable times. The score is just the guitar, it's a rough idea of what I played. The lyrics are below, enjoy!! 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁 🎅🎄🎁 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ Get away from me, get away from me I don't care about, all your problems Why can't you see and why don't you believe me, yeah Well you've run out of luck, cause I don't give a When you scream and shout, about your problems Why can't you see and why don't you believe me, yeah Why don't you believe me, yeah And you run around all day Driving all the workers insane Spreading joy, and spreading cheer in the form of filth, for all to hear This time of year will never be the same And I'm waiting, waiting, waiting for the carols to reach my ears But you stole it all from me With your vile shopping spree I know I may be wrong, but I can not carry on With a great big smile, while you frown in the aisles and you scream and shout, about your problems Why can't you see and why don't you believe me, yeah It's Christmas Eve, of course we're out... We do not have Xbox, legos, tiny toy trucks or the Barbies, and Elmos, and all your fancy clothes So go home, and remember, why we all honor This time of year 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁 🎅🎄🎁 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄ 🎅🎄🎁⛄

Hello, My brand new piece of music. What do you think?

Hello! Thank you so much for spending time with my music, your honest reviews, and your words of encouragement! The musical direction I've taken this past year feels like the most honest one yet, but I feel that I owe a lot to past traditions. A few people have compared my recent work to Prokofiev and Satie (to my delight! I especially love Prokofiev), plus while writing this piece I closely studied Pierné's Saxophone Quartet and fell in love with his "sultry" chromaticism that must have rubbed off on me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3rynam8QeU But, it truly moved me to hear that you detect originality in my work. 😊 I am definitely still on a journey of discovering my voice and wrote several short pieces for school this year that each sound wildly different. I graduated high school in the Spring and originally wanted to take a gap year this year and apply to music school next year, but my mother and I discovered some individual courses I could enroll in online for credit in the meantime! The first course, which I took this Summer, was a primer on film scoring (my dream career). For one assignment, I chose to create a short electronic score demo (completely new territory for me) given a science fiction film synopsis. Let me know if you are ever interested in hearing that -- I would be curious to know your thoughts. Do you have any experience with electronic/synthesized music? Re: bar 67: While I was drafting the piece I worked in concert pitch (maybe that gives me away as a strings player!), and beat 3 was in concert F sharp minor, so I was using sharps, but even in that case I am not sure why I couldn't have used sharps at the beginning of the bar as well (for concert F sharp major). I must have missed the inconsistency when switching to transposed pitch. The soprano part is now written in A flat major to G sharp minor, and since A flat minor is an acceptable key as far as I know, I will upload a revised score soon with flats throughout the bar. Thank you for catching that! Your idea for bar 125 is interesting. I'm mainly keeping that figure (a "pyramid texture", as my teacher called it) the same both times because it only occurs those two times, in the opening and at 125, and I want the listener to recognize it right away. However, if I were to add another statement somewhere else in the piece I would happily experiment with the order of the voices. I am curious what you think of the idea of repeating it once more. I agree that the picardy third ending is awkward, I was never that happy with it. 😆 I am so glad you like my rhythms, they were a joy to write. I will keep your advice on variation in mind for the future. I've found myself shying away from writing for the cello the past couple of years, maybe because the instrument is so familiar that I overthink my writing and end up leaving it unfinished...? 😋 I do have one work featuring the cello that's public on SoundCloud and my website; it was actually my first finished attempt at a classical-style composition when I was a rising sophomore with one year of youth orchestra under my belt, the thing I feel kickstarted both my passion for and understanding of this kind of composition. It's a cheerful Mozartean glimpse of my innocent younger self that will probably seem worlds away from "Violet" and "Windchill". The sample library (I used Flat.io at the time) does not help with its crude obviousness, but it is still kind of a nostalgic time capsule for me. I will post it here for everyone: Enjoy! Thank you again for your kind words. I've loved discovering and reviewing others' work on here, too. The atmosphere definitely seems positive and supportive. Happy holidays! ~ Gwendolyn

Very cool, I love hearing the process of other composers. You know, I'm the exact opposite of you lol. I need to write with notes on staff paper first, it gives me a clear sense of direction and everything you mentioned before inserting into a DAW. We're all different, though, I guess that's one part of what makes all this music nonsense we all love so unique. You don't have a piano? Dude, you wrote your theme and variations piece without reference to ideas you plucked out on piano first? F'in genius man Do it. You created the idea, I just added things together 😄 Again, wonderful piece, and thanks for sharing mate! You're quite the composer, and someone I'll always watch out for when posting new music

Yep, you just guessed my normal process of composition lmao There are many reasons why I use DAW first when I compose. Now, It's very subjective and I can't explain every single one of 'em, so here are some of the ones that stands out in my head. Firstly, If I compose for a solo piano or with solo piano included, I can customize the dynamics of every single note that I put in with one single click. By doing this, I can underline different voices much more clearly. For me, even if my composition will not be played anywhere else, the connection between a performance and the process of making a piece can't be separated. That's why I try to mimic how a performer would do these passages. I feel like the dynamics of every single note can make a huge difference to how the piece will turn out. Secondly, I can inject more expression to a piece with rubato easily. Just with a few clicks I could adjust the tempo changes easily whenever I want it to be, drag it wherever I want it to be, and it makes the passage sounds more expressive. I am in total control with how I'd want to express emotion. With this, I can create passage that sounds great when I put rubato in. For me, having much more realistic sound really does make that creative juice keep flowing. I can't tell how many times I just sit through a session for so long just because the sound that I make matches the sound in my head. Alright, I ran out of my brain power to explain, so here are some quick reasons: I don't have a piano, having the piano in the side and using the piano roll to compose makes it more clear of how a performer would press down the notes. Quickly copy-pasting a theme, variating, and combining it with other themes. You can move around stuff fast. Have a clear direction of harmony. Clearly see the distance between notes, therefore can see the playability of the passage. You don't have to focus on both composing and notating, since they happen in two different programs. No particular reason really. Last time I wrote for piano and clarinet. This time I want to write stuff for woodwind similar to last time, so I chose flute. Might yoink the title (thank you for the genius combination really why didnt i think of that aaaaaaaaaa)

Nice work, man! I thought your singing was great and the song was funny. Also I read the lyrics before listening, and I don't know why but, this line: I imagined being set to the first part of the chorus melody from "Candyman" by Christina Aguilera 🤣 the syllables and phonetics totally fit So I was expecting maybe a '40s style swing tune. Remix idea?

Eh, snow, winter, Christmas carol quotes...how is this not Christmas? 😄 Snow Dance is a fine title, but I really like your original intention. What if it was "A Snow Dance Somewhere Else", or something like that? I feel like that has a bit more character to it, even eluding to your original idea. Whatever you go with, though, it works for me 😄 No worries, man. I'm actually curious about this. I'm assuming you worked in a DAW first, then would go to notation software to produce the score? Is that your normal process? I'm curious because I'm the exact opposite; I have to write in notation before using a sequencer to produce the sound samples needed. I like to see how every note is related on staff paper before I care about how the samples will sound. I feel like my process is fairly quick, too, since once notated I know exactly how I want the sound samples to paint the picture. Is it because you enjoy hearing the more realistic sounds as you're composing? Does that help with your process? Like. do the samples help in the creativeness? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this since I really dig your sound! Also, any reason you chose the ensemble you wrote for? Love the music as always, thanks for sharing!

I really like the ycf safe editing hahaha! Guitar playing is amazing, im guessing u did it in one take? very evocative and cynical, my favorite cocktail, aside from hard egg nog.

I think its some of the best music ive ever heard. Sorry if thats too much but fr.

I think this is a great minimalist piece! I don't feel bored at all because the timberal change is great! Is there harpsichord in around 0:54? Quite interesting to have it with other ochestral instruments! Nice use of harp in 1:10! That brass calling in 4:05 comes out of nowhere and it's amazing! But suddenly the piece ends! I do find the ending too abrupt, and hope to have a little more development on the brass call though. Great job by using different orchestral colours! Henry

Great tone clusters at the beginning. I can imagine the trees falling and fires crushing the forest. But that overtone expresses the pathos well enough! I love your harmonic and chordal choices, especially those diminished octaves. You should publish this since it's great. Brahms' First was deemed similiar to Beethoven's Ninth, even Brahms admitted that. So what? If your piece is good enough, which is the case here, you should publish it! At least Debussy's piece is not inspired by fire but by water! That makes huge difference! Henry

I didn’t really think that much of this piece, but everyone here seems to be fascinated by it you may also wanna check out the other vignette I posted (the smoky forest)

yo. YES. this is unashamed to be itself. This is the truth. Whatever is inside you that makes this, never let it be changed by the outside. Never let it die. This is important. Unprecedented imo.

wow thank you so much! I’ll post the score when it’s complete. The Vignettes subtitle means this will be part of a collection of short pieces depicting various images

What a beautiful, dissonant, impressionistic sound! I would pay you to post the score here - the harmony seems so interesting and unusual! Great job! I think if anything you should now work on trying to extend/vary your material in different ways. You should find ways to keep the dissonant style of the piece while exploring different harmonic spaces. Thanks for sharing!

Yes, I played it myself : )

Do you play it yourself? Amazing playing! Even if not it does so well to bring out the rubato, touch and sound. Great job! It really depicts the snowfall. Left and right hands playing apart does create the image of snow falling everwhere. I love those two contrasting materials, the first one E-F#-G#-B is warm and pentatonic, the second one has some occasional tone clush which signifies the coldness of slow. Your modulation and harmonic change is amazing as well. Wonderful! Henry

Great job! I think you write well and idiomatically for the piano and at the same time are able to retain your particular individual style that you've shared so often here on this forum. I can hear very familiar hints of previous tracks from the soundtrack to that book you are writing. Thanks for sharing!

Nice music. I like the contrasts, foe example when the music seems to fall like a waterfall.

I'm not sure why this makes me miss the Dr. Demento show!?!?! Anyways, I think you have an awesome voice. A bit unpolished, but definitely one that has great potential. Almost reminds me a little of 90s alt rock (ah.... memories!)

What a festive and joyful song! Jokes aside, it's actually quite charmingly put together. Lovely to have a live recording too. The lyrics are so clever and fit well with the guitar part. I wonder if we could have some more guitar-only passages between the singing to space out the telling of the story. I just feel it would make the progression of the song more effective. Thanks for sharing - something a bit different!

Hi there. I'm a new user to the forum. Thanks for having me. Here's a nocturne I wrote earlier in the spring. There's a scorefol.io link as well as a YouTube link. Cheers! https://beta.scorefol.io/w/5DO85q8czo7lzAXOSZDZ Fog Nocturne [score].pdf

Wrote a short piece. Hope u enjoy.

This was titled "sleep music" in my orchestral folder - soothing after some of the abrasive stuff I worked on late last year. It's tonal, somnolent, much of it in half-light. Rendered on 25th April. It emerged with a couple of other pieces for strings (all muted except the solos) and small orchestra. I'm wondering if it holds together enough to be worth doing some final work on it. If you can please give it a listen, many thanks indeed, and any comments good or bad would be really appreciated. I had hopes for it but it might be just too boring and put people off to sleep. Bests, Quinn.

Does it make anyone else feel weird that whenever you favorite a female composer's work, then on your profile it says: "RandomFemaleMember" (Favorited his works: 1 times)? Now, I'm not one of those people who's totally crazy about equal male/female rights, but still, there must be a way to fix this. I mean, I'm a guy, and if someone favorited one of my works, I wouldn't want it to say (Favorited her works: 1 times). Maybe it could say "his/her." Even if we just replace "his" with "their," I'd rather it be gender neutral than grammatically correct. Anyway, not sure if this is in the right section of the forum since it's not a big technical problem. (Mods/Admins feel free to move this post around.) It's just something kinda funny that I noticed about YC itself, that I wanted to bring to the attention of the forum.