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Hey guys! I've been working on this piece for the past few weeks. It ended up sounding a bit more sad than I imagined it. I originally intended it to be for Brass Trio (Trumpet, French Horn, and Euphonium or Trombone) but Musescore's Trumpet wouldn't perform anything above a high concert D (or something). I was under the impression that virtuoso trumpet players should be able to play a high concert Eb especially if its approached by stepwise motion. So I switched the instrumentation to Flute, Clarinet, and Bassoon (again) but because of the way I wrote it, it should be possible to perform it with brass instead. The variations in this piece are all subtitled and I tried to follow a kind of rondo form with them: I - Fanfare, II - Minuet, III - March, IV - Waltz, V - Fanfare 2, VI - Minuet 2, VII - Scherzo, VIII - Siciliana, IX - Fugue, X - Lilt. The fanfares would be more fanfare-like if performed by brass (of course). I'm actually not sure if I'm completely done with this theme. I didn't even make use of any inversions, retrogrades or retrograde inversions of the theme in any of my variations. But I felt like the piece was already getting too long so I ended it here. But it would be easy to continue it later on with more variations just starting where I left off. I'd appreciate any of your constructive comments, observations or critiques! Thanks for listening.

This is my second fantasy for Orchestra. I'm going to give a bit more -just due to the fact I'm planning on sending this to a local orchestra. My inspiration for using the fantasy form comes from Mozart's fantasies for piano. I loved the way Mozart took the improvisatory technique and used it compositionally -where each section is based off material from the previous section. I tried looking for Britten's Phantasie on Youtube -but sadly, couldn't find a good one with score to analyze prior to writing this (but I heard his work did the same thing?) Anyways, I also wanted to go off the idea of a 'dream-like' opening as I did in my first fantasy (which I'm reorchestrating and recomposing sections of). This one opens and ends in a similar fashion. However, I've applied more of what I've learned orchestrating and have more extensive brass parts and a timpani part written out. That said, I'm probably going to redo the ending of this one to make it more final. I'm probably going to compose more of these types of orchestral works. I really enjoyed writing this and love the result of it. Hope you all enjoy!

Hi again Jason, nice to check you just uploaded another piece. But less protocol and more going straight to the point: • A very peaceful and fascinating beginning. Instruments appear and disappear without troubling or getting in the way of the flow of this piece. When I happen to review a piece and comment something regarding the lack of dynamics, I believe this would be a perfect example of how to make good use of them, damn! • The "fantasy" title is completely fitting in my opinion. I am reaching 5:00 and I didn't even realize. You got me immersed. I hope the local orchestra you're sending this to play it soon. • I agree with you regarding the ending of the piece, it's probably the most improvable thing at first sight, but it's not even bad in its current state in my opinion. Looking forward to check your next fantasies or works of a similar kind! Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

Having transposed, yet again, one of my earlier fugues from C minor and coupled it with a previously unfinished suite movement, I now present this 2nd installment in my series of preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys. In spite of my current overconfidence, this project, the most ambitious I have as of yet undertaken in my compositional experience, will probably take an extensive while to fully complete, so any specific prospects on that regard should be taken with a grain of salt. It's easier said than done, and after all, since my fugues in minor keys thoroughly outnumber those in major ones by something of a tragic margin, breaching that gap will require time and effort aplenty. This one in particularly reminded me of the waning days of summer, and the following turbulent period in which most of us have to fall back into routine and working day customs. YouTube video: SoundCloud link: Enjoy!

Thanks everyone for your submissions! The competition is now CLOSED to further entries! Check out the results and awards here: Please check out our "From Bits to Bangers" Competition Satisfaction Survey: Please check out the entries in the submissions thread: To vote for your favorite submissions go to the popular voting polls thread: Starting January, 28th, 2023 and running until March, 26th, 2023 (EDIT: the competition has been extended until April 2nd, 2023) Young Composers Forum invites you to participate in another new and unique music composition competition hosted by @Tónskáld, @PeterthePapercomPoser, @Thatguy v2.0, @Omicronrg9, @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu, and @chopin, all of whom will also judge the competition. In this competition you are given a choice of orchestrating, arranging, re-harmonizing, quoting or writing variations on one of 5 given 8-bit music tracks from old video games which you must listen to in order to extract the musical material relevant to you. The entries will be judged on a scale of 0 - 8 in 8 relevant categories: Pick your favorite 8-bit track and transform it in as many ways as you see fit! Make it into a fully fledged composition according to your skills and strengths! Please note that the judges will give you more points the more elements of your composition are original and not simply copied from the relevant 8-bit track. However, the judges should be able to recognize at some point that your composition is derived in some way from the relevant 8-bit track. Feel free to highlight for the listener where in your score you used the relevant 8-bit tracks' theme by showing them in the pdf, mentioning measure numbers, or giving them timestamps from your mp3. Because there were only 9 submissions, the patrons of the competition have decided to give out a $100 1st place prize only. In order to compete: Your composition must not exceed 10 minutes of music Your composition must include an element of the one relevant 8-bit track of your choosing Any instrumentation or choice of ensemble is allowed No age limit One submission per participant Mp3 submission and score/sheet music pdf required $100 1st prize only Deadline: March 26th, 2023 (extended to April 2nd, 2023) Submissions are to be sent to @PeterthePapercomPoser through direct message with the title of the composition as the subject line. He will post the submissions anonymously in a special contest thread for everyone to listen to and consider. Besides attaching a pdf score (without your name in it) and mp3 rendition of your music consider also including a description of your piece for the judges, fellow competitors and young composers at large to better understand your music. Which 8-bit track did you choose to transform "From Bits to Bangers"? Current Entrants: (reply to this thread in order to enter) @sswave @Left Unexplained @WowBroThatWasReallyEdgy @Ferrum @Setthavat @Nico Fantasy @ComposaBoi @Grey Ross @skvlkin @AlexeySavelyev @DanielCComposer @EthaTrue @MrMule96 @Eickso @bkho @luderart @QRose @telliur Choose which of these tracks you would like to transform "From Bits to Bangers" using any means available at your disposal: (for best results please listen on your computer rather than a phone) If the mp3 player below doesn't work for some reason you can find the 5 8-bit tracks here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eVpdbmW5CXAJ73XRO9IugDFY5oJYGhDn?usp=sharing

Hi forum! I'm back, or am I? Had I ever left? This post made by @Zimr Music reminded me of an old piece that I made for a story inside a Minecraft server that I will likely never finish because of the enormous amount of workforce needed, studying, planning, blah, blah, blah. The title says enough about it, I'd say, and I don't want my words to distract you. ♫ Here's the piece ♫ Ancient Pyusisk's mineshaft__noplayer__.mp3 And here's the pdf in case someone wants to check it out: 29 - Ancient Pyusisk's mineshaft.pdf This ambient piece was composed at the end of 2019 if I recall correctly, and that'd be all the info. As always, hope you find it decent! Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón. .Div1 { border: 5px outset hsl(52,100%,50%,0.85); border-radius: 1px; margin: 0; background-color: hsl(52,10%,10%,1); color: black; text-align: center; font-family: "CalligraphyFLF",Edwin,Helvetica; width:auto; height:auto; max-width: 600px; max-height: 200px; } .Div2 { display: block; border: 10px outset hsl(52,100%,50%,0.8); border-radius: 1px; margin: 5px; color: white; width:inherit; vertical-align:top; background-color: white; background-image: url(https://i.imgur.com/dbMMjfs.jpg); background-size:60%; background-position: 0% 70%; text-align: left; font-family: "CalligraphyFLF",Edwin,Helvetica; font-size: 140%; height: 115px; } .Div3{ display:inline-block; border: 5px outset hsl(52,100%,35%,0.96); text-align:left; margin: 5px; width:auto; vertical-align:top; background-color: black; } .Div4{ display:inline-block; text-align:center; width:inherit; font-family: "CalligraphyFLF",Edwin,Helvetica; font-size: 100%; } .Img1{ max-height: 90px; max-width: 137px; font-color: white } a.one:link{ text-decoration:none; color: #fff6c6; } a.one:visited{ color: #daff8e; } a.one:hover{ color: #edffc6; } a.one:active{ color: #fff6c6; } audio::-webkit-media-controls{ background-color: hsl(35,100%,8%,0.9); border-radius: 20px; } audio{ height:42px; width: 400px; border: 3px outset hsl(52,100%,35%,0.96); border-radius: 64px; background: #2B2309; } audio::-webkit-media-controls-mute-button { background-color: hsl(47,100%,78%,0.83); border-radius: 20px; margin:0 } audio::-webkit-media-controls-current-time-display { color: hsl(47,100%,78%,1); font-family: "Brock Script", Helvetica; } audio::-webkit-media-controls-time-remaining-display { color: hsl(47,100%,78%,1); font-family: "Brock Script", Helvetica; } audio::-webkit-media-controls-timeline { background-color: hsl(48,100%,78%,0.1); border-radius:25px; margin-left:12px; margin-right:12px; } audio::-webkit-media-controls-volume-slider { background-color: hsl(48,100%,78%,0.1); border-radius:25px; padding-left:6px; padding-right:6px; } audio::-webkit-media-controls-panel { background-color: #2B2309; } audio::-webkit-media-controls-play-button { background-color: hsl(47,100%,78%,0.36); border-radius: 20px; } audio:hover {transform: scale(1.01);filter: drop-shadow(1px 1px 1px #E0FFA1);} p.p1{ font-family:"Edwin",Bitter,'Arial Black'; font-size: 19px; color: #daff8e; margin:0; }

So after visiting an abandoned village I created a background track that combines the visuals with the music. What I seek to convey is add more sense of atmosphere to the track so it vibes in with the visuals My inspiration is the last of us hbo tv series

I know, I know. Some might know me for my underwhelming piano "pieces". As a result, I chose to write an even more underwhelming non-solo piece! This was for an assignment for my English class. I enjoyed making it and thought that it was pleasant(-ish). Don't expect sophisticated harmonies or proper phrasing! 🙂 But please, do tell me how to improve upon it (especially the ending. I wanted it to sound more...more "bouncier" and bombastic!)

These are so full of life! They breathe like a city on a windy autumn sunset. There's something so inspired about these, I love every one of them. This is my favorite work of yours!!

I'd like to show you my next project. I'm open to any ideas.... First, a few words about my background: I'm not a musician, it's not my occupation. In fact, I am a physician (hematologist) and I deal with leukemia, lymphoma, bone marrow transplant, cellular therapy, etc.... But since I was a child, a had a Humanist spirit and I always knew I would not only do one thing in life. So, I have studied many things, in depth. I love music, and once I had my life on track, I retook my love for music seriously. I studied harmony, counterpoint, reharmonization, orchestration, etc... Partly as a self-taught, partly attending official courses. I started a blog (in Spanish) because I noticed there were almost no information about many techniques. And more, many things were explained or simply exposed in a theoretical way. I focused on how to use tools for composing. I tell you this to put one issue on the table: I have little time to compose music in large formats because the remaining time my occupation lefts, I use it in this "pedagogical" projects. Perhaps, some day, I'll stop learning myself and showing others what I discover, and begin to write what I like. My natural style is contemporary, but I believe a composer must know how music worked in the renaissance, baroque, classicism, romanticism, whatever. In my journey, I have discovered that the biggest pillar or music is to convey emotions. The Baroque era was a peak when we think of it. They took a lot of elements from the past, and the legacy is currently seen in music. Baroque musicians (or any artist) based their music on the theory of affects, or emotion, which is constructed by: a) Musical patterns that wanted to express something (many many years later called Schemata) b) Musical rhetorics. Rhetoric in the simplest sense is the art or the craft of persuasion or discourse. It began even before the Greeks. In the Middle Ages (cantus firmus) it was incorporated to the music - text to influence the people. When music took other direction, baroque composers translated many thetoric figures of speech into music, trying to give music an expressive side. Well, I have worked a lot in schemata, and wrote a lot of examples in my blog. Now I am diving in musical rhetoric. As you can guess, there is not much information about it (even in English). There are many references to many many many books and treatises written in the 18th century explaining this. But today, it is difficult to understand them. The examples were taken from modal and ancient music. Besides, rethoric figures can be understood in many ways. How would you use ephiphora, chiasmus, polysindeton, etc.... in music? That's what I'm triying to answer. .... To be continued in the next message (this is too long).

I was referring to measures 224-225, which ends on a c minor chord. Within these measures you switch from the contrapuntal texture to an interplay between bassoon vs flute/clarinet and end on the c minor chord with a rest aftewards. Definitely an abrupt ending to the texture -but it works. The sciliana does have seconds -but I meant the traditional secundal interplay within a sort of recitative style typical of the siciliana. Mind you, I like your treatment here and it works (reminiscent of some of Bachs). There was one other thing I meant to mention, I notice the piece is definitely modal in nature -you're use of harmony here is neat. The siciliana is a good example of this, you have the key sig as A major, but you're ending is in B minor -and accidentals throughout the section. Not a biggie, just curious about this.

All in all, quite a charming piece. I thought the bassoon and clarinet parts were nicely done. I would've loved to have seen a little more range exploration in the flute though -the piece seems to just stick to the upper low and middle section of the instruments range. But, given this was originally for brass, I can see why you kept it in that range. The lilt section was interesting. I'm not familiar with that form at all. The siciliana was a nice touch, but I would've loved to have seen some of the characteristic second interval play prevalent in that form. I'm not quite sure why you interrupted the fugue at the end of the short statement. I'm guessing that was to signify a solidification of the fugue subjects? All in all, good work. Thanks for sharing!

Very nice work, Luis! I'm quite impressed by this. Regarding parallels: One thing to keep in mind is that parallels themselves aren't necessarily bad when the individual lines retain their independence. You don't want the parallels to harmonize with each other -this 'independence' is why that rule exists. Many composers find that difficult. Thus, many composers avoid parallels like the plague. In this instance though, you have enough independence within the lines that I don't think the parallels really would've detracted from it. Just my two cents. Enjoyable work!

I'm glad you noticed the brass writing! I've been doing a lot of delving into the repertoire thru score study. So, I'm learning what the brass are capable of that way. The irony of my brass quandry is that years ago when I was at the conservatory, I composed a piece for brass quintet. It was a quasi-serial fanfare. I may re-compose it (but most likely won't as it was a student piece). I should've took notes from the performance of it and the other comp majors works and kept them. Oh well, thank god for score study!

I had the volume at 70% due to the recommendation of the last post I reviewed. My ears exploded :(. The piano sounds a bit off the road beat at the beginning but then it gets nicer. Reading the comments, it seems that your part is only the piano, but anyway it sounds good, though it would have been nice to have more piano. This seems like something you could easily improve. If you get eager to, don't hesitate to post another try! Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

Hey So, I've thought a while as to what to say to you, and well, I think that the more honest I am, the more you could benefit from the words. Just know, I think you're a fantastic composer, and your string piece I basically gushed over won me over to your style. I like the patterns I see in your music, especially with you establishing some sort of theme, and then having static rhythms truck along under a secondary thought. I don't know if this matters, but when I first listened, I intently followed along with the score. But after a few times through, I just let the music play while staring at a non-moving discord server, and it seemed to help with my thoughts about your music. Firstly, I love how you really toy around with motifs. Not only did you develop an idea and then explore it's evolution throughout the piece, but you toss it around equally to the other instrument colors available to you. You're great at this, and I think your exploration into your current modern language has helped you tremendously with it. My only qualm is that your material never really "went" anywhere, at least to me. You would develop these great sections, only to be transitioned into something else. Maybe that's the whole point of the fantasia style you were going for, but I just never felt proper cadences or anything like that. I'm probably just a noob, not really fully grasping the grand scope of this piece, but that's just how it felt to a layman like me. Honestly, that was my only real gripe with this one, musically at least. You do such a great job utilizing every sound at your disposal, but I just felt like it was directionless at times. Again, maybe I didn't fully understand the full picture, and maybe it's written plainly in the notes you laid out for us, but aurally I didn't comprehend it to your fullest intent. Sometimes, right when I felt like it was going somewhere I could understand, we had another transition to another idea. Sure, that idea probably came from some logical nucleus, but I missed the seed as it grew. I dunno, just my impression. Aside from that, I love the orchestration. I really like how you took a more modern approach to the ensemble, favoring colors and timbre over dynamics in lots of stuff versus bits of stuff. I would have maybe like to see a bit more variation in what the instruments are capable of as far as techniques, but eh, it's fine as is. I'm curious about the nature of the language you favor in your writing. This seems a little more conservative, I'm just wondering what makes you decide whether something should be tonal and what should stretch our ears more regarding consonance? Is there a rhyme or reason to it or is it just where inspiration is taking you at the moment? Overall, I love the orchestral side of your writing, and I'm eager to hear where you take this avenue next. You're someone I look out for whenever something new is posted, and it's only natural that not everything you write speaks to me in the same way your latest string quartet did. It's not that it isn't well crafted, it assuredly is, but just wasn't my favorite from your repertoire. Keep writing and posting my friend, your output is only as admirable as your quality of work. Well done!

The instruments are: A "güiro" (I don't know the exact translation) Metal bars Concert bass drum I don't even remind the synth name. If I ever use it again, I'll remind this and tell you I'm not very good at writing these kind of "empty" pieces. This is probably the most "minimalistic" I can get. It might have been worth mentioning that the theme doesn't offer anything new from half of the piece on. As always, thank you for both your great efforts as a reviewer and your compliments, feedback, and criticism 🙂. Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

Got commissioned by a grad student at my uni for a piece on their terminal recital. Feedback is always appreciated.

I totally get what you're saying. I definitely should have used different wording because I by no means am trying to say Handel's work is inferior or incorrect. That's why I changed the title of the my video from "..., but with improved counterpoint" to "with Bachian counterpoint."

Hi Alex! Reviewing the last iteration if you don't mind, as I think it's more "complete": • The vocals & synth sound just niiice, and they indeed add up, it's feels a bit sacred, magical, not in the strict sense perhaps but it surely gave me a feeling. I'm pretty sure it could fit into any area of an RPG videogame or something like that. • There's a bit strange transition at near ~0:30 but it's barely noticeable. • The slight detune (?) at the very end was very, very enjoyable. Not much today, I just think it's good and I prefer not to go nit-picking too much over a theme that all in all, is as you say, a quick —and allow me to add, very satisfying to listen— improvisation. Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

Whatever you doubt just ask us in PM or in the chat, people here will surely be glad to help you in case they have time. Welcome to the forums! Let's dive into your pieces... • I: It seems very approachable. Are you a pianist? My only criticism here: The end is perhaps too sober to my taste (but this is just my humble opinion so don't worry much) As a suggestion, I would make the 2nd volta starting from piano instead of mezzopiano. I think it might sound better performed by a real pianist (musescore isn't capable of doing that as far as I know). • II: Much better, almost breathtaking at certain moments, honestly. The accel. and rall. are very very nicely placed. The end is well prepared and executed. Melodic motives, though kept simple and not very developed, are convincing and beautiful in my opinion, plus for this piece duration you didn't need much more development, otherwise it might have been "too much content". The arpeggiated chords are not boring, which is not super common. Dynamics, which were not lacking in the first piece, make the difference in this second one. This piece is a bit more demanding, but it says much more. The only "negative" points I would give would be: Regarding the engraving: these 8va altas, while not wrong at all, may be idiomatically strange from my experience. One normally goes for something like one of these two: My question here would be: do you intend the pianist to play the higher C with the left hand, with the right hand, or whatever he find more comfortable? If I had to point the "weakest" part of this piece I would say it's the transition from the accelerando back to the first idea, measures 54-57 to be more precise. It didn't convince me but it's not bad at all anyway. Congratulations, it was a pleasure to listen to these digital interpretations of your pieces. Hope you keep publishing your compositions here! Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

hello everyone, this is my new piece, hope you like it! the video: 【微分音钢琴】作品5之7 无标题_哔哩哔哩_bilibili

I'm interested in entering this competition! This seems like a great opportunity to help others learn and pick up a thing or two along the way. Some things that would be useful here - What is the game these tracks are from? Some say, some don't. This is important for us to conduct research and find the composition details, MIDI/sheet, discovery where - what - how it is used in game for additional context to spark creativity and create something that really embodies the original work while having our own original twist on it. This would help people complete #2 if you don't provide the answer! Where can I find a MIDI version of this so I can evaluate the track to remix? For example, #5 actually says it is from Castlevania 2, so I can find the Castlevania 2 MIDI soundtrack here: http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/ and, specifically I can find the selected track The Silence of Daylight here: http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/c2town.mid Great! Now I can easily import this into a DAW and start arranging my own piece! This is great, but #3 would be even better! Can you just provide the MIDI and maybe the sheet music for each of these tracks? This will allow us to prevent error in finding the wrong MIDI or sheet, or for those composers that might not know to do #2 at all, try to wing it and figure out what the scale, chords, notes, etc etc. BONUS: if you do all #1, #2, and #3 (you are my hero)! Separate from the above, should we say which track we are entering for on this thread? You mentioned anonym but didn't mention this part. I'm assuming the answer is "yes, state the track you are entering for", so... my entry will be for "Harvest Moon - T8; Mountain" as it shown in the mp3 player above. Excited to hear more and looking forward to participating + seeing the other participants works!

Hi! I just completed all five movements of choir piece (Chamber Music by James Joyce)... Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated! This piece is based on five poems (#1, #14, #20, #34 and #36) from the collection, and this is for SATB (with divisi) unaccompanied choir... I'll definitely add the piano (rehearsal only) part once finishing all revisions based on your comments... Thanks so much for your help, and have a nice day (happy new year)! :)

Thanks to you both> I am aware that I am not much of a singer, but I figured that someone had to do it and I am just myself as the only member for Hand in the SKy. I may try to work on becoming a better singer, and when we have a band the album may be re-tracked or only some parts of the album may be re-tracked, including maybe the vocals. I will try to become a better singer, or get an actual singer. I am not sure yet. but I appreciate the input. CHeers - Nikko 1

You're only going to get honesty from me. Absolute honesty. BRUTAL, wholehearted, pure, 100%, honesty. Guitars are cool, drums could use some work, lyrics are okay as well. But man, your singing is horrendous. I would really encourage you to invest in your singing abilities. You have the heart, now let's see if you have the perseverance to improve. I can tell you've worked hard on your guitar skills, now I'd like to hear the same for the vocals. I know I'm not the greatest singer in the world, and most of the serious music I've done hasn't featured me as the lead vocalist. I'm come to the realization that I can work all day long on improving vocals, but I'll never be Layne Staley or Chris Cornell. That's okay, but at least I can hold a note. If I were you, and you were serious about making this project come to life, I would get a friend to sing or hire a singer, because the vocals are just that bad. It sounds like you're in your apartment or bedroom trying not to be loud as you sing, and it just comes across like oil and water when put with your music. Sorry if I'm being a dick, but I think you need to hear that the vocals need drastic improvement to be up to par versus me acting like your grandma telling you everything you do is perfect. This place isn't an echo chamber, and generally I try to be supportive and positive when listening to someone's music, but I think you need to hear this. Go ahead, listen to my trash Christmas song singing and ream me. But I'm continually trying to improve my voice; I just hope you do the same. Oh yeah, and welcome to YC lol. We're actually a nice bunch, I just have a tendency to be direct when it needs to be said. Hate me forever if you want, but if two years from now you post music here and it blows me away and you're all like "hahahhaa I told you I could sing you loser" to me, then I promise I'll be happy for you.

This Action Suite I managed to compose in one night. It has moments that use heavy tri-tone and diminished triads to create suspense and tension. The Composition does also have moments of relief or just simply major triads. The ending is a fade out which is unusual in an Action Suite. This piece takes advantage of key changes to create suspense and almost a rise in tension just by simply going up a tone in a dramatic like way.

My album, he you and i, was released on january 1st, 2023, but the songs were written as old as 2009. It was a long time ago, and i have been through a lot of stuff which is why the songs were released so late! But its here, and it's better than ever! The songs would have turned out much differently, and everything that I went throguh happened for a reason. It's here to stay! One thing to mention is that I am deaf in the rigth ear, so the reverb is one-sided and panned to the left side to prevent the reverb from doubling up and sounding scrafty. Aside from that, I am happy with the way the album sounds. I am no sound egnineer, so I know the production could be better. There is much room for improvement, and that's okay. But the songs are good, and that'/s what ultimately matters. Let me know what you think, cheers. - NIkko 1