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Hello everyone, This is what I've been working on for the past month. I hope you all know Rm Rizal(I think we can all agree his kintab is superbly poetic and his use of harmony is awesome). Here is the link to his channel if you guys never heard: https://www.youtube.com/@RMRizalMusic. Anyways, I made an arrangement on one of his older piece called "La Valse Bienheureuse d'Anna Sofia". I heard the piece when it came out around 2021 and still think it's beautiful. Since I didn't compose the material, my general concerns lie with orchrestration(balance, transcribing, "foreground & background"), variety in color and capturing the "vibe" of the piece. To me, It sounds very "Pixar-esque" and I wanted to go for that aesthetic. I also cut out a bit of material from Rm Rizal's original to pinpoint the main ideas and keep the flow of attention going. Here is Rizal's Original piano version, Here is my arrangement: Score video, Note: Middle of A section currently keeps crashing in musescore. Luckily I was able to save it in IMovie, so I did some splicing to incorporate it with the current score. That being said, you're not going see that part in the current score I have. Thank you all.

Good afternoon fellow composers! I am very excited to present my latest large scale work, the first movement of my Symphony No. 1. My plan for the symphony is for it to be a “complete concert experience” with two large scale movements surrounding two shorter and lighter movements. This first movement is thus quite long, clocking in at a little over 27 minutes. It is intended to be almost a “symphony within a symphony”, preparing tension to be resolved later in the work, while still functioning as a standalone piece in its own right. I had a few goals in mind as I composed this, feel free to evaluate how well I achieved them: Focus on simple, memorable themes and motives Write a large scale opening symphony movement that could also function as a standalone piece Build a large movement on the development of two simple motives, specifically Motive 1 - a sequential 5th motive, first in the bass clarinet and bassoon at the beginning Motive 2 - an alternating ascending, descending motive, first in the low winds/strings and English horn/saxophone in the B section Integrate euphonium and saxophone into the orchestra Make use of auxiliary brass The movement is structured as a Rondo (A-B-A-C-A-D-A-B-A-coda), albeit with several creative liberties taken. Since it is quite long I’ve broken it down into several smaller sections if you prefer to only listen to a small piece. The structure is detailed below: 00:00 - A section - the piece begins quietly with sustained notes in the basses, with the low winds introducing Motive 1. This is repeated and embellished by the oboe and others 1:38 - B section - the broad opening theme gives way to a heavy and ominous pulse in the low strings and woodwinds. Motive 2 is introduced here first in the English horn and saxophone, then expanded and embellished, and leads up to a climax 4:46 - the A section returns, this time building into a brassy fanfare, but left unresolved. This section ends with a lively cacophonous polyrhythmic buildup that develops Motive 1 and leads into the next section 6:56 - the C section opens with a contrapuntal section, which utilizes and expands Motive 2 within octatonic scales that plane between each other, then leads into an ominous ascending theme (an inversion of Motive 2) that climaxes with a fiery rhythmic dance in frequently changing time signatures, this is repeated, then interrupted by a quiet irregular heartbeat in the harp and celesta, that eventually erupts before returning to the opening contrapuntal figure, this time in the woodwinds 11:05 - the A section theme returns briefly, this time as stacked fifths in the brass, and stated explicitly by the muted horns 11:45 - the D section begins with a lyrical theme in the English horn (formed by combining and rearranging Motive 1 and Motive 2), which is passed back and forth between the saxophone and bassoon. The texture slowly winds down, allowing a woodwind choir to emerge. The mood is bleak, but the strings enter and the mood shifts suddenly to hopeful and optimistic, before an epiphany is reached. The key returns to C major for one more buildup to the climax, with the brass exclaiming Motive 1, this time in a major mode. 15:50 - formal return to the A section, with mostly the same structure but the instrumentation is varied 17:27 - formal return of B section, this time a quiet horn solo prepares a fast whirlwind of a climax, before coming to a halt and preparing for the return to… 21:37 - the A section fanfare returns, this time enhanced by auxiliary brass. The climax is more resolved, but still leaves something wanting before the cacophony from earlier in the movement leads into the coda 24:09 - Coda - the ominous ascending theme returns here and is used to build tension along with distortions of the fiery dance from the C section. The irregular heartbeat returns as well, and leads into a chaotic polyrhythmic volcano that over flows into the final statement of the two motives overlaid on top of each other, traded back and forth between the auxiliary brass and the orchestra As usual, I have several questions for feedback, feel free to answer as many or as few as you wish: What effect does the music have on you? Does in conjure up an image? Or an emotional feeling? Does it tell you a story? This can be the piece as a whole, or a specific part or parts. What was your favorite part? What was your least favorite part? Does this work well as the first movement of a symphony? How about as a standalone piece? How well do you think the motives are developed? Do you have any comments or critiques on technique, e.g. harmony, melody writing, counterpoint, orchestration, voice-leading, etc.? How do you feel about the overall form? Is it effective? How well do you think the euphonium and saxophone are integrated with the rest of the orchestra? Do you have any comments of the quality of the performance in the audio file? I really want this to be a decent representation of how the piece would sound if it were performed live, since it is unlikely it ever will be. Feel free to put your "conductor hat" on and critique the "orchestra". I have included a score and welcome any constructive feedback on its presentation. And if you're like me it's a lot more fun to follow along with the score. Are there any composers this reminds you of, that I might enjoy listening to? Sound libraries Spitfire Symphonic Orchestra and Spitfire Percussion VSL Synchron brass and woodwinds Thanks for listening, I hope you enjoy! If you liked something I did and want me to explain how I did it, feel free to ask. -gmm Score link here

Like the title says Truth is, it's a short piece I wrote for a woman who likes this kind of music. Let me know what you think of it!

Good evening guys, my name is Young Ho Kim. I love classical music, and I started composing fugues last year. Then this summer, I heard Strobe by Deadmau5, and decided to learn how to produce electronic music. Please critique my first compositions, and synthesis. Thank you. Fugue in F minor Korean Playground Memories Quartet in F minor Chorale in B minor My Piece HahaHouse 101House Hey Go Dance

Something I wrote last december.

Hi @SoloYH, I have listened to two more pieces you posts! For me this is quite simplistic and fit for the playground memories, and I like the sound of harmonica! Make sure you delete all those unnecessary rests for the piano, and the ending is quite abrupt for me! You can probably prolong the ending even if you want a cadence! For me . The transition to theme 2 is quite abrupt for me. I like the use of polyrhythm in it and I hope there's more! The retransition back to F minor in b.41 is also abrupt for me with the E flat major directly modulates to f minor, but I enjoy the cello melody there. For me the octave sign in b.45 of the piano is not quite necessary as it's not too high for a pianist! You can add slurs for the strings to indicate legato playing, and add more expressions and dynamic markings to enrich the sound! Some of the harmonic progression and voice leading can be improved but they are very good first compositions! I guess you have already progressed from these pieces! Thanks for sharing here! Henry

I recently decided to write a couple songs to a couple poems, and after the second one I realized they would work well in a set. I'm still journeying to find an ending poem or two. The audio and pdfs will be in the order of performance. Now some details about each song and the set in total. The set is about a journey shortly after the death of a loved one. The first song is "[Writing about a terminal illness:]" which talks about the inescapability of their disease. Writing about a terminal illness.pdf Writing about a terminal illness.mp3 The Second song "Threadsuns" is about the death itself, from the perspective of the one who died, and what let him to end his life. Threadsuns.pdf Threadsuns.mp3 The Third song is "Mourning Song" which is a wordless song intended to create a feeling of fear or confusion while hinting at liturgical style at the beginning and end. It is intended to create the experience of a running mind that cannot focus in the face of grief. The 10/4 section is meant to feel like racing thoughts while trying to be present. Mourning Song.pdf Mourning Song.mp3 The fourth song is "[Writing about a family member's recent death:]" and it is a shockingly powerful poem written by a 4th grader. It very beautifully explains that their Brother is dead. Writing about a family member's recent death.pdf Writing about a family member's recent death.mp3 The fifth song is "Echo" where the speaker wishes and pleads for their love to come back. Echo.pdf Echo.mp3 The last song of the current set is "Love of My Flesh, Living Death" which is a simple poem about someone who recognizes a bird, in some way, as a reincarnation of their love. Love of My Flesh, Living Death.pdf Love of My Flesh, Living Death.mp3

Hi @Setthavat, I re-listen the music with the score this time. I really love the violin solo in b.25. The passage in 0:56 seems different from the score but I like those woodwinds, very lovely cute here! Each of them are able to reflect their own colour! I love your solo cello passage in that Eb minor section, great change of colour and key! You use the horns to accompany which is great with its serene quality. The reprise of A is great with its change of instrumentation. B.178's G.P. seems a little bit off for me but the coda is very enjoyable and successful for me with its quiet quality! Great job here and thanks for sharing the score! Henry

Just updated the score! About halfway done now at this point.

I like the techniques you introduce in this piece! It's definitely a good way to teach your fellow composers here about them and I feel like I've learned a lot! It's too bad you don't use the anaphora as the beginning of more different kinds of varied phrases besides just the two at the beginning. I think the hyperbaton is quite an ingenious idea - I think I might have used it sometimes in some of my variations pieces where I fragment the theme and mix up the fragments in a different order. The chiasmus is also a cool idea - my take on it is that it's a retrograde of a fragment of the melody - you use it quite well! I've read your explanation and looked at your score but I don't think I quite understand what a pleonasm is yet. The technique of anadiplosis I imagine would be quite useful in combination with elision which is where the end of a phrase serves also as the beginning of the next. The way you use epizeuxis seems like just a descending sequence but I'm not sure if there is a way of using epizeuxis that isn't synonymous with sequencing. I am quite puzzled by your use of the term concatenation in this context. Usually, I'd expect concatenation to refer to splicing together of two unrelated ideas, but I take it that's not the meaning you use here. I'm wondering whether by pathopoeia you might not mean variations of pre-existing material but with chromatic elements interjected in between the diatonic ones. Thanks for sharing! It is very useful and enlightening to know the names of these techniques!

Hi @Luis Hernández, I love how you combine the rhetoric with the schemata! This becomes really interesting here. Using linguistic and literary techniques on music can for sure create some interesting effects we have never thought of before! This is for sure a funny adventure. We all have to deliberately use some techniques in order to get familiar with it and use it later naturally, just like learning to write counterpoint, learning harmonic progressions, special chords, all learning begins with deliberately using it and natural usage with emotions means you have mastered the technique. I love your engraving here! Thanks for sharing as always!! Henry