Leaderboard

Hello there. This is a solo guitar piece I recorded for a video that's being made. The details of it aren't final, but there will be dancing in the woods, and things to that effect. I have this tabbed out, so if there's any interest in seeing that I'll make it look pretty, but otherwise, I hope you enjoy! Oh yeah, it's about a girl 😄

Hello there! A bit of back story... So, I've been really busy with music lately. Sure that's great, but it's been mostly learning a bunch of songs that aren't mine. I've started numerous projects in the past month or so, but put them on hold to be able to write shorter pieces while I'm unable to focus on larger works. I've decided to write a bunch of small piano preludes, one for each note as a tonal center. This first one is for A, and relies heavily on venturing into augmented scales and chords. I hope you enjoy this, I had a lot of fun so far with the intention of writing small and more accessible and easier piano pieces (some measures maybe not so much 😄 ) The whole goal of this new project of mine is to write music that's playable for anyone, not some monumental Liszt type of piece I hear too often. Yes, I play piano, but not as well as I hope to become. These set of 12 pieces coming in the future would be pieces I'd be able to play, and maybe there would be a few others out there that would enjoy them as well. I find it gratifying to rely on a simpler skill set, as the notes and ideas themselves would be my mark on the world rather than then plethora of notes I feel many seem to deem adequate for something to be "good". I recently yet again heard Mozart's Sonata No. 11 in A, and it's a piece that I've heard periodically throughout my life as the most simple yet most impactful music. Sometimes it's not how many notes you play, but how many right ones you play... something like that at least. That's what I'll generally be going for. Hope you enjoy, and ANY criticism, comments, and thoughts are always welcome 🙂 EDIT: I'm replacing the mp3 with Henry's performance. Can't thank you enough buddy!

Hello everyone! So long since I did this, I bet some of you were looking forward to it. This time we will be using a theme by a friend of mine and show him some support through his cancer. I will offer a 50$ 1st prize to the best composition that isn't by a close friend of mine and another 25$ 2nd prize. But to receive it you will have to prove you shared this video with at least 2-3 people (if possible composers) before the deadline (21/04/2023) (even if the piece is incredible this requirement can't be ignored, if so you won't be elegible to get the prize). I really want to get as many people as possible to participate in the project. This is similar to an art raffle on Twitter where you have to retweet a post. Once you share the video send me a screenshot of that to my email: ivanmusic1886@gmail.com Even if you didn't get any prize you can get an honourable mention if you show quality craft. There are two options: 1.- To compose a small set of piano variations using the main theme. 2.- To compose a free piece for any instrumentation using the material I show. (Both are equally good, but perhaphs the second one is more interesting.) Pieces will have to be longer than 1 minute and 10 minutes long at most. Shorter and more dense pieces around 2-5 minutes are encouraged. Musicality, emotion and imagination regarding the transformation of the material will be what will be valued the most. The style is free as long as it is understandable and enjoyable for most people (the experimental pieces will be included but will not receive any prizes). As said the last day you can submit your piece is on the 21st of April of 2023. Send me your piece to me email. Here you have the original piece: Good luck to everyone and let's hope to get some awesome pieces! See you soon. 🙂

(I pretty much copied the description of my video for this commentary.) The story with this piece is quite interesting. On the 22th of December of last year I woke up a bit late, and as it is common in me I was tired and I tried to keep sleeping. But for some reason some negative thoughts about a friendship hit me and made me feel bad and guilty (don't ask personal questions please, thanks), and out of nowhere the Rachmaninoff-like passage of this piece came to my mind. It felt as if my mind was trying to say "sorry" through music because I struggle with words sometimes. The thing is that I decided to go to my piano to write down the fragment because I considered it was too good to let it slip from my hands (at the time I had no idea it was similar to the 3rd movement of Rachmaninoff's 3rd symphony)(there is also a bit similar to Chopin's Op.10 No.3). So this piece pretty much originated from a dream, because I wasn't really awake (I ususally know when I'm dreaming). I even cried when I found the Ebm7 chord with that dissonant leap that goes to the 9th, and I don't think I have ever composed anything else so straight from my heart. The last section also hit me pretty hard when I got it (yeah, I cried again...), but I actually almost improvised it, I never experienced such fluency in a composition. The piece still took me 10 hours to make. Due to some thematic connections, style and a suggestion by my friend Ferran I decided to combine this piece with Nostalgia and create a small set. It will be called "Two dream fantasies". Another detail I could mention is that the repeated chords at the beginning are inspired by my friend Theodore Servin. I hope you enjoy the piece and that you can feel all the emotion I poured into it. 🙂

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!

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.

When the war started in Ukraine I looked for composers from that country, and as a way to have this horror in mind, I began to orchestrate some piano pieces. This is Moment de désespoir by Mykola Lysenko. An unsurpassable piece, but its my homage. Her you have some reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jce4UWRPzjw

Hi again guys! I have been (and I still am, incomprehensibly) ill these last weeks so I hadn't the strength to attend the forum and use the PC for long. I have been listening to some cool pieces today though, so please don't mind if I take the opportunity and put some here, let's go: • RM Rizal - "La Valse Bienheureuse d'Anna Sofia"(Orchrestration/Orchrestral arrangement)" by user @Setthavat. • @Olivercomposer's take on "composer of the year" contest. • Prelude No. 1 by Vince Meyer aka @Thatguy v2.0 because I have to win my salary. • @Ivan1791's "A Sleepy apology", very effective if you ask me. He is hosting a competition by the way. Of course I did not ping anyone (I hope, I don't want to bother lol). I'm sure I left some good ones behind so don't hesitate in checking the forum AFTER REVIEWING MY POST, it's full of jewels! Now that I am subtly better and seeing that a decent amount of time has passed since I uploaded a composition here, let me spam and share with you YC fellow users my not so nice in my opinion but cool in some of my non-musician friends' 7th nocturne, composed almost a year ago and finished on March 15, 2022 if I'm not mistaken. It doesn't come with any dedication. This nocturne is a bit like the third one. "Different" from the previous ones. Have you listened to them BTW? Which one is your favourite up to now, in case you find at least one of them decent enough? Not gonna lie, it would be really cool to host a poll but I don't think I have enough audience. In any case, I thoroughly recommend you to listen to my works with headphones. Criticism, feedback, comment, salutation, etc. is very welcome as always; I leave you with it, with no further comments about the piece, as always. In case you're interested, you have the .mp3 and .pdf below, as always... From this point onward, my nocturnes become even weirder. ♫ VIDEO ♫ That's all for now. Thank you in advance! Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

Impressive, particularly the vocal piece.

Yep, I'll go in on this one.

Hi. First of all, This is probably a bit difficult since the composer seems to be not very known, so I went through his channel and listened to some nice pieces there. I liked this one for example. Regarding your arrangement, I am enjoying it a lot. It takes its time for dynamic contrasts, and everything is quite smooth. You did a great job and I liked the ending section specially. I hope the original composer knows about this neat arrangement you did. Thank you for sharing both your work and the composer's! Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

Hello Guys, This is my entry to the Composer Of The Year Competition by Sonuscore. I would like to know your opinions. Thank you for your comment!

Nice piece, nice libraries, breathtaking sound at times, nice video+audio blending... My best wishes for that competition, Oliver! Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

Here's a piece that's in my PhD composition portfolio, originally premiered in Cyprus in May 2022!

Thanks for the indirect heads up, Henry. Let's dive into this piece. • First of all, your piece resonates in my mind like some impromptus: unpretentious, straightforward and very passionate, with a very clear melodic line and a thought-provoking harmony; a human interpretation always sums and yours is not the exception of course. • Your performance is loyal to the title —which fits very well to this piece by the way—, both dreamlike and sweet with a touch of melancholy in my opinion. The ending is very well done both in the paper and in the performance. On a side (irrelevant) note, I also appreciate that you kept the indications in Italian. Liked and subscribed! In summary, a very successful piece that I am glad you published here for us to listen to; I really have no complaints/criticism. Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

Hello! I recently got obsessed with this prelude by scriabin: So I composed a piece trying to work with those same sweet dissonances. It sounds ok to me, but I got some backlash because of it's sonority, so I thought maybe my treatment of suspensions and dissonances here was very poorly done. I would love to hear how it sounds for you guys! Thanks in advance for your attention.

I had never listened to this prelude before so first of all, thank you, it was a pleasure. I'm not particularly a fan of that three-stem choice of Scriabin though, but I've seen much worse choices overall. Now, regarding your piece: • It doesn't resemble the prelude a lot but; a bit on its essence likely because what @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu described. This is for the good of the piece in my opinion. • I would not say that your treatment of dissonances is poorly done at all, you let the music breathe in my opinion. The starting motive of the prelude is even catchy to my taste and there's nothing in the piece that threw me off. Overall a more than OK —in my humble opinion— work: solid and sweet indeed, just like Scriabin's one in that regard. Looking forward listening to the next one you may produce. Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

Epic! Possibly not gonna participate but I'll definitely share the video with my friends and I'm sure that some people from here will join the challenge. Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

Hi this is an example of what I wrote "with a little help from" indeterminacy, using cards. Do you have any examples?

I think despite each of your pieces being different and unique, you have a very recognizable sound and it's almost as if you're recycling material from previous compositions each time you write a new piece. This gives your music much consistency and recognizable musical habits. Like a habit I've noticed is that you usually start your pieces by alternating between two chords, one of which is usually the tonic. I guess you have a tried and tested way of writing music that really works for you so you reuse certain harmonic formulas because they work - nothing wrong with that. BUT, if you ever feel like you want to break out of your shell and write in a way you've never written before, send me a message and I'd be glad to help you brainstorm ideas for how to go about doing that! Thanks for sharing this marvelous music and I hope you win!

LOL what is this?! I am for sure not this guy or that guy! I ask this because I agree with Peter that the music is quite cinematic. For me the music is very descriptive rather than narrative. This also relates to the pacing problem since I agree with Peter that it's not narrative as Mahler's music. Yeah but in the classical sonata rondo the recapitulation A-B-A with change, most noticeably by the return to tonic key in the B section, and often the last A of both exposition and recap. will be abbreviated. I really hope some of the repeated parts can be abbreviated or changed! I like this idea, but hope the finale can be more varied! I also agree with Vince on the pacing more than the form! I think you can just give a little bit more time for it or just let it appear independently will give it a good appearence! Looks like your process here is similiar when Mahler is working on his Second as he is finding what motives in the 1st movement to be used later on! Haha take your time and don't think it's a must to review my piece to return me a favour! It's a pleasure to review your piece itself! Henry

So ... this is my 2nd time having listened to this piece all the way through. I do have to say I love all the ideas! I think the main quintal theme for me sounds very cinematic, especially when you add that minor major 7th harmony into it which makes it sound very dramatic. At one point, I felt like the atmosphere you set was very fitting for a cinematic scene where the tension is low but quite obviously there is a lurking danger. Specifically, the scene from Spaceballs (a Mel Brooks spoof of Star Wars LoL - this is actually my favorite movie of all time) where they fly their Winnebago spaceship into the Mega-Maid's ear. LoL If you haven't seen it - I highly recommend it! I do think that the piece as a whole sounds and behaves more like a cinematic piece than a symphony despite your form and motivic gymnastics. The music mostly sets different moods and atmospheres that make sense when heard in sequence. On the other hand, I believe a symphony should have a long-leading melodic line with long phrases that tell a melodic and harmonic story. But you use a lot of repetition of very short motifs which give your piece this sense of standing still in a sense - or of very slowly building suspense. But I definitely think that this is a very different style of orchestral writing than when compared to say Mahler, or Stravinsky. It does have some similarity to Strauss though. That's not a bad thing in my book though. I think it just speaks to the changing character of modern orchestral music and places you within such a historical orchestral movement. The music is either very suspenseful, or suggests a dramatic action scene from a movie. There are many stereotypical orchestral tropes in your orchestral writing that to me scream film music rather than symphony (such as the trumpet subito pp crescendo's). Also - you have these slow and mellow moods created by undulating harp arpeggios that are also very cinematic. That's my overall impression of the music. I don't know whether that's intentional or desirable on your part, and I think what's most important is that you're happy with it. Thanks for sharing!

It's an interesting concept. "A symphony within a symphony". I just urge you to consider the pacing throughout, no matter if you feel like this stands on it's own or not. I wouldn't change anything in your piece, but just consider this point for the moments that follow. When I was in music school, a couple of the music faculty wrote an opera. My composition teacher heard it (I didn't), and his only critique was that the musical language varied from time to time. There's something to be said of consistency, and if your language speaks of octatonic scales, it might be better to have that texture and language throughout. Just a thought. I don't know why that stuck with me, but I must have subconsciously felt that was important, and I consciously do now. You can have a final cadence that gives a bit of consonance without it changing language and keeping it's more dissonant character. Still though, I think it matters what you do next! Excited to hear future movements so I can listen to your music in its final form 🙂

Hey @Thatguy v2.0, thanks for listening, I'm glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for your kind words! I'm glad you like the orchestration and the motivic development. Yes this is true, and a very good idea. I think it will be a little while before I move on to the second movement, but when I do I will be sure to do a motivic analysis of this movement and brainstorm ideas to develop them. Ah this is interesting... I guess you're extending the connection to Stravinsky here, paying homage to the end of the Rite of Spring?... I like it, maybe I'll go back and change the ending, or just the last chord to make it more dissonant... Yes you are right it is quite a bit to take in. You and @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu have both indicated it feels like it should be faster on average, which I suppose is a nod to the first movement of a symphony traditionally being a fast movement. However, I definitely wanted to take a different approach, and that's where the "complete concert experience" for the entire symphony comes in, as well as the "symphony within a symphony" for this first movement. In its finished form, this first movement would make up a "First Part", the middle movements a "Second Part", and the final movement a "Third Part", with the entire program lasting the length of an entire concert. From this perspective, it makes sense for this first movement to stand as an almost complete piece on its own. Thanks again for listening! It's always good to see you around here.