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Now that I think about it I am not sure why throughout music history harmony has been understood to be grounded on the bass note and elaborated by stacking intervals up from that root or ground. I guess since we live on a planet with gravity that forces us to stand on the ground the analogy between the ground and the lowest notes of music forced us to think of harmony as originating from the bass. But what would an alien who lives on a gas giant and flies around in it's clouds hear music like? Would they hear harmony as originating in the highest notes and stacking downwards as it defines itself? It's easy to say from our perspective that harmony is defined as it is stacked upwards although usually after the 5th or the 7th, any additional factors of chords tend to become "color tones". Stacking chords from the top down on the other hand tends to have a completely transformative effect on the notes above it. But maybe that's just our bias as "ground-based" musicians? Example: Starting with a major chord and stacking upwards basically leaves the "quality" of the chord unblemished (i.e. a major chord with some extensions). Starting with a major chord and stacking downward a minor third leaves you with a minor 7th chord - a completely different sound than what you started with. Stacking downward a major third leaves one with an augmented major 7th chord - another totally different quality/character of chord. With each new stack downwards the overhanging harmony can often be radically transformed into something completely new. I don't know if anybody here besides myself sometimes thinks of harmony in this way. My personal favorite is using bass notes that are non-harmonic tones such as having an 11th in the bass.

Hello all, I am new here in the forum. I am 25, live in Bonn (Germany) and am a computer scientist by profession. I've been composing for a few years and have already written many works. I play piano since I was 8 years old and also a little organ and clarinet. Everything I know about composing, however, I have acquired myself and has come about through a lot of practice. Unfortunately, I never had composition lessons, so I still make some mistakes, for example, in notation, form theory, etc. I compose mainly large orchestrated works and always strive to raise my technical standards and write more complex pieces. The movement is the final movement of my 8th symphony and contains both quiet passages and more moving ones. The movement reflects well my preference for romantic harmonies. The movement itself is quite free and does not follow a main motive (although there are recurring structures). It's very long I know but I would really appreciate your opinion. Also, please give me constructive criticism and especially suggestions on how I could improve further. About the instrumentation: Woodwinds: 2 flutes 2 Alto Flutes 2 Bass Flutes 2 oboes 1 English Horn 2 Clarinets in Bb 2 bassoons 1 Contrabassoon Brass: 4 French horns in F 1 trumpet 4 trombones 1 bass tuba percussion instruments Timpani tubular bells Strings: 1st violins (14) 2nd violins (10) violas (8) Cellos (8) Double basses (8) Symphony 8, Mov. 4 Finale.pdf Here the Soundcloud link: Greetings Nico

I composed this in the Sonar 8.5 piano roll using some older sample libraries that I've had for many years. Composing music is just therapy for me and if others like my tunes that's just icing on the cake... mmm.. cake yum, yum. Don't be put off by the title "Mental Suicide" it was just a working title that sort of stuck. What can I say? Other than I have Asperger's and a stinking case of OCD. This piece started with a virtual acoustic guitar. I actually play guitar but was challenging myself to compose a piece without actually picking up my guitar. I laid out the guitar part while wrestling with a few melodies all the while trying to determine whether the guitar fingering was even possible. My conclusion? I have no idea if it's possible to play this guitar part. Then I added all the other stuff and hoped for the best. I just let the piano roll guide me along chord by chord, note by note. Sounds tedious huh? Yep, it was. But I love micro-managing every note. I always tense up when recording an actual mic-ed up performance. Having Asperger's has it's advantages like the laser-like focus on stuff one is interested in. In my case, music and art. With all the music rattling around in my skull I prefer working alone rather than butting heads with other musicians. Been there, done that, don't enjoy it a bit. But that's just me. If anyone wants to comment on this piece, feel free. I'm of course always interested in whether people like my stuff. But at the same time I'm always wondering if the mix sounds alright on other peoples' systems.. stuff like EQ, and especially the bottom end. I'm no audio engineer and that's for sure. Enjoy, Rick

I regret to have to say I always work from the top down, relying on motifs more than extended melodies. Perhaps it goes back to secondary school days when we'd be given a melody and told to harmonise it (in those days with traditional voice leading). It seemed to let us find less obvious solutions. Now it's about the overall sound or timbre that accompanies a fragment - how the total leads into whatever comes next - although sometimes one harmonises above a fragment (to achieve some effect) but I'd count that as a vertical inversion of some kind. In fact aside from strict counterpoint and traditional polyphony I wasn't aware that the general practice was bass-upwards. In that situation the rules tend to provide a melody in the top (polyphonic) line. Perhaps the idea took root in the homophonic interludes in otherwise polyphonic works. Interesting, your point about the 11th in the bass. In a dominant chord this is the tonic root. I've used V11 but with the 11th closer to the top, the 3rd deeper. Something worth exploring with a few non-triad notes in the harmony. Undertones....alas there are too many undertones in the situations we encounter in our days without bringing them into music!

I intend to participate.

Well ... at least there is such a thing as an undertone series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undertone_series

I remember Schenker had stated in his books (I don't remember which one, is that his Counterpoint? But that's why he LOVES using the ursatz) that the overtone series is the only gift nature gives to music; other arts like painting, drama, literature has far more resources then music from the nature to use in their arts. The history of Western Music is just the discovery and upheaval of that particular overtone series: Monody, parallel octave organum, parallel fifth organum, then common practice period, then at last the abandonment of that series. It will be quite unnatural to stack down harmonies instead of stack up. But after all it will be funny to do so as Schoenberg has already broken the rule whatever. Henry

Hi @Alex Weidmann, As it's musesocre anyway you cannot control the score, but the double bass should use the bass clef more except only in its high range. The trombones in section E is better separated to two staffs instead of having three notes in one staff. I would use A# in b.124 for the violin instead of Bb to indicate B minor there. Thanks for your update! Henry

I don't think it's a limitation at all but it is a traceable method you use to plan your structure in your music which is typical in film music which is great enough! It really depends what you want to compose as we have to change our style to adapt to what we want to express in our materials and style of music. The best way is to attentively listen to our composers'r works. Listening to the great masters is of course to our growth in composting. Another method is really listening to the posts here and possibly giving feedback here since there are many different style of composers here and I am sure you will find lots of new things here! When you find something that makes you feel a little bit off you may find that it's an unreasonable treatment of skills or just different approaches and styles anyway so it will definitely enhance your critical listening skills here and hence can critically judge your own music! Henry

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.