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I wrote these pieces a few years ago while going through a bit of a Reich/Adams minimalist phase. My goal was to create repetitions that would still have a melodic element to it.

All comments welcome ... to respond/improve the work. Original composed 2020 - and expanded/tweaked this week. Mark

Hey everyone! 🙂 This is my first post in the forum, so i greet you all. In this post, I present for review one of my last compositions, called "Into the mystical cave". It is small in duration and it has a soundtrack-like approach as it visualizes a trip through a mystical cave...I tried to put into the music the awe and wonder of exploring beautiful subterranean chambers. I use instruments from all families of the orchestra (and percussion). I would like your constructive opinions on the composition! Enjoy!

Here's another fugue I just finished today. To be fairly honest, the title says it all: I was once told by a fellow composer acquaintance, who was way more experienced than I even currently grasp, about the possibility of choosing subjects from other composers' fugues and having them repurposed as material for my own works. Finally, I have decided to undertake such endeavour with none other than Johann Sebastian Bach, thereby using the subject of his BWV863b (Fugue in G-sharp minor from Das Wohltemperierte Klavier 1). And so, here is the result. For the everlasting glory and might of the tallest among the greatest titans in Western Classical Music, I bequeath this humble fugue of mine to the immortal spirit of Lord Sebastian, our one true mentor in music, the divine Meister Bach. Enjoy! YouTube video:

Hi @Fugax Contrapunctus, As always I like your fugal output! This is certainly harmonically more advanced than Bach's original work as you modulate early on, e.g. A major subject in b.23 and C minor subject in b.29. I like your stretti in b.39 and b.41 too. Thanks for sharing! Henry

Alas, 'learning' orchestration takes time. You may have an instinct for it in which case it won't take as much time as otherwise. But the surest way is to study how established composers have done it. Borrow or buy scores: start with simple, tonal works with which you're already familiar, get into more complicated ones as you move on. (Starting with an unfamiliar work can be tedious: you need to read the score bit by bit then construct what it sounds like in your head. That'll come in time but best avoided as a complete beginner. Edit: I've still miles to go with this and usually listen to fragments on record then work out how the composer got to that on the score) There are plenty of text books about orchestration but very little on 'how to do it'. Ultimately your aim should be to get the effect you have in your mind. You have a DAW presumably (for the work you submitted) so you can experiment. But if something doesn't work out as you hoped, try to analyse why it's gone wrong - alter the dynamics / mixing, the pitches, try other instruments - and so on. As for choosing melodies by instinct and by ear, you are definitely on the right track. It's about our ears, inner and outer, the inner ear being how you imagine sounds. Developing it slowly and surely is what it's really about. Knowing that what you've found instinctively seems right is a head start. Great and good luck.

Yes, it's harp and celesta. The harp is the time keeper, meant to symbolize a ticking clock.

You are totally right! I think, unconsciously, there is some Dvorak too. A time ago I really liked listening his dances, but I think something actually stayed in my head since then. And about Mahler "influence"... Time after composing it I noticed it is actually almost identical melody from the third movement of the 5th, but I decided to leave it as a unintended "quotation".

Henry, Thanks for the review and comments. Yes, first section should be extended ... and I will attend to it and re-post at a later time. I am pleased you enjoyed the mood of the work. I wanted it to have a bit of both yearning and lightness. Mark I also will attend to the engraving suggestions.

I am curious why you always seem to compose microtonal piano pieces? Tuning and manufacturing actual pianos to the needed specifications in order for these to be actually performable is quite a steep bargain! From my perspective, bowed non-fretted strings are the instruments of choice for microtonality of any kind. Another thing you'll never be able to achieve with keyboard microtonality is glissandi (unless you write for the mellotron or some similar instrument I heard of at some point in time that allows you to press the keyboard in between the standard keys and even can reproduce vibrato by undulating the finger on a held note). As far as musicality, you don't really seem to naturalize the microtonality into your own particular brand of harmony or melody. You use the microtonality as just an additional ornament to the predominantly tonal music. Nothing wrong with that of course. If I were to try my hand at microtonality I would also go that route, but I would want to have the capability of having a glissando to a microtonal note. And I'd also try to modulate into and out of, microtonal keys. The last step would be to actually create new harmonies by mixing common 12 TET tonality with some kind of microtonality. But that's just my approach. Thanks for sharing!

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

Unfortunately, I won't be able to finish in time for the competition. School's been kicking my butt. Good luck to all the other participants!