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Hello everyone, dear friends ! Here is my last composition for orchestra. Always in the same spirit, but very happy to get to the end. I use here a thematic reservoir already used in a previous work, which was written for singing and piano, then orchestrated. But the development is totally different and I don't take over the structure. I wanted to favor the whimsical, squeaky side, certainly but not dark, with as much derision as possible. Thank you for your encouragement and comments that I look forward to! (And a small subscription on my Youtube page would also make me happy).

Take a listen to Richard Strauss – Divertimento after Couperin. There are parts of your piece that really remind me of this. I suspect this is an earlier work of Strauss, but nevertheless, there are some goodies here. You're quite wrong here. In music, its ok to have sudden mood changes, as long as the transition makes sense. You ease the listener into this transition, making this change quite pleasant. This change of atmosphere is critical in keeping the listener engaged, and you do just that. Ah, I see. I just feel like if you broke up your music into movements within YT, it will help the listeners see the different parts. Either way, chapters are also good for keywords! You can place your chapters below your description, which is what I do with my videos.

pulse-bang-and-then.mp3 Score Hi. I would appreciate any feedback. Thank you for listening!

Wowee, this piece starts off and ends in modern connotations, but the base of your piece has a more classical, baroque feel to it. And the way you are integrating from modern -> baroque and back is not something I think I've ever heard before. These are the types of atmospheres in your piece that stood out to me: Modern - pentatonic (did you put in some modern Bach at around 1:47?) Somewhat Straussian at various parts (early Richard Strauss) Turning into melancholy -> baroque / fugue (your least favorite part? but this part is awesome, how could this be your least favorite part??) Your baroque section I feel nails it, but I love this type of music. The rhythmic variations that you have are well done, and you turn into an early Straussian at around 6 minutes in. At least to my ears in a subtle way. Pizzicato section is gorgeous, and actually reminds me a little of Tchaikovsky at around 8:30 in. Damn...how did you do that? And the fact that you are able to take these styles and smoothly transition back into the pentatonic scale is so crafty. At about 10 minutes in, it almost sounds like it could be video game music of an overworld, with the repetition you executed. The recording is also well done, great job @Thatguy v2.0! A piece like this deserves a good recording. PS: I might suggest in your YouTube video, to break your music into the chapters as you've broken up in your post here.

I must admit, clusters are my weakness.

Beautiful work, @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu ! It was nice receiving on my email that you had mentioned me in a post, an coming here to see you were inspired by my work. Congratulations on a very expressive first movement, it is very soothing throughout, and seems consistently well written. I like the central section, in minor - the contrast was very much needed in my opinion, and it was refreshing when it arrived. The themes sound really nice, which for your style is really important, so congratulation on that aspect aswell. I don't understant why the pizzicatos are also notated with stacatto markings, and sometimes even with stacattissimo. It's not like you could control the duration of a stacatto anyways (technically you could, by raising the finger off the fingerboard before the sound died off, but it's not like it would make much of a difference either), so I would just remove the stacatto markings throughout. Unless you have a precise reason why you did it, of course. In that case, notate it on the beginning of the score so that there will be no confusion on the part of the performers. Also, some slurs are way too long. For exemple on M.79. When writing for strings, don't forget that slurs indicate bow changes. As a fan of chinese music, and of Qigang Chen in particular, I loved to hear your sextet. I'm very interested in hearing your second movement, and in where you take this. I personally feel like we need a big contrast next, given that the first movement is already very continuous in its writing. But of course, this is for you to decide :) Good luck!

A contemplative piece indeed. I can hardly find major faults at anything, other than my own inadequate techniques thus finding a lot of passages awkward for my hand, and that the piece sometimes sound slightly repetitive and long. But I understand the necessity of the G-flat key in order for section G to sound especially effective. The beginning of the piece somehow immediately reminds me of Dvorak's American lol, maybe it's the pentatonic harmony. Perhaps a few things I could critique, but then again it's always easier to say what's wrong than what's right. The whole movement feels organic and smooth. Bars 111-113 I don't understand the tremolo with slurs. Section K: just bars 375-376 and nothing afterwards, do you think the sound gets more powerful if both cello play double stops? Bar 580 random alto clef lol I do hope your friend finds comfort in your music.

Hello everyone. I tried to compose a Beethoven impression. Any feedback is much appreciated. Thank you very much.

Wow - this piece is especially difficult to follow along in the score since it's (almost) an uninterrupted series of 16th notes. I like the change in texture you introduce when the right hand plays by itself in the higher range of the piano. Like @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu mentioned - some of your piece isn't possible to play in its current rendition. But I think if you managed to reduce the distance between the tremolo-like oscillations that the right hand has to perform it might become more feasible (although it might still be a wrist killer but I guess that's the idea since it's an etude). Thanks for sharing!

I like how the whole piece is based on the figures in the very first two introductory measures. It gives the piece a sense of thematic unity despite being in a somewhat less "palatable" language (that I actually happen to like!). My favorite parts are where you choose to express the dissonances of the piece in intriguing melodic contours like in measures 4 - 5 and 15 - 17. The chord clusters are not as appetizing to my personal taste however. Thanks for sharing!

I just finished reading a book about Lucid Dreaming and your title made me think of it. Although the piece made me think of more of a kind of nightmare though - but lucid dreaming can help defuse nightmares sometimes. But the music itself is quite interesting to say the least and expertly engraved! There is lots of character to the musical gestures. Surprisingly, the piece has a key signature of F major which I agree is the tonal center in the beginning, although it doesn't end in that key. I think, to me at least it doesn't sound finished although maybe this style of writing doesn't lend itself well to leaving an impression of finality. But, all things considered I would have liked to stay in this Lucid Land a bit longer! Thanks for sharing!

Hello Henry!!! There isn't much to be said, since most of what I thought about was already mentioned by other composers. They provided detailed feedback, so I'll just share my thoughts real quick 😄. I listened to both versions, the first one and the final product. I loved the A major one, even though I am a E flat and A flat lover hahaha. A grandiose waltz or any grandiose piece, in my opinion, should be done in the key of open strings. This will give much more power to the violin's sound and projection. First, the introduction is very, very well done. The grandiose feeling is perfectly portrayed. Main themes do not need to be extremely complex. It is a waltz, and the simplicity, yet beautiful melody, makes it a perfect main theme. The first version had the violin playing a ton of chords. The violin is primarily a melodic instrument, and should primarily play a single line most of the time. I recommend using chords sparingly and focusing on the violin's melodic capabilities. In the new version, this was fixed pretty nicely, which made me very happy. Make sure to repeat sections, like previously mentioned by others. Not only does it give structure to the piece, but satisfaction to the listener as well, specially in a waltz where many, many sections have repeats. These sections are usually simple in structure, so the listener enjoys both the first and second, possibly even third repeat. About the difficulty and playability. Some specific passages in the piano part are difficult to play due to their fast tempo or close spacing of notes. Consider the playability of certain sections and make adjustments if necessary. Overall, a very, very nice piece. The introduction and the main theme got me engaged in no time, since its what I expect from a waltz, specially a "Grande Valse". Excellent job! 😄

The drums in front are Chinese drums, and for the backrow from left to right, it's Gong, a set of Chinese Wooden Block (Literally it's wooden fish in Chinese), and cymbals. Henry

A very nice piece. It is curious, at least it is im impression.... When we want to write something in these non-tonal territories, we have a hard time getting rid of the patterns of functional music. For example, sequences, repetitions, etc. It happens to me too, it's difficult to get fully into the role of "classical" atonalist. It's not a bad thing, after all I see it as the influence of this style is very broad and has come to us mixed with all those other styles.

Hey @Henry Ng! Thank you very much for your comment! It makes me really glad to know you could extract some knowledge from my music :) I was also inspired by many works in this forum before, and its nice to know that what I write can do the same for others. Good luck on your work :)