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I know this isn't my usual style but it was pretty interesting to try composing something with a more Brahmsian vibe. 🙂 The piece was dedicate to my friend @Ferran Carrasquer. I'm not sure if the piece qualifies to be called a scherzo. What traits would you associate with that form? Also how would you expand my piece? I feel like I rushed it a bit and the final result is extremely short, but I'm not sure if I could add much more to section A for example, or how to add variety in the recap. I hope you enjoy it!

An experiment on repetition and evolution. A draft, for now. Composed in 1 day.

Hello Again, I composed a cinematic, epic piece of music. I'm really curious about your opinion, because I think this is a really good one. What do you think? I appreciate your comment! Thank you!

Hi @Hc123, I don't think the opening is harsh at all. The solo horn section in 1:29 seems a bit too dry for me, maybe adding strings pizz. with bassoon accompaniment will be great. The solo flute section around ~2:40 seems dry too and I'm sure you will add accompaniments to it. The D major chord in 3:57 seems too abrupt for me with no preparation. Thx for sharing! Henry

Hey Alex, I think the beginning really changes much comparing to your previous sections, as here it's more post-tonal. I almost fail to recognize all of the materials. It looks you add many new layers and materials, and the style is completely changed! For me I love the original version more but that's personal. Thx for updating your work continuously. Henry

Hi @olivercomposer, Like Peter I especially enjoy the modulation, since it's modulated to C# minor!!! I love that the voice is not singing Ah this time but lyrics which I can't decipher. This will for sure make a great track for exciting dragon fighting scene. I feel like the brass is introduced with more care this time rather than abruptly bursting out in your previous works. This is a good work in cinematic style. Thx for sharing! Henry

I think for me Fux's book on counterpoint may not be applicable for first time composers, since counterpoint can be real difficult even for more advanced composers, and some of the species counterpoint inside Fux's book may not be applicable to newer music. It can work as an excellent guidance, but sometimes you will see Bach violates those rules, since Fux bases those rules on Palesrtina style of counterpoint, which will be even stricter than most Baroque period music including Bach's. I would rather recommend you to read the book "Harmony and Voice Leading" first to get to know the chord progression first. To write with Baroque style, Bach's music is always great example for it. Just listen to his Well Tempered Clavier, Brandenburg Concerti, Orchestral Suites, Sonatas and Partitas for Violin, Cello Suites, Goldberg Variations will allow you to get a glimpse of Baroque style. Vivaldi's violin concerto or Handel's Music for the Fireworks will be great too!

Haha maybe I will write one in the future, but that's not my interest now. Maybe the piccolo uses flutter tone to symbolize the hare's growling and shrieking after the defeat? And then the piccolo falls down to reach the low D to admit the defeat or so. The tortoise laughing may be presented just with repeated notes of the bassoon in its lowest register since it will be the loudest and most sinister haha. I always imagined the story when I was young that ends up with the tortoise pretending it was slow to fool the hare, or despite the tortoise giving 200% energy the hare easily defeats it to fool the tortoise and show how futile the tortoise's struggle is, just like an Existentialism story like the Sisyphus.

Thank you for your comment, Peter! Yes, this is an AI-generated image, and it's a little bit weird. This is the reason why I chose it, it can grab the attention. 😄 I don't know whether you noticed or not, but this "dragon" has a wing on his right side, but there's no wing on the left. (From the perspective of the monster.) 😄

You should try writing some programmatic music! You could try this fable or any of the other competition themes already used! It's really very fun to do imo. Thanks! I think, since the key here is A minor, a German 6th would be F, A, C, D# which doesn't occur here. it would be a German 6th if the key was D minor though because the Bb and G# would resolve nicely to A7 or D minor 6/4. I never thought though that the fortissimo tremolo in the beginning was without reason - I thought it was a good dramaturgical reason to prepare the entrance of the Tortoise (or later on to anticipate the suspense of the beginning of the race). I never thought about it that way but I guess it does work like that! When I wrote the Tortoises' theme I was thinking of how the Tortoises' head slowly peeks out from inside its shell and I came up with the rising chromatic line from that. When I wrote the Hare's descending chromatic line I was mostly just trying to find the easiest way to depict the Hare's snoring and sleeping (in a kind of cartoonish way). LoL - any ideas on how to depict the Hare's crying musically? And the Tortoise seems too dignified a character to laugh at the Hare's misfortune - it's the Hare that laughs at the Tortoise because it's so conceited and demeaning. But that's just my take on the characters. Thanks for your review Henry! Peter

Hey Peter, This piece is so funny to listen with and full of characters and details, and the level of depiction in the music is always not what I can do as I am more used to composing absolute music. For the introduction it really sets the funny tune of the music with the pizz., and especially that German sixth pizz. and forced fortissimo with no reason at all LoL! I also like how use introduce the accompaniment first before the bassoon melody, like a Bach cantata or the beginning of Bee's Eroica Variations or Mahler's Symphony no.2 or great pieces in general LoL. Bassoon is a great choice for the tortoise! I always find the timbre of it funny in some pieces of music, while it can also be sinister like the tortoise here! The use of piccolo for the hare is of course great, but what I love most in B section is that you use whole tone scale to depict the quickness and brainlessness of the hare! Whole tone scales provides no definite destination, just like the hare doesn't know what it's doing here! So humorous here! Section C is so funny as your music really creates the image of the hare teasing the tortoise and I really would like to hit that hare! Very nice counterpoint in section E! The three themes of each of the characters match perfectly here with their own distinctive characteristic even though the tempo is homogenous here. Btw, is the falling chromatic for the hare's theme signifying its defeat and the ascending chromatic for the tortoise, even if it's slow, signify its win? Section I for me reminds me of the passage in Tcahikovsky's Symphony no.4 with the quick falling semitones, but of course in a very different context: The ending is nice too with once again the combination of the three themes! Just maybe for me a little bit less coda-like even though you have raised the key to a semitone higher. Maybe adding a scene the hare is crying and tortoise laughing makes the story longer? But nonetheless this is a great piece. Thx for sharing and love to see your new work here Peter! Henry

Very nice use of wordbuilder! Very epic music indeed! You fluently switch between triplets and 16th notes which is a very cool way to bring constant rhythmic variety to the piece. I like the constant 3D undulation of the dragon in the video but I couldn't help but notice its uncharacteristically muscular arm with a hand that has 6 fingers! LoL Was this image AI-generated? I think it looks pretty good either way and I personally have nothing against using AI. I like the modulation at 1:01 with a short respite from the choir. And again around 2:16 - this time with choir. If I had to find something to nit pick in this piece is the stereotypical use of the choir and organ to evoke that epic vibe. Also - you seem to use the high choir in almost the same range throughout the composition. But that doesn't keep me from enjoying the music the way it is and it works fine. Thanks for sharing!

I listened to your 2nd improvisation. What an immaculate and delicate piano sound you manage to get out of your piano! Many live recordings often end up sounding very coarse because the pianos sound bad when recorded (almost augmenting how out of tune and dry they sound - but your piano surprisingly sounds very in tune and reverberates quite nicely in whatever chamber you recorded it in). Great job and I'm glad you're back to making music once again!

Entry E - "The Escapist" by @ComposedBySam (for Cello and Piano) This piece is based on the conflict between the dream world and the silent misery of the awakening reality. The piece starts with a peaceful theme in A major which symbolises the detached, worryless, distant dream world an escapist creates to find comfort, safety and internal validation. But this world like any other is not free of flaws and as the first theme ends in the relative minor, the silent criticism of the creeping misery of reality follows leading the escapist to become agitated. He diverts his attention away from the illusory aspects of his dream world and in a way remains ignorant as the first theme plays again, but at the end of this recurring theme, he finally decides to confront reality face to face and in doing so he creates colourful dissonances. He no longer resists expressing sadness over his dreamy illusion and the piece ends in an unresolved manner, making it uncertain if it is indeed ever possible to reconcile reality with the dream image... And for that matter, is it even necessary?

Entry D - "Argonauta" by @Jordan Jinosko (for Contrabass and Piano) Argonauta is a piece written about a recurring dream I have had. In this dream, I am a sailor aboard a ship, and my crew members and I are attacked by cephalopods, creatures that wriggle toward us and overwhelm us with their tentacles. I titled the piece "Argonauta" since the word can refer to either nautical adventurers or a specific genus of octopuses with large eyes and webbed tentacles. Musically, the disorienting tentacles are portrayed by intrusive use of the octatonic scale, which features eight notes that allow for a kind of harmonic ambiguity through use of inversional and transpositional symmetry.

Entry C - "The Journey of Jason" by @Michalis (for Violin and Piano) The piece is inspired by the myth of Jason, which is an archetypal "dreamy" myth of a quest. Jason was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature.