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For me originally it was just something I do always since I was young but only very little bit. Then eventually I continued to compose to help me improvise better. edit: wait you can't allow other people to add answers?

Hi everyone, I’m new here! I’ve seen a few other pieces of music shared here, and it seems like the perfect place for me to join in. I’m a French student, and I’ve spent 12 years studying piano at a conservatory. Recently, I’ve started composing, and I feel confident enough about what I’ve created to share it with you. Right now, I don’t have anyone around for active listening, so I have no idea how to assess the quality of my compositions. I’d really appreciate honest feedback (whether it’s theoretical or just based on your feelings) to understand where I stand and how I can improve. I hope you will feel as much emotion listening to it as I did composing it 😀 Thank you in advance for your time and your insights!

This is an aria in the late Baroque style for flute, tenor, and continuo. The text is taken from Goethe's Unbegrenzt (unbounded).

This is not the current version - See the new post here for the most updated version, with new context.

Hello again. I have composed yet another microtonal piece - this time a prelude for lumatone (or a piano). My intent for the piece was to explore subminor and supermajor chords, as well as the subminor 7th which is a more pleasing sonority in a minor or dominant 7th chord which isn't as dissonant and yearning for resolution (the dominant 7th chord with a subminor 7th is a common sonority that gives Barbershop quartets their characteristic sound). I think a performance on a lumatone can probably best approximate my intentions with this piece in 31 edo or 53 edo or something. Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions, critiques or observations you may have!

Hello everybody! I hope everyone's doing great. It's been a long time since I did anything on here. I wanted to share what I'm working on these days (or months). My current album "The Power Within". I'm just halfway through, so I was hoping to make it a 12-tracks album. Anyway, here's the music:

Without context, I'm unsure of what it is that you're aiming to express with this piece. If I had to be honest, I can't say that this is particularly enjoyable to the ear 😅 Just reading over the first page of your score, I notice that the voicings "clash". Skimming through, this seems to be a common theme. You have your key signature set as Atonal (or, open, no set mode), and while your rhythms are unique, and would work well with the ensemble as a whole, I find it hard to "hear" the direction the piece is going, and I'm unable to conjure any imagery in my mind for what this work's message is portraying. Not that all music has to have any real meaning to it. Music can just be fun for the sake of it being fun as well. However, again, I don't pick up on any sort of intent in this project, and I so desperately would like to!!! But to touch on your notation, we can review measure 1 as an example, as this same issue is present throughout the piece, and would give you an idea on what I'm referring to, for you to possibly utilize for edits as you progress in writing this. Beat 1, Piano, plays a C natural, doubled by the octave. Moving up, the Cello has an A natural. Which is ok, as it's a 3rd interval from C. However, the first thing heard is the C in the piano, which would typically establish the 1st tone of whatever mode the piece is in. (can be multiple, based on just the note C alone.) Moving up the next staff, to Viola, we have a G Natural. So far, that's (C/A/G...) Already, we face a dilemma. A and G Natural are 1 whole tone apart. and at the octave range that these are notated, imagine just those two notes played on a piano, simultaneously. That would be 2 white keys right next to one another, which is very dissonant, and can sound harsh, if used without context. Lets move up again to V. II: We have a B Natural. Then up to the top staff, V. I: We have another C Natural. So the first chord we hear is built upon; (C/C, A, G, B, C) Which would sound like this (see attached audio below)>> I hope that, given the example, you may see where I'm coming from, in terms of being unable to pinpoint an intent with the sound of the notation! I want to emphasize, in no way am I trying to say your work is bad. It's apparent to me that you're still new to this stuff, and mistakes are okay! I just hope to guide you toward doing great things. Its difficult to follow music without a tonal central point, as you can hear from the attached audio. If you have a question, I'd love to talk about it. edit: what I *think* you were trying to use was A minor? I plugged the notes into my Musescore 4 program as just whole notes on the same instrumentation. I can hear a vague sound of an A minor chord. Which would be written like: Recording 2025-01-22 041459.mp3

you've mentioned this, and my ADHD brain always forgets to revisit 😐 🤣 I promise I will review some of your work, soon!

There are bunch of my works here on YC with links on my About Me section haha: https://www.youngcomposers.com/p21047/henry-ng-tsz-kiu/ It does! Keep it up!

I wish you a very happy new year and mostly I wish you musical inspiration for 2025. Play your music and listen to it before writing it on paper or whatever electronic gizmo software. It may end up better. Cheers,

Night in the Jungle.pdf Night in the Jungle.mp3 Near a final draft. A few tweaks I have to do. First I have to actually find them which is why I'm posting. I'm struggling to find things to fix but I know its not done

Hey @PeterthePapercomPoser! This prelude is motivically tight. Almost all phrase starts with the same motive, either in its original or inverted form. Like @chopin I love the echo effect. The echo really strengthens the weirdness of the piece as provided by the microtone! Thx for sharing this little piece! Henry

Hey Kyle @UncleRed99, I absolutely love this! I feel your sadness. The opening C minor theme is fxxingly great and emotional. The E flat major cello theme is no less either. It's contemplative and consolating but no less sad. The whole piece I am like listening to a river stream with sadness lightly flowing. The harmony, instrumentation and texture are maybe simple, but it is because of its simplicity make this so touching. The modulation to F minor makes the music more reflective for me. The picardy 3rd is nice as well to give some hope. Interesting the main theme here (Eb-D-C-G) shares the same motive I once have in my C minor Clarinet Quintet! Thx for sharing this lovely piece! Henry

Hi @NicholasG, The opening sounds like the beginning of the 3rd movement of Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique which is ominous for me. The theme in 1:00 sounds quite jungle like with the percussion, but and then you go for a march. A more contemplative wind passage follows. The saxophone solo passage is quite nice, but it's too short for me! After it it's bell and timpani passage another furious adventure comes. The ending first features the wind passage, and then the solo saxophone, and then ends on a high note. For me personally I think there are too many ups and downs within a small time span. I think you can really develop on the different passages before getting into a contrasting passage! The theme in 1:00, the march theme after it, the wind passage and then the saxophone passage all seem short for me! They are introduced nicely, but for me it's like a tour trip where you visit many great attraction but only stay for 15 minutes in each of them! Thx for sharing! Henry

I take it you also have some type of echo effect in this recording? Anyway I think we looked it up, and the lumatone is close to $4K, so not sure you will have any performers of this anytime soon 😁, but nevertheless, this is a really neat prelude! This is a perfect candidate for a main word in a 2d semi-horror side scroller game. For example, there is somewhat a sense of equilibrium, but enough tension still to be uneasy. If anything you lately have been piquing my interest in microtonal harmony. I definitely want to learn more about it, and maybe I can test the waters with a topic or two about this on my YouTube channel one of these days.

Ever since listening to music I loved in childhood, I felt like I could easily come up with really great music in my imagination and thought that it would be awesome and fulfilling to be able to actually create that music in real life. Now I consider musical composition my 'originative intellectual work' and listening to my own music induces great fulfillment and 'peak experiences'. Check out this pertinent book quote I shared that's related to this topic: No, but you can add the option "other - please reply to the topic!" and when people suggest other answers you can edit the questions to include answers that they mentioned.

Hi @PCC For me if I don't compose I will end up going into a mental ward or an asylum. I cannot not compose because my emotion is way too unstable and I need to use those emotion for music, otherwise it will stir me up and harm my mental and physical health. I only know this during the last few months of my life. Besides it's really an achievement to finish a piece especially ones you think it's successful. Outside popularity, recognition and fame would of course be the additional bonus but personal enjoyment would be the most statisfying of all. Showing improvement progressively in music composition is definitely an enjoyment. Henry