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Also something else I need to say about this: So I, and others, can put in hours of work writing the music, orchestration, making detailed mockups, etc. but a guy who writes a Suno prompt and has a "piece" in 5 minutes is treated as equally-valid in this event? It isn't actually even his music. Where is the "fun" in that, exactly? Why even bother? You guys say you want more people to do reviews. What your reviews are going to become if this kind of thing is permitted is a bunch of people being like "Nice prompt bro, but I would've said 'romantic soaring strings' instead of 'cinematic'".

Hey there Matthew, Do you have a teacher? Or do you study music on your own with online course guidance? My opinion is do what you want, learn what interests you, but I think it's really advantageous to continue with tonal harmony. When you learn why tonality broke down, it helps with understanding the motives atonal music is trying to achieve. Also, post your music if you haven't already! That'll really help with your growth, as even strangers on the internet can provide a wealth of knowledge. Cheers buddy

For my 2nd submission to this year's Christmas Music Event I come to you with yet another mash-up of two Christmas Carols! "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Jezus Malusieńki" ("Little Jesus" in Polish). I have input 6 stanzas of each Carol here into the score. I once again wish I had Cantamus as listening to both the English and Polish lyrics at the same time would really enhance the listening experience to those who speak both languages. The piece starts off with a 3/4 variation of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and then follows a stanza of "Jezus Malusieńki" before the Carols are combined together at the same time in various different ways, some of which are slightly polytonal. I've been told that the harmony reminds of the English Renaissance in some parts, but let me know what you think! Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions, critiques or just observations! P.S.: Here is my first Christmas Mash-up that I submitted earlier for this years Christmas Music Event:

Hi all, here is a composition I began in 2011. I rediscovered it in my computer files and decided to rework it and give it some new life. Hope you enjoy the work. All comments welcome as usual.

I’m a 16-year-old trying to become a composer, and I’m pretty much new to this forum! I really want to express myself in more modernist idioms, but I’m still developing my technique. Right now I’m working on a traditional harmony course, and I’m at the point of cadences and simple modulations. I’ve composed several tonal pieces, including a mazurka, a sonata movement, and a late-romantic waltz. I guess my question is whether I should compose many more “traditionally tonal” pieces before moving to the idioms that excite me more? If so, when is the point when I can move to non-functional harmony? Or can I just study traditional harmony on the side, but try to compose more modern-sounding music? I have already been doing this to a certain extent (my late-romantic waltz). Thanks for any suggestions! —Matthew

Hello everyone! I know it has been a while since I have upload a piece of music. That's because I went to balance uploads with reviewing, and sometimes I might be busy with my own compositions. This piece I am sharing with you is a solo piece for piano. Here is my goals this piece: 1. A short piece no more than 1-2 minutes. 2. I want to a write a piece a minor; however, you do not hear tonic. 3. It uses dissonance to establish dark, foreboding mood 4. You may think...Mussorgsky? Maybe? 5. Uses a short motive through out the piece to create variations. I can not think anything. Let me know what you think. I used to Audacity to render the wav to a mp3.

Here's my submission:

@PeterthePapercomPoser Below you will find my review for your chorale Taste: This piece seemingly uses two traditional Christmas chorales. We can hear how one lead into the other with no hiccups. The general audience might not notice the subtle transition, but those who perform it and the carols will. This will be great piece for concert. Instrumentation: The string accompaniment provides harmonic support for the vocal. We do not hear strings often. It is often an organ. But organs cliche. To answer if this playable? Playable is not correct word. Singable is. Yes a choir can and should. The score can easy to read and follow. No issues here. Others have mentioned: it reminds them of ET 3 or Mozart or Haydn. Those great choices, but homophonic texture with harmonic language reminds of Tchaikovsky; and maybe beethoven?

Right, so we can safely write off the idea that you "composed" this piece.

I may write a short piece for Xmas too Please count me in too!

since this part is rigid, very busy with the eighth notes, and has fragmented melody, maybe the next section could be in higher register, dominated by sustained chords, with a longer legato melody for contrast? or it could go the other direction and be very heavy, lower register-y stuff. and thenn maybe for the repetition, you could combine the two characteristics of both sections into one: having the driving force of the eighth notes while simultaneously have the underlying sustained harmony. this is just my interpretation however, just options that i've thrown spontaneously. but i hope they could help!

I'm withdrawing my participation. Competition or not, if you're putting on essentially a display of music created by members and also giving out site badges for them, then I feel that music should actually be created and produced by the members of the forum. I want my music alongside other human-created works.

Hi long time for no posting! I decided to post an old work of mine.This Nocturne in C-sharp minor is a juvenile work of me as a 16 year old. I didn't think much at the time of composing, but I did write in the style of Chopin Nocturne then. And then a sudden thought caused me to have a 1st try in fugue in 2:35! I revised the work recently to improve on some voice leadings and transitions except passages after the fugato, but retained as much the original intention as I can as a 16 year old then. The work, even though as immature as it is, does reflect some of my feelings then. Here is the Youtube video and the score of the piece: (Final Draft) Nocturne in C sharp minor.pdf This work can be regarded as in a rondo structure: 0:00 1st part(A), typical Chopin Nocturne texture. Don't know why I modulated the music to F major but the music did so himself... 0:58 2nd part(B) Main melody in F major, but with a new b motive in b.31-32 1:35 3rd part (A') The main melody in the original key can't wait to enter... Gets more agitated and cools down. 2:35 4th part (B'). A fugato using motive b as subject and main melody as episode, modulates once more to F major 3:57 Last part and coda (A''): The A section returns with some registeral change, then gets more agitated. 4:29 is the climax of the piece which is my favourite too, I like the agitation in it. 4:47 starts the coda and finally the mood cools down and ends in tonic major. I played the recording myself. I do make one major slip in 3:22 but the recording is otherwise good enough for me. Feel free to leave comment below! Henry

https://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/71e5c9cb2af83e1b63286b8d3463d66cbc0d02fb Untitled (2).mid

Well I guess you have to be clear with what you wanna achieve, like harmonic, timberal, thematic, rhythmic fullness or whatever fullness haha. I guess if you work this way, you have tp achieve harmonic fullness in the SATB first, which is to allow all the tones of a chord whenever possible. Then when you arrange it to band, the orchestration matters for the timberal fullness. Henry

While don’t like to use too many labels, I would say I personally gravitate towards music that has a rich use of rather coloristic harmony, with a strong feel for natural resonance, strong formal logic and internal coherence, as well as a sense of direction. I think of music often in terms of space: my ideal music opens up spaces and dimensions that the listener may not have foreseen, while remaining colorful and somewhat transparent. My biggest inspirations musically are probably Messiaen, Beethoven, Wagner, Debussy, and Scriabin (not to mention Grisey, Saariaho, and late Boulez). Because of my interest in tonal space and acoustics, I like to utilize geometrical lattices of tonal space, and much of my musical understanding is shaped by them. I think that’s good advice: keep building technique, but also attempt to compose the music you want to compose on the side. I’m excited to undertake this journey of developing my personal voice, thanks for the encouragement! And I do tend to be quite critical of my own compositional attempts: but the great thing about posting for others to evaluate is they’ll provide constructive criticism, and real feedback for improvement. That’s something I can’t do on my own!

I'm withdrawing my participation. Competition or not, if you're putting on essentially a display of music created by members and also giving out site badges for them, then I feel that music should actually be created and produced by the members of the forum. I want my music alongside other human-created works. I'm sorry Mike, but you guys folded like a cheap suit in a matter of minutes. You give these AI bros an inch and they'll take 3 miles. What is to say you won't fold the same when it's not "just for fun?" Aren't all of these "just for fun" in some way? And people will bring up that "Well you accepted AI that time!" Is this a place for composers, or a place for grifters passing off AI music? I'm sorry Mike, but you guys folded like a cheap suit in a matter of minutes. You give these AI bros an inch and they'll take 3 miles. What is to say you won't fold the same when it's not "just for fun?" Aren't all of these "just for fun" in some way? And people will bring up that "Well you accepted AI that time!" Is this a place for composers, or a place for grifters passing off AI music? Also something else I need to say about this: So I, and others, can put in hours of work writing the music, orchestration, making detailed mockups, etc. but a guy who writes a Suno prompt and has a "piece" in 5 minutes is treated as equally-valid in this event? It isn't actually even his music. Where is the "fun" in that, exactly? Why even bother? You guys say you want more people to do reviews. What your reviews are going to become if this kind of thing is permitted is a bunch of people being like "Nice prompt bro, but I would've said 'romantic soaring strings' instead of 'cinematic'". Also something else I need to say about this: So I, and others, can put in hours of work writing the music, orchestration, making detailed mockups, etc. but a guy who writes a Suno prompt and has a "piece" in 5 minutes is treated as equally-valid in this event? It isn't actually even his music. Where is the "fun" in that, exactly? Why even bother? You guys say you want more people to do reviews. What your reviews are going to become if this kind of thing is permitted is a bunch of people being like "Nice prompt bro, but I would've said 'romantic soaring strings' instead of 'cinematic'". Yeah no; sorry if I'm a bit late, but if someone makes their song out of AI I agree that they should be disqualified, but I feel like withdrawing your participation is a bit too far. for me one of my my favorite parts about writing a piece is that you get to pick out the order that the notes go and to choose what notes go where. I feel like if you give an AI the key, mood, and length of the song but you don't make it your self, there's just not enough creativity. I too, have made an AI song and posted it on here, but that was just for fun, and it certainly wasn't for a competition. I also told the AI to give me the notes and I put them myself and that was just to see if AI could really make a song. I think it's fine, just this once but I do not think AI-made/assisted pieces should be allowed in competitions anymore.

Welcome to the forums, Mahler2009! I agree with my colleagues here dude. Get more into tonal harmony + whatever piques your interest. Keep composing, this is a discipline that's best learnt by practice, trial an error. Getting your own voice may be difficult but if you are resilient, disciplined and constant, you'll achieve it. Your first works may or may not hint you where you want to go. Be curious, experiment, come back, go forward. Feel free to share them with us, we won't go hard (not much, I hope 🥶) ! Best regards, Daniel–Ø.

Hello @mahler2009, Welcome to the forum! I couldn't agree more with @Thatguy v2.0. What is the idioms you want to express with? Henry

My general advice for those who want to learn the craft--and this will sound cliche--is to start at the beginning. This is known as theory. Most harmony books cover basics first(meter, intervals, etc). But I think, it is best to jump start on those topics by either learning an instrument or self-study. Each of their benefits. When I learned theory, it was through my piano lessons. Teachers either use Alfred or Faber or Faber. Both have theory work book. The theory workbook expands on lessons and provides exercise to train you. So let us say you were learning about 3/4 in a lesson. The theory book would go more in depth and other books that cover aspect of the lesson. The second option is self taught. Alfred has music theory book: Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory: A Complete Self-Study Course for All Musicians (Book & 2 CDs): Surmani, Andrew, Surmani, Karen Farnum, Manus, Morton: 0038081232973: Amazon.com: Books Getting ahead of start on this place you ahead of the class. You can probably skip the chapters on theory and go to next part...counterpoint.

Can you elaborate and define what you mean by "fullness"?

Hi Matthew. Here's my answer: It is easier to start with tonal harmony vs modern harmony. It is probably better start with tonal, traditional harmony so you can understand modern harmony change that.

HI @BlackkBeethoven My advice is using the given melody with harmony is: 1. Create bass line 2. Fill in the middle parts 3. add figurations.

I wrote this piece for Policromo ensemble, is inspired in baião rithm, a typical brazilian music.

Rachmoninov haha 🤪

Nice piece! I think it is good length, ok structure, and nice melodies/dissonances.

This is quite a nice short piece! Too short... Maybe add the lick in there...

A like to this for your inspiring you please!

Dont have a chance to listen to it, but from reading the score the drone like base creates this strong anxious atmosphere with the melodies on top. Reminds me of second mvmt of Sibelius 2nd symph also, Mr big hands syndrome again… unlike you expect rolling all of those chords? (Which I think ruins it a bit

Hey Henry I was just thinking about what you said and now that I think about it more there are probably more unexplored variations that could probably start with "Jezus..." instead of "God Rest..." .. I just went with the first successful combination I found honestly

I say lead because after the exposition of each of the carol melodies in section A, it's always the English melody beginning the passage before the Polish melody follows two beat later. This happens in the beginning of section B, C, D and E. Even though there is change of the voices which is assigned the melodiees, I still think there can be some variations on the order of the appearence of the melodies, i.e. have the Polish Melody appears first and followed by the English melody!

My 2nd submission to the event!

I've taken the Christmas Carol's "Angels we have heard on high" and "Gdy się Chrystus rodzi" (a Polish Christmas Carol which translates as "When Christ is being born"). I wrote two variations on this Polish Carol last year and you can find them here to become more familiar (if you want): There was some confusion in that thread about which Carol I was actually working on (LoL) owing to the fact that both of these Carol's prominently feature the Latin lyrics "Gloria in excelsis Deo". But that was basically the inspiration for putting them together in this mash-up. I painstakingly entered multiple stanzas of the Polish, English and Latin lyrics into the pdf score with all the correct accent marks and whatnot so let me know if it's clear! Thanks for listening and comments, suggestions, critiques or just observations are always welcome! Merry Christmas and I hope you enjoy listening! ☃️

Unfortunately, I was not able to join this round. The holiday season is busy for me: traveling to see family. However, what I can do, is review member compositions that are not related to the competition. That way, my reviewing activity help in other means. I want to 1:1 ratio for me. I hope others will follow my example. 🙂

Hello folks! Been a little bit (always is a little bit between when I talk on here it seems) I've been hard at work at college writing all sorts of stuff, but amid all the music I'm writing and playing for school, I've also been working on a personal piece for solo piano. Dedicated to someone I love very much, the piece is an exploration of love. Movement 1 is the only movement written so far, and it is about passionate love (maybe I'll call it Eros. Still figuring out names or if I even want names for the movements.) I'll explain the movement's structure so you can maybe understand what I'm trying to do. Intro: It starts floating on an A dominant 7 chord, overtop of which soars a delicate but sometimes dissonant melody with huge leaps. It remains in this uncertain space a little while. Then it bursts into arpeggios and a fanfare-like triplet motif in F Major, gradually building more and more, before collapsing into the exposition. Exposition: The first theme in F minor is fiery and built from two motifs, the passionate right hand and the rumbling left hand. Cadencing in the relative major, the motifs then set off to transition to the next area. The second theme is in the distant key of D major and is a beautiful transformation of the melody from the introduction. A recurring turn motif brings the melody to its PAC and the closing theme commences with triumphant arpeggios (you will hear the inspiration from Chopin Ballade no. 4) but is suddenly overturned by D minor with the rumbling left hand motif of the first theme, ending the exposition dramatically in Bb Major!! Unlike I think literally all of my other sonata form pieces, there is no exposition repeat before the development. Development: In the soundscape of the exposition's closing chord, the developed introductory melody quietly emerges, again unsure, interwoven with fragments of the first theme. Eventually the second theme's rumbling motif takes hold, and a series of violent sequences commences. At its climax, it collapses again in a whirlwind. Out of the bleak, emerges now the second theme, in a hopeful manner, modulating from Ab Major to E minor, and finally culminating in the most passionate and beautiful variation in G Major, with repeated chords and heavy rubato. It reaches its turn motif and PACs in G Major erupting into the closing theme arpeggios, but now being derailed again, even earlier than last time into C minor! And now we're at the Fugue, based on the same rumbling left hand motif that's been so persistent in the development. After reaching its peak, it sequences a little more and is now in C Major and has successfully set up the dominant retransition to the tonic F minor! Recapitulation: First theme is mostly the same as before. The transition is however different and more "bravura" than before. The second theme tragically is now in F minor, and doesn't get its old turn motif to cadence, and instead prepares to close the movement in the drama of the first theme. But it's diverged! We move away from that extreme low register now into the highest register as we hear one last time the full second theme in F Major, much barer and more suspended, but again with its cadence motif. But it doesn't finish quite yet. It repeats the motif, before slipping back into an A dominant 7 chord for the coda. Coda: Largely an exact repeat of the introduction, but what was before a solid dominant pedal, is now broken up by the tonic in the bass, giving a more resolved sound. With no more burst into F major, the movement closes on low D Major chords. Now the reason I really want your guys' feedback is because I want to play this for the dedicatee soon, and I just want to make sure it's perfect before I present it to him. I did show the piece to my professor, but he said it sounded too traditional and suggested I listen to Sciarrino for inspiration 🥲 Let's just say I have different taste than him lol. The performance isn't perfect, and the score is very unpolished! But everything should come across pretty well hopefully. Thank you in advance! 😄

The texture gets so thick but I love how it sounds consonant throughout. For some reason I'm reminded of Home Alone when I hear this haha, I love that movie. Wonderful music Peter, it definitely is stocking stuffed full of holiday spirit. Merry Christmas!

3rd Transcedental Etude. (Paysage (Landscape))

Thanks! I can't figure out what you mean by "3rd TS"? Google says it might have something to do with 3/4 time signature which I don't think is what you meant. Or that it could have something to do with the Three French Hens in "The 12 Days of Christmas" song? Thanks for your review!

Nice piece! Really appreciate your effort! It seems like the 3rd TS sometimes, but very Haydn, and perhaps some Mozart and Beethoven.

Hello! I was working on a piano piece after I had an idea but I didn't have any direction for the song or an idea of what I wanted to do after the main part. It'd be nice if you gave a suggestion. [idk what else to write, have a good day :)]

This piece has an (Italian) cinematic feel to it ..... paints an interesting moment for sure! Mark

Ok, thank you for your feedback.

Merry christmas

I'm sorry Mike, but you guys folded like a cheap suit in a matter of minutes. You give these AI bros an inch and they'll take 3 miles. What is to say you won't fold the same when it's not "just for fun?" Aren't all of these "just for fun" in some way? And people will bring up that "Well you accepted AI that time!" Is this a place for composers, or a place for grifters passing off AI music?

Thank you Pabio, I do not suffer much except emotionally, and much less than those who were engulfed in the fire and residents there. I don't think you are insensitive and disrepectful towards the victims at all, so you don't have to blame yourself for it. Thank you so much for your condolences and dedication. I wish you have a good day. Henry

Dear friends, hello everyone! I'm Zhang Wenhao, a singer-songwriter from China. Today, I'm here to share with you a pop folk song with Russian elements. Its name is "A Dream Boat On The Night Sea". This song tells the story of meeting a deceased loved one in a dream and re-establishing a connection with them. 亲爱的朋友们，大家好！我是来自中国的创作歌手张文灏。这次来跟大家分享的是一首带有俄罗斯元素的流行民谣，名字叫《夜海的梦舟》。 这首歌曲讲的是在梦里见到已经去世的亲人，和亲人再度产生联系的故事。 歌词如下/The lyrics are as follows： 作曲/Composed by：张文灏 Zhang Wenhao 作词/Lyrics by：张文灏 Zhang Wenhao 还是偶尔悄悄见到你 在有那座院子的梦里 你牵着我的掌心 粗糙中有暖意 仿佛从来都不曾离我而去 还是偶尔会作痛隐隐 在每一个清晨的梦醒 你呼唤我的声音 和慈祥的身影 仿佛从来都不多片刻留停 啊～夜空是回忆停泊的湾 啊～月光是思念扬起的帆 啊～梦舟满载着相思万般 温柔地驶进我的梦来 啊～梦中你牵着我的手 啊～梦中的你音容依旧 梦中的院子 藏着小时候 梦中往事 藏进夜海的小舟

Hi again @Fugax Contrapunctus! Isn't it wonderful that human voices don't have particular set-in-stone range limitations? I'm working on a Christmas piece right now that requires the Basses to go down to a Bb below the staff so I'm probably going to have to transpose the whole piece up a step so the lowest note is a much more manageable C. You have the Altos in this going down to an F# below the staff which I think is manageable despite the commonly regarded lowest note for them being a G. I love the treatment of the fugue subject and the tempo changes here! Is this technically a double or triple fugue? Or perhaps a series of fugues, with a stretto treatment towards the end? Thanks for sharing! Will you be participating the in the Christmas Music Event?

Hello @TheGreatEscaper and welcome to the forum! I love this Mazurka-like prelude you've written! It has so much individuality and character! It reminds me at different points of both Chopin and Prokofiev. The chromaticism is very dark and ominous. The fact that you play your own works is great as well (and apparently you've already played @ComposaBoi's sonata as well! Great job and it's great to see this kind of interaction! You're an asset to the forum!) Formally the piece is a perfect little miniature. The melody sounds like something out of another world when it comes in on the 7th and 11th of the tonality - it's very subversive and surprising harmonically and anything but ordinary. And the accompaniment is like its own melody too that sets the stage for a very ghastly piece that would've been appropriate as a Halloween-themed piece. Thank you for joining us and for sharing this prelude and I look forward to listening to the others! P.S.: Thank you for posting just one piece into the forum to let the reviewers get just a taste of perhaps one of your better pieces instead of suddenly bombarding the forum with a bunch of music indiscriminately! You don't know how many composers do this and it really annoys the people who commonly review others' works here because we don't know which piece to listen to and it turns the forum into a dumping ground for works.

In response to some recent low-quality low-effort posting in the forum the staff have decided to form some rules about proper forum etiquette and what constitutes fair and reasonable use of the forum: 1a) If you suspect that something might have to be deleted by a Reviewer, Moderator or Administrator, don't post it. 1b) Or if you suspect that your post might not be appropriate for some reason consider if it might not fit better in a different section of the forum. The forum has many sub-forums in it that are meant to be flexible and allow users to post all kinds of content, as long as it has its proper place. 2a) Keep threads on topic. Although the forum is meant almost exclusively for music discussions, there are sub-forums which are dedicated to any topic which can be used, if users so desire, to "shoot the sh*t". 2b) But if a thread is meant to be about a specific musical composition posted in "Upload your Compositions for Analysis and Feedback" please keep the thread about the music posted in question. If you want to post a new piece of music as a response to someone else's post, please create a new dedicated topic for that piece. 3) Please refrain from talking about inflammatory topics such as substance use or abuse or sexually explicit topics considered NSFW. And if you must talk about religion or politics, please create dedicated topics in appropriate sub-forums rather than flooding the musical forums with unrelated conversation. Also, please try to keep talk of religion or politics related to music history. Disregarding this etiquette will cause the member in question to be penalized with a warning point and the following penalties: 3 warning points - member's content will be manually moderated by the staff 6 warning points - member will be temporarily restricted from posting content 9 warning points - member will be temporarily suspended from accessing the site 12 or more warning points - member will be considered to be banned from the site permanently Editing of inflammatory posts in question will potentially reverse warning points.