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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:

Here's a little Christmas card for y'all I found from a few years ago. It's probably not the best fugue ever written, not by a long shot, but it's fun. Composed: December 22 - 24, 2017 at Austin Scoring: Keyboard solo Style: Baroque Duration: 2:09

Hello, all. Coming at you with something a little different for the event, but I hope you find it at least interesting, even if you don't particularly like it. I've basically decided to get really good at writing for strings nowadays, and since I'm mostly an atonalist, cello is the easiest since computers can't play that kind of stuff; the implied timbres are super important. So enjoy hearing me poorly play this miniature fantasia on Jingle Bells. I promise there's a method to the madness 😄

Here's my submission! Maybe I should have waited for Christmas Eve for its publication, but I reckoned the sooner might as well be the better. P.S.: I wholeheartedly agree with the distressing concerns brought forth by @AngelCityOutlaw regarding the AI-generated music submitted for this event. It should go without saying that allowing AI-generated material to be presented on par with compositions requering hours upon hours of effort and dedication could run the risk of severly undermining the legitimacy and ultimate purpose of these community events, not just on account of the frictions and controversies caused by the presence and promotion of AI-generated content, but also on a more fundamental level which has been thoroughly implied over the course of this discussion. Despite this, I firmly believe those who want to participate and submit their art should not hesitate to do so. Why let so much time, effort and dedication go to waste after creating a work of art that is in any capacity worth far more than mere AI imitations? My take is that we should not be deterred, but rather emboldened in the face of these dire circumstances we are living through, that we may adapt to this unsettling trend and make our art known regardless. In fact, that's precisely why I think it's more important than ever not to refrain from posting our own music, lest we inadvertently pave the way for more of this AI-generated music to claim our place. It is rumoured that the Dead Internet Theory may as well soon become an increasingly encroaching and inexorable reality. By refusing to yield to the tide and sharing more of our own creations, hopefully we might briefly forestall such a harrowing prospect for this tiny little corner of the Internet where so many creative wonders are being posted and discussed every single day. The point is not to force these AI-generated compositions out by decree, but to make it so that the abundant music produced by humans in this forum may flourish beyond the scope of neural networks being used as amoral tools or shortcuts to achieve apparently similar results, yet lacking in personal significance or emotional depth. Banning AI-generated music will not ameliorate the problem at large, but composing music through righteous harship might as well be the only substantial antidote against the proliferation and normalization of this kind of content. That being said, I'm certain this must be quite a difficult point of contention for the forum's staff to deal with and try to find a meaningful solution for, so I won't comment further on the subject matter. In any case, I hope whichever resolution or agreement is reached on this issue will allow the course of these community events to carry on peacefully and with respect towards the time, effort and dedication proportionally invested into each submission. It is good to know that this matter is being seriously discussed by staff and high-ranking members alike, and as such I would like to thank @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu and @PeterthePapercomPoser among others for their dutiful labour in calmly trying to sort out things amidst the heat of the debate.

Hi guys! Hope you're all doing well. So, I wrote a poem two months back, and whilst I did, I also made a melody out of it just because lol. So, I thought it had the potential to become an art song, so I composed it. By the way, this song just contains the first stanza of my poem. Do you think I should make more songs for each stanza to do like a song cycle or something? Anyways, I sang this myself because I find vocal soundfonts to be... nauseating. Anyways, I am no singer, so try not to roast me too much for my voice lol. Do tell me how you like it, or if you have any suggestions.

Wow... Your voice is wonderful, I love the timbre and emotion in your singing. Don't be bashful about it! Do I think you should do more songs? Definitely :) Please keep writing and performing these, I had no idea I'd like your vocal music so much

You can just reply to your topic with a new post posting the edited music, or if you don't want to retain the old version, just simply edit the original post with the edited version of the music. Henry

I've only recently started this, but I would love to hear suggetions 😄 nutcracker inspired.pdf nutcracker inspired.mp3

Hi @PeterthePapercomPoser I have made it viewable for anyone!

Reporting them meant nothing. Their Suno prompt is still in the event and the staff didn't even really offer an explanation for why they did a 180 in a matter of minutes. You have to have principles and actually stand by them or else your principles don't mean ѕhіt. I am against AI-generated music and I will not spend precious, authentic composing hours to participate in anything alongside charlatans.

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.

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

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?

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'".

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.

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

Here is my submission: https://musescore.com/user/89049631/scores/29505320/s/jl-md7 And here is the pdf: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oi66fwxpfjm4bvBB6mYQ9d5GGz-afdB2/view?usp=drivesdk I hope you enjoy it! (⁠ ⁠╹⁠▽⁠╹⁠ ⁠)

Hey @therealAJGS, This one is surely festive and light hearted as we all can hear in the grocery shops and supermarkets this month lol. The ending is quite funny haha. Thx for sharing! Henry

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

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.

Hello @Musicman_3254! Thank you for your submission! Would you please grant us permissions to view the PDF score? Thanks again!

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.

Dear all, After the "Halloween" music, I decided to start a larger set of works - the Festive series, which is a collection of music for festivals in my home place. I started with Double Ninth festival, which is quite close to this year's Halloween (29 Oct). Regarding the work, Double Ninth Festival - Hiking on Mount Qi writen for Ensemble and Voice This is a work under the Double Ninth festival, also known as Chung Yeung Festival, is a festival that reminisce our ancesters and dead. This work is writen based on the work 九日齊山登高 by 杜牧 (Du Mu, 803-852), a Chinese calligrapher, poet, and politician who lived during the late Tang dynasty. The lyrics are as follows, Double Ninth Festival - Hiking on Mount Qi - Du Mu Translation by the composer Autumnal scenery spotted on water with wild geese heading south, With wine pots, I climb up the lush contryside with friends. Hey, just laugh in all the difficulties, With chrysanthemums in the hair on the way home. Guzzle in the name of the festival, instead of climbing up and sigh for the sunset. Living short as people always were, Why should we weep at the mountain like Duke Jing of Qi? HoYin

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

Cool mashup. The harmony and key changing help keep things alive and fresh. And it seems like the rhythms are different from the original if I'm not mistaken. The piece was composed so smoothly, I couldn't tell when you switched up the songs, and I had 5 minutes to try and figure this out lol. I did notice that as you were about to wrap up a section, you suddenly changed the key, tempo and dynamics. It got my attention each time you did this.

Thanks for the advice. I tried two different other ways of combining the two Carols together so that they would finish their stanzas at the same time. My first attempt was to use a 6/8 variation of "God Rest..." while having the "Jezuz Malusieńki" in 3/4. There were 3 trailing measures at the end of "God Rest..." solo without "Jezus...". In another variation I had both Carols in 3/4 and had 4 measures of "God Rest..." solo without "Jezus...". Also, "God Rest..." has a pick-up anacrusis note while "Jezus..." starts right on the beat. The staggered entrances I used in the mash-up were my solution to these problems with the goal being to have both Carols coincide and finish their stanzas at the same time. I don't think there's any other way of achieving that - I think I tried quite a few alternate ways.

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!

Hi @Kvothe! In normal pieces I will find those parallel fifths and octaves between the melody and the ground bass unsettling, but here it well fits the mood! I do think the mood is well portrayed! I like the thicker texture and motivic writing in section B. But beware of passages like b.32-34, as no piainist would be able to play a 11th interval on a piano, maybe only on a harpsichord. Also more details can be for sure added like the dynamics. I don't get what you mean; the piece is in F minor and the tonic is always heard! Thx for sharing! Henry

Maybe instead of having the English melody leading the Polish melody, make a new counterpoint with the Polish melody taking the lead? That will avoid the more boring repeititons!

I felt like I had to find a way to include all 6 stanzas of each Carol in the piece! And the modulations are each prepared by a V chord right before each modulation (in bar 73 the F major chord prepares the modulation to Bb minor and in bar 113 the modulation to B minor is prepared with a Gb major chord). Thanks for your review!

Yo Peter, I find this mashup musically sound, despite they are in different keys! They don't sound in clash to me, even in passages like b.54. Except I don't like the cheap device of raising a semitone for repetition like many pop songs do, I think you can just stop in b.73! Thx for sharing! Henry

My 2nd submission to the event!

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. 🙂

It will be way too early to learn counterpoint if you cannot read score and know the basics of music theory first!

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