Leaderboard

Thanks for the opportunity to provide feedback, and sorry I think I forgot about your reply. I just rechecked my notifications and found yours, so here are my comments. Hopefully this isn’t too late. First off I think you have a lot of nice ideas. You have a composer’s intuition, and these ideas sound like things I would have written when I was first starting. You have a nice sense of melody and accompaniment, and each of the phrases seems to pair the melody with an accompaniment pattern or echo pretty well. I think this is a high quality start to future composing yet to come. Finding it’s already good, I think each of these ideas of yours could actually become their own pieces. Changing meters so often makes it sound like a separate thing, so could you consider making a separate piece out of something like measures 1-16? Then I think the next easy improvement in quality would be varying up your melodic and harmonic pacing. It sounds like each idea has a similar feel for 3 or 4 measures out of the phrase, so could you look into some of Ryan Leach’s videos on Period and Sentence form? Here’s one: Cheers, and happy composing:)

I feel that emotional writing in the 7th hits me.

Idk, I still think the flow is off. Maybe its just a stylistic preference, but the cadences into rests, then starting back up again threw me off. I kept thinking the music ended, but then it kept going. It's nice as it is though, its a really great picture type of piece, like a tone poem. I just think it could have been shorter if you like it the way it is, to me its begging for contrast. Not necessarily something crazy, like throwing green paint on a black and white drawing. But for instance, your harmonic texture is nearly the same throughout. You change chords at the same rate, which makes it monotonous after a while. That can be fine, but we never went somewhere else, so it staled a bit to me. It was very pretty, and as always your coloring is fantastic. The sax is always a nice touch, and Im a fan of your style! Thanks for sharing bruh

I've recently been rediscovering the Metroid series Crazy story: About 12 years ago, I covered this song with a friend on OCR. I believe our mix is still up, and someone actually made a guitar hero cover of it.

Seasons greetings one and all! Just wanted to share this little experiment I tried this week, where I deconstructed Mozart's Requiem, then used little fragments to try and fashion a new piece. Later I decided to quote part of Mozart's work at the end: so it ended up a bit like a theme and variations in reverse. Not sure I'm done with it yet; though it may be finished? Including part of the original work probably just serves to show how weak my choral writing and voice leading is compared to Mozart's! I've a feeling it's a complete failure; but was fun to try. Anyway let me know your thoughts, if you have time.

If you're just wanting an orchestra to perform your uncommissioned music, then they may charge a rate to print sheet music copies and otherwise prepare the piece. Especially for student pieces. Like, recording an orchestra for example typically costs 10s of thousands per hour. In concert music, if they commission a piece, they would pay for that piece and then pay out performance royalties to the PRO on top of that. Also in concert music, if they did not commission the piece, but choose to perform it in a concert, the composer is paid royalties through their PRO. BUT I'm not aware of many orchestras outside of music college ones being in the business of playing concert pieces that that don't already come from classical repertoire, films or video games anyway. In short: If it's for a concert and you're trying to get them to play your piece in it, they may want some amount of money to prepare the piece, but not a raw fee simply to "play" it. They have to pay to play it. But it is a bit of a moot point. Most orchestras, at least that I'm aware of, won't even give an unknown composer consideration for concerts.

“Parallel fifths are allowed as long as there is a reason. There are moments when, to give a different timbre and texture and make a difference, it’s enough to truly justify it. Nothing is forbidden; otherwise, our horizons would never expand.”

Nothing wrong about parallel fifths, just write them, if you mean to. Do not write them in pure counterpoint, unless you mean to.

lol where do you quote this from? Tao Te Ching has only 81 stanzas…

Updated with @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu's performance... thanks Henry! I think so!

Beast of a piece, let me know what you all think!

The counterpoint is very impressive, so well done! I would have liked to see how the lyrics align with the notes, but I'm not sure if note flight is capable of that. I would definitely recommend musescore if you can fit it on your computer. It is free after all. The main issue is how you're writing for your forces. Violin octaves are a little unreasonable for a tutti section. It's too difficult without a good justification. I would either NOT have the octaves, or have the violins divisi. And the voice ranges are going into risky registers. There's a good short guide "ranges for choral singers: a guide for composers" by Chris Hutchings that's literally just a page and tells you pretty much all you need for writing for choral voices. You can probably find it online.

This one is a little bit minor, little bit dorian, kept it on the simpler side. 😄 I hope you enjoy, and as always all comments and thoughts are welcome!

20247637.mp3 Sagai Go (Reprise).pdf I have reworked this piece since I last shared it, a few months ago. Sort of at a loss for what to do next, so I've been going over some older scores, correcting mistakes, improving harmonies and adding sections in places where it felt lacking. This score in particular, I had always felt was missing something; like the last section into the outro was rushed. So I added in a section between there to smooth out the transition into the outro, and have also changed the key of the score. I think it came out quite beautifully. I wasn't very scrutinizing to it for much else other than it's flow. If there are other mistakes that I missed, please feel free to call em' out 🙂

I have written another piece for my friend Kat's Casting! This time Kat asked the Muzoracle if she will graduate from a 4-year university. (Muzoracle is a storytelling/divination tool similar to the Tarot card deck, but with cards with musical concepts and 12-sided Musician's dice and Solfege dice.) My interpretation of the cards and dice are displayed below. Since the first card drawn was a Conductor of Percussion card, I chose to use Piano, an instrument that Kat likes. The second card drawn was a Major 7th of Woodwinds, so I chose Clarinet, an instrument that Kat used to play. And finally the third card drawn was an Octave of Voices card, so I chose a solo Soprano singer. If you'd like to find out more about Muzoracle and how castings are interpreted go here: https://muzoracle.net/ This short musical interpretation of Kat's Casting is about a minute and a half long. Since the black 12-sided Musician's Die landed on F, the piece is in the key of F major. I created the following melodic/harmonic underdrawing guided by the cards and dice. The first solfege die landed on Ti and the card indicated a percussion instrument - in this case, Piano. So I had the Piano start solo on an E (in the left hand). Then I had the Clarinet and Soprano enter on an anacrusis into a melody that uses E, Db, C, and B. Since the interval of a Minor 2nd is prominent in the casting, I decided to transpose the whole melodic/harmonic underdrawing down a Minor 2nd giving me access to tones needed to create a V7 of F. I then used that dominant to bring the piece into F major and repeat the melodies and harmonies at the pitch level of F before repeating the piece and ending on an F7 #11 chord. I also liberally used accelerandi and ritardandi, guided by the accelerando/ritardando card in the 1st position. If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading! And I hope you enjoy listening to this short chamber work I wrote to represent Kat's Casting. Comments, critiques, suggestions, or observations are of course, always welcome. Thanks for listening!

Judging by the music, I'd say no lol Aside from that, the music is really cool! The delay effect is haunting, and you've once again woven randomness into a great piece of music. Nice work there Peter

Yeah, and also more advanced pieces in your portfolio will definitely help!

@PeterthePapercomPoser Thank you! I am planning to create website. Hopefully professional one: one linked to soundcloud and youtube. But that takes time.

Omicronrg9 started the fashion of making a portfolio page in the "About Me" section of his profile: Now Henry, me, and many other composers on YC use this section to display a press kit/portfolio of compositions in their profile.

So far this is one of my favorites that you have done. The trio work well together, and this is certainly one of the most unique castings you've composed. I can see this being converted to just a piano, if you ever wanted to create an Etude out of this. It would be fun to play and listen to, and potentially falls into that Etude category. And like always, your recordings are getting really, really good.

For me, this will always be the catchiest song from a video game. It keeping popping into my head quite often in the most random moments since its release so many years ago.

There was something I was going to say about this part specifically and I remember like 3 days ago saying "When I get home I have to remember to say it" but now I'll be damned if I can remember what it was.

Well, keep in mind I don't write concert orchestral works much and neither did the composers I worked with when they were recording orchestras. So I'm not an expert on concerts. But from what I DO know about concert composers: Most of them come through academia. If you're a student, that's your best shot. Some churches might also have small orchestras. Otherwise, volunteering or getting some other job with an orchestra and building up a network with orchestra directors and what not you may eventually get them to perform some of your shorter pieces (not much longer than 4 minutes) in a concert. If you really build up a good relationship with them, they might even start commissioning you, which a single commission could be a 5-figure amount of money. But that would probably take years of networking and essentially proving yourself. The reason it's so difficult to get an orchestra to play new music in a concert, even if it is very good, is that orchestras have become very niche and they need repertoire on the bill that is basically guaranteed to put butts in seats; names that people recognize. If there are too many names people don't know, then they risk not selling many tickets. That's why so many concerts these days pull from games and films: It's the best source of "new" material that people will pay to see. Honestly, you may just want to reach out to orchestras near you and straight-up ask them about playing your pieces and what sort of hoops you'd have to jump through (don't phrase it like that though).

Well, that sounds cool! I will give it a listen!

I find the music in the tradition of Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota .... their Italian movie scores ... a bit of Film Noire here ... hauntingly beautiful music. Mark

Dear friends, hello! I'm Zhang Wenhao, a singer from China. This time, I'd like to share with you a mysterious, magical and ethereal Western Celtic music piece. The name of this song is "The Tree Spirit Dancing Alone Under The Moon". This song tells the story of a tree that keeps dancing under the moon to achieve its goal. During this process, it is utilized by humans, but after a long period of time, a turning point comes. I hope through this song, we can express an attitude towards life: On the way to achieving our goals, we will encounter many hardships and face various uncertainties. But please still persistently strive towards our goals, and one day a turning point will come. 亲爱的朋友们，你们好，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神秘、魔幻、空灵的西欧凯尔特音乐作品，名字叫《月下独舞的树灵》。 这首歌讲的是一棵树不停地在月下起舞来完成目标，在这个过程中被人类利用，但经过漫长的岁月后又迎来转机的故事。希望通过这首歌，来表达人生的一种态度：我们在完成目标的路上，会经历很多磨难，会充满各种各样的变数，但请依然坚持不懈地努力朝着目标前进，终有一天会迎来转机。 歌词如下/The lyrics are as follows： 《月下独舞的树灵》/《The Tree Spirit Dancing Alone Under The Moon》 作曲/Composed by：张文灏 Zhang Wenhao 作词/Lyrics by：张文灏 Zhang Wenhao 这片荒土 曾经有两族 一朝 人类入侵 树族战败 仅存的古树 夜夜都会舞起来 以此复活战死被伐的同伴 她心里依然回荡着树族的召唤 “快起舞吧 我们就要活过来” 她心里微弱的希望从未熄灭般 像神庙丛生的灯心草的微光 “树长了生枝开叶了 他们要回来了” 她高兴地叫 奋力地跳 身姿随风轻摆荡 光秃的树桩泛着 幽绿色的 树族光环 在草侍和花仆簇拥下生长 她纯净的心猜不透 人类有多肮脏 树桩夜夜长 又被砍倒 从未有树活过来 不知真相的古树 被做成了 收费景观 她起舞只是人类谋利手段 她心里依然回荡着树族的召唤 “快起舞吧 我们就要活过来” 她心里微弱的希望从未熄灭般 像神庙丛生的灯心草的微光 漫长的岁月后 她已是枯藤苍苍 叶落中她 仿佛等来久违的同伴 鸢尾花的吟唱 伴随着奇异果香 在枯萎的夜中她停止了舞蹈

Thank you for your compliment! This is not a lyric adapted from any Celtic legend. It's something I came up with myself, and the inspiration came from the game "Warcraft III".

Hi there, I understand you were trying to write a barcarolle. Let break this down. You have the correct meter 6/8 and the right tempo (moderato). That is step in the right direction. However, you do not have the folk like character that piece calls for. Remember...you are writing a character piece that mimics a folk song that Venetian gondoliers would sing. Thus, the theme needs to be lyrical in character. And the bass line, none the less, needs to support that. I recommend watch this: Chopin examples

Hi. You know, I took inspiration from your 'About me' (actually, it is about you, but nevermind.) section. Thank you very much for that! I really appreciate it.

It took me days and hours but this poem is finally presentable. It's meant for a virtual orchestra, because its so huge. The literal poetic guide is in the description of the video, though it was written after-the-fact.

Quite the mighty show this is it was definitely a journey to listen to…~ that I usually do all of my critique in a transcript sort of like a judge tape this piece is definitely too long for me to do that. so to avoid this becoming a giant paragraph where it would take days to read I would just say my thoughts and observations here from memory definitely what a monumental piece. This was it sounded like the creation of life too, and definitely amazing with the pacing those little Interlude and instrument features kind of made the thing feel fresh and also variations within the common theme of just diatonic dissonance throughout. I don’t know Spanish or anything so you could correct me, but on the orchestration in the instrumentation, you wanted hand bells to be used. The thing about that is usually you’ll have multiple people play them in this case you’re treating it like it’s own mallet instrument which in this case they could be mounted on something. though that this is told to be for a virtual ensemble, it would be quite the piece for a existing orchestra to play in real life Monumental work for you keep going

Well, Henry, I'm not Chinese! I still like the verse, no matter what its provenance is.

LoL I have to say, you misunderstand Laozi for the original stanza. Our competition in a way matches what Laozi said because Laozi just said you can do your things but without fierce competition, which is the same here, that’s exactly what “為而不爭 “【Act without striving】means. For my self advertisement if you love Tao you can check out my String Sextet. I think the music reflects some aspects of it haha!

Hello there! Before, I had the project in mind of writing 12 piano preludes, and that was just dandy. I don't know how consecutively I'll write more, but a few ideas have lingered lately so I figured I would dabble at it again. Here's a very short one in C, hope you enjoy!

@Henry Ng Tsz Kiu I thoroughly enjoyed the performance! 🙂

No V for you sir Thanks for checking it out Peter! 😁

Hey Vince! Nice prelude! Does this mean you're just going to keep writing more of these periodically? It would be cool! I think the tonic 6/4 chord in the last bar makes me expect a V before resolving to the final chord. It's such a well worn norm in classical music to hear the I 6/4 either followed by a dominant or a cadenza. Considering that a V/V and bII6 are both pre-dominant function chords, I don't think it would be unusual to transition from one to the other, especially since the V/V can function as a tritone substitution of the bII. But there are no bII's in those bars. In bar 2, the implied chords are V/V, IV, ii7b5, with an anticipation of the return to the tonic in bar 3. Then in bar 5, there is a resolution to vi. The only place where a bII appears anywhere in this piece (as Vince mentioned) is in bar 9 beat 3 but it's in root position with the 3rd omitted. But thanks for sharing Vince!

Hey everyone. I have been going back and forth on my first piano concerto for a long time. Unfortunately, I reached a point where my original design has acted as a roadblock for me to finish the first movement. I decided to restart the work and compose from scratch. I will add more context below, however as an introduction, this excerpt is the entire exposition of my first draft. It is five minutes long and I wish to have it preserved here on YCF. So, sit back, and follow along to the work-in-progress of my first concerto! 🎹 ________________ CONTEXT AND FEEDBACK: I started this project back in June 2024 when I improvised the first theme in one of my practice sessions. I fell in love with it and immediately knew I found a theme worthy for a concerto. I am sticking to late classical (and possible romantic hints) for this work. Hummel, Shostakovich, and Rachmaninoff are the main three sources of inspiration for my orchestration. It follows Sonata-form, however using three themes (1st, 2nd and closing theme) in the exposition. Recently, as I have been diving heavily into the works of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, it has dawned on me the level of sophistication each composer had in their writing. How Beethoven would use elements of the first theme to make his second theme, and later use the first movement as basis for theme and variation writing or fugal writing in his third movements. So, after a break in the first half of the year, I have been looking at this exposition and tried to add sophistication. However, I noticed so many gaps in the structure. As it stands, it feels like a compilation of several themes versus one long work showcasing the transformation of the motif and form. As a result, I have stopped working on it and grabbed a blank manuscript and wrote down the key three themes I want to use. I have yet to start rewriting, as I want to give my brain a break and simply ask for feedback. I would appreciate comments on form, orchestration and anything you deem fit. Please do not hesitate to be blunt either! (I may try to write pure double exposition instead of this quasi-expo before the first piano cadenza.) Thanks in advance!! 🙂 _________ EDIT: There is no English Horn in this work so far. I used my Orchestral template and forgot to remove the English Horn from the instrumentation page. Also, The score is NOT TRANSPOSED; it is a concert score)

Thanks for the feedback! I had similar thoughts. Since I am aiming for this style, it makes sense to use an even measure count in my phrases. As I am currently at a football game, I will reply in more detail, however, I will move to the discord so I can share a certain photo of my themes.

Hi @UncleRed99! Clearly I forgot your original post so I will just treat this as a complete new one lol. I think so too, I enjoy this Japanese style music with a slight sadness but not too much. I feel like in b.51 the transition to a louder passage is a bit abrupt, maybe add a gradual transition with a volume crescendo before it? Because for me it's the only place I feel abrupt in the entire piece even though there are other spots with the tacit after a fermata. I feel like the trumpet melody in b.61-63 is too high in its register and will overpower the other instruments. Overpowering is ok but I think it doesn't fit your style here too much personally. And in b.53-57 there's an imitation between oboe and saxophone, but I think the oboe is overpowered by the saxophone so the imitation is not the most effective. And in b.94-95 I feel like the accompanying figure is given too much emphasis particularly with the 1st violin and trumpet. Maybe remove the trumpet? I sound nitpicky, but I do enjoy the piece! Thx for sharing. Henry

This is nice. I liked the barcarolle feel, wasn't so sure of the programmatic elements you said you added (like bar 10). I guess it came out of nowhere to me, or maybe it's just the midi. Speaking of... man, why do you use noteflight? And you have 0 dynamics! Your music would really sing and come to life if you would at least put some in. If mf throughout, note it? You could easily copy all your music from noteflight into Musescore or some other, any other notation software. I'm only saying this because you've mentioned you're pretty well off, in your 40's or 50's... if you're adamant about sharing your music with the world, why wouldn't you want to make it sound as good as possible? I mean, no judgement I guess, but Musescore is free. A few afternoons drinking ice cold refreshing thirst quenching brain livening body rejuvenating water along with smoking good old fashioned breathable crystal clear earthly air out of your pipe whilst typing them there notes in... and well, by golly you just might have some way cooler sounding music to share or enjoy yourself. Don't forget the dynamics 😄

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.

Uton mid blisse dancian! Lovely work ... Mark

Hello, community members of Young Composers! Hope you all are doing well - I speak on behalf of Musical Memories, an international nonprofit dedicated to providing students with an exciting and engaging way to develop their skills in the world of music. We have chapters all across the US and in countries like Hong Kong, where members facilitate interactive activities and performances. However, we also have an online tutoring program for those who are interested in delving into the world of music but aren't quite sure how to! Musical Memories' tutoring initiative is personalized, individual-based, and emphasizes the importance of constructive feedback. Our tutors are equipped with instrumental skills, teaching practices, and competencies to help a wide range of musicians. These tutoring opportunities are open to those of all ages/experience levels, with special emphasis on students! To sign up as a student: https://forms.gle/sSsCQChejhajsHon9 To sign up as a tutor: https://forms.gle/kVBw7TD5gvHuWUBQ7 Please don't hesitate to sign up, as we provide a judgment-free, stress-free zone. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out! Cheers to the power of music 🎊 In general, if you have any questions related to starting out on an instrument, how to join an orchestral/band community, or how to read sheet music, also touch base! 🙂

Competition? Like the Rock band Boston; almost a one-man band? People living in competition? Peace of Mind. Write your music, be Tao. No need for competition. Composition; well, you have to do something... True words are not fine-sounding, Fine-sounding words are not true. The good man does not prove by argument; He who proves by argument is not good. True wisdom is different than much learning; Much learning means little wisdom! Lo, the Sage has no need to hoard: When he has given up his last scrap for the benefit of others, He has more than he had before! When he has sacrificed all he has for the help of others, His hoard is that much better than before! For Nature's way is to sharpen without cutting, And the Sage's way is to act without striving. I am not into competitions! 🤣 Pardon my mangled Tao Te Ching-83.