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This is my first attempt (excluding some best-forgotten teenage stuff) at writing a concerto. The style is my own blend of Classical and some early Romanticism and perhaps a dash of Baroque, but I wrote for the modern valve trumpet. Admittedly, the tessitura may be a bit high, frequently going up to the 8th and occasionally the 9th harmonic. Any comments or feedback would be most appreciated!

Hell yeah brother

How about we just ban AI and trust that people are honest, and if people find out that it's AI, they get temporarily banned. This way, people will be afraid to post AI content and not post any.

I don't think we should be Draconian about policing this. I think the policy should be no posting music composed by AI, but I really think it would be a mistake to start policing and interrogating every post and assuming it's AI until proven otherwise. If there are indications that a piece might be AI (e.g. no score provided, telltale signs of Sonus, posted by someone with no prior history on the forum, etc.), then it makes sense to inquire further into it. But demanding proof of authorship from every composition would be a drastic overreaction to an issue that has, as far as I'm aware, only actually cropped up once here so far. I'm against AI compositions on the forum, but I'd rather waste my time once or twice giving useless feedback on an AI composition than chase real people who are posting real compositions off the site.

As far as the 3rd part of this poll, If we decide to regulate, I think requiring / encouraging the composer to give some insight about how they composed the piece, and their motivations of the composition should be enough.

As someone involved in education, AI has been a hot topic. I have a pragmatic view that AI, for good or bad, is ubiquitous in our society so it is better to control how it is expressed in the forums where you can set explicit guidelines and consequences for abuse rather than ban it entirely and have it go underground. I would advocate creating a dedicated subforum for AI music and be clear that AI music must be declared as such can only be submitted/discussed there and a clear policy that violating these guidelines can lead to suspension or banning from the site. Also in the end, if someone wants to pass of AI music (or any other creative endeavor as their own), it's really hurting them more so than others. They are not improving their creative process so any praise/feedback is hollow and meaningless. At least it's not stealing someone else's work and passing it off as your own (which has happened to me). I am of the mind that AI generated art in all forms will always be inferior to human efforts so in the end who really cares?. If AI every got to the point there were really think it is on par or superior to human effort, well, then great since a masterpiece is a masterpiece (I am just doubtful that AI will ever be able to achieve this).

I was thinking about the ice that's formed here on the ocean. How in foggy conditions it looks like it never ends. I'd like to go sit at the beach of my cottage with an omni mic and just stare into the fog and play this... This is also a slight experimentation on both microtonal tunings (aesthetic) and in player's freedom. You'll note that my recording sounds a bit different to this (and was actually played on steel string guitar), but that's the point :D. I often feel that the player is not given enough free reign to interpret what they are playing - not enough free reign to bring themself to the stage. So this is a slight complaint to that I suppose. All thoughts, feelings, colours, landscapes, gibberish, textur 21st of jan.mp3 es that come to mind please tell me.

I see them. They're the tiny little arrows attached to the accidentals (see image below).

Hi @PaavolaPyry! It does sound improvisatory with all the sudden chord progession but I like it. Nice playing as well! To me it sounds like a Lute Baroque prelude in more modern chords. I am sure @PeterthePapercomPoser would like the piece as well as he wrote a lot of microtonal pieces, and @Thatguy v2.0 wrote many great guitar pieces. I hear some of the microtones but don't see them on the score, will you add them on the score? Thx for sharing! Henry

This is my second piece from the Spring Trilogy, April. It is the most easy-going of the cycle. It begins as a gentle waltz but it gets more energetic and drammatic. After a short recapitulation the piece ends surprisingly in dark contrast between bright pizzicatos and low, murky tremolos of the cello.

This is my "Three Sententiae for Glissotar, Op. 386", a piece I composed last year. The glissotar is a newly invented instrument that is a version of the Hungarian woodwind instrument "tarogato" but with the distinction that the notes are not determined by holes as in most woodwind instruments but, as in string instruments, by pressing the fingers anywhere in the range; and glissandos are possible. I had to create a new soundfont for it in order to be able to make this mp3 version. I have provided a description of 'sententia' as well as of 'glissotar' on the title page of the score.

Hello everyone, I am new to this website. I am an amateur composer and would like to share a piece with you that I composed last year. Any feedback is appreciated. MK

I've moved on to Chapter 6 of Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony" which is about secundal chords and clusters. The prompt was "1. Harmonize the following melody for string trio using chords by seconds." Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any of your comments!

This would be a very Haydnesque effect! I can never forget how he delibrately asked the strings to mistune their strings while sustaining a chord: (Begins at 23:17) Also the ending of the Farewell leaves me like WTF lol

@Henry Ng Tsz Kiu Thank you so much for your thoughtful reviews of each movement! I'm glad you mentioned the timpani solo - I thought it would be amusing if, when the orchestra sets up the cadenza with its 64 chord, the timpanist suddenly decides that they're the soloist and starts playing a timpani "cadenza" before the trumpet gently nudges them aside and proceeds with the real cadenza. I could even imagine a bit of stagecraft where the trumpeter gives the timpanist a "what the hell?" look and maybe the conductor pretends to try to get their attention and make them stop. Anyway, I'm glad you liked the concerto. It's certainly one of the better pieces I've finished, in my opinion.

Coming back from the dead just to vote on this. The core of any artform is the creative process, and the use of genAI to generate music is anti-process. It focuses instead on the result, and advertises itself as a "facilitator", a "helper", or something to remove the "hassle" of the process. It misses the point that when passion is involved, the creative process is a hassle that one ultimately enjoys. There is no art without passion, and all genAI does is vomit results to the passionless. A creative process comes about through the passionate development of a skill, and it fosters further understanding of said skill. The result is one particular target of a process at a given point in time: it comes about as the inevitable conclusion of a process. This decades-long shift of focus to the result is what makes genAI seem legitimate, because it's the endpoint of a logic that defines art as the object instead of the craft. It's made of the same cloth as the commodification of art, and the reduction of everything to "content." It's a corporate point of view, which can't conceive of art in any other way, and only seeks to expedite what it wrongly perceives to be nothing but a very slow assembly line. I am a composer because I know how to make music, and I learned how to make music by making music. A prompt engineer did not learn how to make an illustration, they learned how to tell a particular machine to do so. One could argue that prompt engineering is a craft, because it isn't absent of human involvement. But where it fails is in never being directly responsible for the result. With genAI, nothing about how to directly reproduce the result is learned because there's no process involved, only instructions by proxy given to a glorified blender. What differentiates genAI from art is the absence of a skillful process directly related to the object. Therefore, the point, and what makes one anything from a hobbyist to an artist, is the process. It just so happens that one cannot go through the process without inevitably coming to a result, which informs more process, and so on and so forth. That's how an artist grows.

Thanks very much! The Hummel concerto (as well as the Haydn) was very much in my mind when I was writing this. It took me a little over a month to compose this; I think I started it in early November and finished mid-December. I have no contacts at all in the music world, so no, I'm afraid there's no way this would ever be performed.

Hello my dear composers. Here my 2nd movement of my latest Sonata. I hope you like it.

I've now moved on to Chapter 4 of Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony" which is about quartal chords. The prompt for this one was "10. Extend the following string-quartet opening. Feature pentatonic melodic and quartal harmonic writing." Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions, critiques or just observations!

It's good to see how others organise themselves. The idea of working on the sketch in three staves or more, depending on the volume, is great. Perhaps in a future project I will try to do the sketch for solo piano, as the intention is not so much to imagine orchestral colours as to establish the structure, parts, climax, harmony and rhythm.

Parking lot, parking lot, You are what all I've got Please give me a shot And don't act like an AI bot!

I have moved on to Chapter 7 of Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony" which covers polychords. The prompt for the piece was "4. Extend the polychordal passage for piano:" Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any of your comments!

HI @PeterthePapercomPoser I can tell you are enjoying these exercises! I love how you use the harmonic and melodic motives that he presented thorough out the entire piece. I think we need to have something like this for YC challenge. 🙂

Thanks! It's a bit of a lighter finale, like that of the Hummel trumpet concerto or of some Beethoven concerti, which I thought was needed after the long and serious adagio.

Very enjoyable finale! I like how you let up tension, but tension is still there; you don't let up. Does that make sense? Probably not, but this would have rocked Vienna in the 1790s.

This is the first movement of my Spring Trilogy (March, April and May) from a full album by here presented cellist Bernardo Brizani, who selected four composers to create a full twelve-month cycle of seasons. The score already has all three movements but the recordings are presented on separate videos. This movement begins with slow, murkly chords in strings while cello shows a contrasting, arabesque-like energy. The middle part of the movement is a bit more agile and brighter in sound, while the ending returns to the initial mood. The music has neoromantic features but I do believe it is mostly in my own idiom.

Wow, a lot to digest... About bar 16. I guess I was sloppy not to add crescendo to basses. About mixing sharps with flats: I prefer diatonic intervals to diminished even if the vertical structure looks strange, I guess for practical reasons (for example, this always happens when harp is used). Beam over rests: from my experience, it depends what type of metre is used. I try to properly control the beaming but sometimes it looks a bit rough. Still, we are used to such notation at the ear and rhythm training sessions. 🙂 I usually don't add extra bowings, unless I am 100% in necessity for the specific articulation. Maybe I am a bit more aware of the bowing since I have a daughter who plays double bass. 🙂 Anyway, thanks for the comment. You really pointed out specific situations which made me take some extra peeks in the score. 🙂

Anything I say isn't gonna be very useful, since you've clearly gotten a performance of it, so it's obviously “good enough,” but I'll throw some stuff out. What an interesting piece, here. It has some very Barber cello concerto-esque vibes, mixed with almost a little bit of Meyer's violin concerto? I love the harmonic language you used throughout and it's very refreshing to see some good string writing. I really liked the transition back to the opening material: I love cascade effects because I'm a normie, but it's used really well here to bring us back to the original register too, which is clever. I think the only real musical note I have is just wanting to hear a little more textural variation. Like, I think the upper strings are homophonic with each other essentially the whole time, which is admittedly a nice split from the full homophony of the intro/ending material, but it feels like—especially at big moments—there could have been some more counterpoint. I have a few score nitpicks, like sometimes your markings that feel like they should apply to the whole group aren't done so (e.g., cresc. in bass in m. 16, mp for cello in m. 17). Bass note spacing issue in m. 73, etc. I was very surprised to see you mix flats and sharps in m. 77, especially when the cello acquiesces to the B major in the orchestra by the end of the measure, but I understand wanting to make the contour clearer in the solo instrument. Have you considered using beam over rests? I'm sure you have; it's just some of the rhythms starting in m. 58 are (despite being totally fine with practice) kinda rough to look at on first glance, and you're at the disadvantage of doing it with 16ths and not 8ths as is normal for that kind of texture. m. 62, in my mind, clef changes are applied only to the note and not any rests; I'm sure it makes spacing look better having the clef change in the solo be just at the beginning but it made me do a double take. And I'm just selfish, but I'd have loved to see some bowings (🙂), just for that little extra professionalism pop, haha. Great work and very enjoyable to listen to!!

Hello! I was working on a movement and I wanted to go for a lake-theme so I was wondering whether C or G Major sounded better for this. I also provided scores for each major key.

And what makes your music so good compared to masters such as Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, or so many great living composers? You must imagine that you are the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be...

This is the final draft of my best work up to date in my life, String Sextet in G flat major. Posts of seperate movements have been posted before and I'm not gonna repeat it here. If you're interested in the music details, pls check the following YCs: 1st Mov: 2nd mov: Here is the score and YT link of the work: String Sextet in G flat major.pdf Here is the structure of the work: (*denotes parts I love). The two movement structure is inspired by Mahler's 8th Symphony, so the second movement is proportionally much longer than 1st movement: 0:00 Opening credit and structure 0:11 1st Mov, 1st Part: Tao Primo (*3:35-3:47 nice bridge, **4:40-5:26 nice chromatics) 5:34 1st Mov, 2nd Part: Minore, a fugato, some little challenges (**9:40-10:10 nice retransition) 10:10 1st Mov, 3rd Part: Tao Return, a triple fugue and ending (falsely) (*11:45, **12:46 till the end) 14:48 2nd Mov, Lamentoso: Denial of Tao and realization of the realistic World full of tragedies. (*16:54, *19:11, ***19:44 sounds like my version of Bee's op.131 finale!, ***23:38-25:15 most emotional passage for me) 26:33 2nd Mov, Fugue a6: Objectification of emotions and reason. The most difficult passage for me to write technically but easiest emotionally. (**28:10-28:42 includes a 6 part stretto of 1st subject and a nice C minor modultation quoting my own Clarinet Quintet, ****30:07-31:27 a 6 part stretto of 2nd subject and one of my fav. section in the entire work with the very beautiful C minor passage, ***32:58-34:31 nice turn to pentatonics and nice disappointment) 35:03 2nd Mov, The Return. Start picking up the real self and soul and connect oneself with Tao, finding self equals to finding Tao. “I Six Books explain me and I explain Six Books (Lu Jiuyuan)”(*35:03-35:36 try to regain energy, **37:05,37:37,38:11,38:43 Nice color, **39:12 nice folk melody, ***39:15-40:15 Nice pizz.! And a very nice snap pizz! **** 40:46-41:46This passage leaves me in wonder. I don't know how do I compose this, **42:17-43:23 Nice appetizer fugato, ****43:24-44:53 Grand Climax!, ***44:54-45:41 Nice heterophonic passage which ignites my creative power for this movement, *****45:42 till end Pefect ending) This work was first inspired by Chinese Philosopher Tang Chun I's Realm of Heavenly Morality in his monumental book, The Existence of Life and the World of Spirituality, in April 2022. I wanna felt and descibed it hence I finished the whole 1st mov. I thought it's enough, until I met with my dedicatee Johnson, my respected philosophy professor Dr. Tao and my friend Merina in April 2023, and I knew it's not enough since without pain Tao isn't possible at all. After some painful incidents in 2024, I am finally able to finish the whole piece in March 2025. For me this work is about Tao, Tao lost and Tao regained. Since this would be the final post on the Sextet, please let me acknowledge people I would like to thank along my way of composing. This work is dedicated to and in memoriam Mr. Johnson Ho https://youtube.com/@beingintheworld?si=9Ch3hnk1UtluHTRF who sadly passed away in July 2024, and it's a regret the work couldn't be finished when he's alive. I would like to thank him for his great inspiration especially his postive way to deal with his illness. I would like to thank Dr. Tao, without his teaching esp. the one on the book Buddha-nature and Prajñā (?) did I realise the importance of pain and human suffering to morality and humanity, and probably won't have enough philosophical basis for this work. I would like to thank Mr. Vince Meyer @Thatguy v2.0, who acts as my musical Virgil, providing so many inspiration particularly in this piece's fugue and different motivic usage, and also make this great recording. Also, thank him for his encouragement when I kept saying I could never finish this piece. I would like to thank Dr. David Goza http://www.youtube.com/@David_Goza⁨⁩ ,without his videos on YT I would never able to improve my own writing. I would like to thank Merina, Yvonne, Arjuna @expert21 and Peter @PeterthePapercomPoser for staying with me in my difficult times. I would like to thank Mike @chopin for his idea to go back to medieval texture in the Return. I would like to thank Luis @Luis Hernández which helps me solve the harmonic progression btw tritiones. I would also like to thank my ex-boss's mistreatment, as she teaches me a great lesson and the pain helps me reflect a lot which shows here. Also, thanks to everyone who has listen to this piece before and comments, as they help me a lot. Thank you Young Composers Forum and @chopin for giving me a chance to grow musically. Thank you for everyone who has commented on the work's parts before, I especially love the comments by @Fugax Contrapunctus @Giacomo925. Last but most importantly, I would like to thank my mum and family. Without their love I would probably fall much deeper and won't be able to finish this piece at all. Thank you!! P.S. One interesting fact on the piece is that it stays longer in F sharp minor then G flat Major….. Henry

Plenty of mixed feelings about this one. Sure, you can write for strings (although G flat major is a terrible key for strings) but the work does not progress anywhere for a pretty long time. No modulations (barely any chromatic), similar character. This is more like a minimalism style, akin to early Glass or some less expansive John Adams. The transition at 5:35 is refreshing. I am pretty impressed with final movement, it is a piece within a piece. There are some nice and memorable moments but the overall form is probably too large for what it offers. Still, I admire your bravery to compose such a long string sextet.

Me and the computer "wrote" this using quaternions where a = duration , b = pitch , c = dynamic, d = articulation.

If this piece is intentionally hilarious, then job well done. I had an amusing time with this.😁 And the music itself fits perfectly.

It is always strange to listen to microtonal music as it sounds out of tune rather than a coherent musical language. And it is used within the traditional d minor with more or less classical melodic and polyphonic technique which is certainly unique. To some extent it reminds me of the third string quartet by Aulis Sallinen.

Hello Everyone, Thank you for your support in my recent compositions, I really appreciate the great feedback I always get from y'all. Today I have a piece that I really needed to write for myself. I've recently been under a lot of stress, with demands and expectations of other people really weighing me down. The struggle to meet those expectations has hurt my self-esteem. This piece is simply an expression of that feeling, and ends with the hope that I will conquer it all.

That's why we would need the AI detection tool for help to make sure it's not a lie.

Very eerily expressive, and I feel like the ending has not resolved. This could be a good candidate for a psychological horror perhaps. Look up the game "The Dark Eye". I don't remember the music of that game, but I feel like this music would work in that type of game.

I would not be able to tell this was an exercise. You expanded on this nicely and logically. This is difficult harmony to use coherently in my opinion, but you kept the idea and flow focused and logical. Fun beat too btw!

Hey Alex, Thank you so much for such a nice feedback! I will do my best to work on the weak spots in the future. Martin

Hi Martin, This sounds experimental, which is always good! Some of your brass writing is very nice, and the cat vocalisations are hilarious! Overall the work feels a bit random at times, and maybe lacks coherence; but still an enjoyable listen. Alex

A very fun sound world! You might be letting yourself in for some trouble at bar 13 beat 4, since all parts have big leaps simultaneously. There is a big chance of the tuning suffering in a live performance. That said, since this is a very short exercise, people could just devote a lot of practice time to that one spot. For those playing along at home, some things that might help a choir tune big leaps: 1. Use accompaniment to help singers seize the key again quickly if they miss their jump. 2. Only leap with one part at a time, so that if they don't stick the landing, the other parts will easily provide a steady foundation to help them readjust quickly. 3. Give a part a brief rest so they can prepare their vocal placement to leap more gracefully. Even just a tiny moment of disconnect will help. Here, the way you have set the text to the music gives a natural pause if you just read the line aloud, which means singers could either disconnect the two notes of the leap, (do it non legato), add an eighth rest to take a full breath, or, given the nature of the piece, even take it out of time with a longer pause (rubato) to get as much time as they need to reset vocally and have their next note firmly in mind. If someone sings your exercise, they would probably take some sort of a pause, since the text allows it, so nice job there! Also, I particularly love your first "their soul is melted." The harmony sounds very melty. 🙂

Thanks so much for the feedback. Your critiques regarding the notation and practicality were very useful and honestly not something I had given much thought to until now. I’ll definitely keep this in mind.

Hi @Cafebabe! This symphonic movement is a joy to listen to! It's bursting with an abundance of drive and energy! I really love the many individual touches you put on the piece that aren't characteristic of any other existing classical composer, such as the way you end the movement in the last two bars. The only critiques I can really have are nit-picks about the notation of the score. The piece is fast enough that it should be in cut-time. It would be wholly impractical to conduct in 4/4. Also, there are multiple enharmonic mistakes such as the C#'s in bars 13, 17, 40, 114, 118, and 138 which should be Db's. Also, the Clarinet can reach a low concert Eb in bars 58 - 59 and 61 - 62 so there's no reason why you would have to transpose it up an octave there like you do. I can see why that would be necessary in the recapitulation though when the same material is reiterated in the tonic key. Thanks for sharing this exuberant movement!

lmao fast repeated notes on the piano baseline... I'm sure it's no problem for Henry with some practice but I can't do it. the Alberti-like base in all movements is something I don't like but perhaps its a bit personal

Hi @luderart! I am really interested in the newly invented instrument with its ability to play glissandos on a wind instrument! Hope your no.2 would be played in real life with the instrument so we know how it sounds! Thx for sharing! Henry

I've written yet another piece prompted by an exercise from Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony"! This one is for 2 Clarinets and 2 Bassoons. The prompt is: "Extend the following passage for two clarinets and two bassoons." I tried to make an actual piece of music out of it instead of just a harmonic exercise, but let me know what you think! Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions, critiques or just observations!

Glitter and sprinkles, you want me for the feast, Tempting in your face, but you’re just a beast. Strawberry cakes, she ate ten tons of them, But I prefer my toast, just full of jam. Glitter and sprinkles, you want me to get plump, But I’m not your Barbie, I’ll sweep you to dump.

Seasons Greetings all! Here's a little something I'm cooking up for a concert next year. It's based on the Epitaph of Seikilos, which is the earliest surviving complete song. I tried to give it a flavour of Antiquity, and to create unexpected harmonies. Haven't come up with lyrics yet; though it will start with the original Ancient Greek text translated into English. Maybe my piano part is a bit too thin? Or perhaps I should keep it sparse? The notation is intended for midi, and I'll be adjusting the dynamics upwards by at least one degree for the musicians. When I make the final score, I'm intending to write out the spread stacked chords in full as arpeggios. N.B. Score updates will be posted further down the thread.