KrisRhodes

I do not know what kind of music this is. Please tell me what you may like, dislike, or think, concerning this music. Let me know where I can put it and what I can do with it... https://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/7ca286f5f0d85ba876f0edc48f6e956e159dea96

BTW if anyone's curious to hear the larger thing this bit was ripped out from, it's here: http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/d5053d9266ee8f8c53692b267630c457cb581f00

What does the term "voice-leading" refer to, and what makes it weird?

Thanks for the graphic, didn't notice it before my last post.

Googling has cleared up direct octaves for me. I'm still not sure what constitutes measure 1 beat three as having a parallel octave.

Also I guess I don't remember what a "direct octave" is at all and inspecting the spots you mentioned isn't enlightening me. Can you define it for me real quick?

Hm I must be remembering something completely incorrectly. I thought a parallel octave was when two voices are separated by an octave in two consecutive beats. Is that not what the phrase means?

The joke about the money was because the person complained I hadn't purchased professional software. As for your further points, I really appreciate you taking the time out to list them out. I'll take a look. (Not that I'm hell bent on making the thing conform, I'm just trying to find out what the difference is between what "sounds like" chorale (to me) and what it really is. I have vague memories about the various rules and whatnot, but am very glad to have someone walk me through it a little. So thanks!

Thanks, these are good comments. A few clarification question/comments: 1. The ending is the way it is, incidentally, because I pulled it out of a larger piece, sorry I didn't make that clear in the OP. 2. I am not sure what "repitition in the harmonic vocabulary" is referring to. Can you elaborate? 3. I know what you mean about octaves and fifths. (Is "direct" the same as "parallel" here?) 4. Are you offering to give me some money? 5. I'd like to hear in what specific ways which specific bits from the experiment break rules of harmonics or counterpoint. (The second half is meant to be more "contemporary," but the first hslf is intended to sound like a traditional chorale.) Thanks again!

It's not the song that is popular in the US, it's the video. Even when the song is played by itself, it's because people are thinking of the video.

Strange contextless question, I know, but I am simply curious. What, if anything, do you find objectionable in this fifteen bars of music? http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/825afd4f0c2dce1a42fce1f4136d4fda43d56d60 What in it marks it as failing or substandard in some way, if anything? Don't worry about hurting anyone's feelings ;). It was written bloodlessly, as a kind of exercise or experiment.

Use the new teacher's ideas to broaden your own horizons. Let it inform your melody-based compositions.

Thanks for those comments. I should note for anyone listening to the link that last few measures of whatever you're hearing (it changes as I edit it over time) will be likely to be full of unintended notes, as they are likely to be just the notes I throw down at first with the intention of fixing them up in post so to speak... ;) I see what you mean about the dissonances in the first line. The one in the fifth bar seemed alright to me, but I'm having a flashback to my experience in music theory many many years ago where things that sounded "fine" to me at first soon turned into glaring errors as I got more and more habituated into the rules... As for altering the theme, you mentioned several types of alterations which I will look up, but here I'll ask, is basically _any_ alteration "okay" or should one stick with a list of alteration types which includes the ones you listed? I'll not be refering to this thing as fugue or fugue-like anymore. But I think I'll stick with the conceit of having all the voices go over the same theme at different times starting on different notes. (Except I do think I'm hearing in my head a single "soprano" ranged voice playing a melody over everything else which I'll add in later.) As for what style I'm writing in, I haven't been sure what to think about that. Once it goes into minor I've got some chords in there I think of as "jazzy" (not as in actual jazz style but you know... jazz influenced...) which I suspect are not allowed in classical style but which I think I'm going to leave in. For example the major second in bass and tenor in measure 23... Maybe I'm wrong about that though... Actually maybe what I should do, in order to be disciplined, is be very strict in this piece--but feel free to make an alternate version which isn't so strict...) When you say it's not necessary to change key signatures, are you making a point just about notation, or do you mean something about the music itself? Thanks again for all your comments.

(nm)

Here (http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/61471e5e89d66dd4d4c5a0172ace3193a36a6b10) is an exercise I'm working on. My question is, is it the beginning of a fugue? I gather that a fugue is a piece in which the same theme is used in each voice, starting on different notes, and that adjustments to the theme are okay. Is that all there is to a fugue? Or are there other requirements? (Descriptions I find online don't seem to make it clear what is essential to a fugue and what is just typical or common or optional.) The piece I've written so far uses basically the same theme--but the "adjustments" are pretty liberal. For the most part (but not always!) I make each voice move in the same direction of the theme, even if the voice doesn't on a particular beat, actually hit the particular note the theme would require. Also, what rules for classical composition have I egregiously broken? (Not to say I will necessarily stop breaking the rules you mention--I'm not a classical musician!--but it's good to know what the rules are and what it means to break them...) I'm sure there are tons of such problems with the piece and I'm interested to hear about them if anyone is interested in telling me about them...