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Yes, there is a "right direction", specifically the one that meets whatever aesthetic & qualitative standards you may have. Also bear in mind that even if you don't like a particular composer's music, you can still recognise the technical quality and craftsmanship that went into it, and try to learn those qualities from the composer while staying true to your own voice. i don't care much for Debussy's music either, but he was clearly a "good" composer in that he had an aesthetic vision and the ability to realise it to a high standard. (That said, i still remain convinced that Wagner, Mahler and Puccini were hacks and don't have the faintest idea why people like them so much ;) )

piano represent yo revised list: orchestra - webern, cage, feldman, messiaen music with singing - ars subtilior, tallis, bach, zelenka, mozart, stravinsky, sciarrino electroniques seul - kayn, stockhausen, ferreyra, barrett (natasha) electroniques with instruments - mitterer, nono, barrett (richard), plus de stockhausen, ferneyhough, berio pianoforte - --- sonatas for the pianoforte - beethoven, schubert, schumann, medtner, skryabin, roslavets --- fugues und ricercare for the pianoforte - frescobaldi, froberger, sweelinck, bach, reicha --- studies for the pianoforte - scarlatti, alkan, debussy, sorabji, ligeti --- other concerted works for the pianoforte - chopin, brahms, busoni, satie, skalkottas, stockhausen, finnissy --- concerti for pianoforte con o senza orchestra - bach, alkan, busoni, carter, gerhard, et finnissy encore solo works excluding pianoforte - bach, berio, xenakis, johnson (evan) string quartet - mozart, beethoven, janáček, bartók, kagel, lachenmann, johnston, radulescu other chamber music - brahms, ives, kurtág, xenakis, andre (mark) music theatre and other things that don't fit elsewhere - kagel, stockhausen, globokar, barrett (richard), poppe (enno) free improvisation - [abstain] list subject to unpredictable fluctuations

Depends on voice leading. But this is much more common:

My suggestion, as before: Compose and produce a live recording of a piece of any duration or instrumentation. You do not have to perform the piece yourself, but you should be personally involved in the recording process & any post-production you wish to do. but i don't know what kind of criteria one would then use to judge the results

here http://www.youngcomposers.com/music/5305/pzrv-sonata-challenge/

This piece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zqwqeciKEI Unfortunately i was beaten to it by a couple of centuries :/

In strict classical harmony the seventh of any seventh chord (in any inversion) is the dissonant note and therefore the one that must be resolved (usually down by step). Some seventh chords contain tritones (which also must be resolved according to traditional harmony rules) and therefore multiple voices have to move, but in a minor or major seventh one can resolve the dissonances one note at a time (eg Fmaj7 [E is dissonant, resolves down] -> Dm6/5 [D is a correct resolution, but C is dissonant] -> Bø4/3 -> E7 [G# and E are correct resolutions, but D is dissonant] -> Am. One could theoretically resolve to Am earlier by cutting out the Bø4/3, but this would create consecutive fifths between the Dm6/5 and the E7, so the chords would have to be revoiced. One could also create a "cycle of fifths" progression by resolving two notes at a time - Fmaj7 -> Bø4/3 -> Em7 -> Am4/3 -> Dm7 -> G4/3 -> Cmaj7 etc) To answer your original question, the E of an Fmaj7 chord does have to resolve to D (or F, in which case it's not an Fmaj7 chord at all but a plain F chord with an appoggiatura), but Fmaj7 and G can't be placed side by side in the first place because of the consecutive fifths (you'd need to interpose some other chord, e.g. a D6/5). To answer your second question, that would be correct under the following circumstances: (1) the Am7 chord on the first beat is a "double appoggiatura" to the F6 chord on the second beat; (2) the Am chord on the second half of the 2nd beat is a passing chord between F6 and B7 (4/2) (G6/5 would also work); (3) the treble A moves down to a G. I would also move the 3rd up an octave as the chords will sound better and cleaner that way. This is an example:

is not writing music too obvious?

'Trane Ornette Monk Cecil Taylor Elliott Sharp John Zorn AMM Zappa Anthony Braxton Markus Stockhausen Sarah Vaughan Ella Fitzgerald Miles Bill Evans Aphex Twin and probably others. I have only a superficial understanding of pop music tho, & therefore tend to gravitate towards the "borderline" artists.

I believe that fairly soon (ie within my lifetime, most likely) while the orchestra will probably "bottom out" at a fairly stable point and remain with at least one per country, and may persist as a spontaneous (non-corporate) form of music-making among e.g. high schoolers or university students, the idea of writing for orchestra will be as foreign to (the vast majority of) young composers as the idea of writing in the baroque style is nowadays. It's already happened to the sonata (and, earlier in the history of music, the opera seria, the concerto grosso, the madrigal, the consort, etc), and the string quartet probably will have a lifetime of another couple of generations after that. I don't think acoustic instruments themselves will ever die out (although electronics are becoming increasingly important, but the relationship is mostly harmonious... so to speak), there will just be new forms of collective music-making that develop as needed to suit social needs.

Chrome is now blocking the entire site (not just the uploads section) and reports something like 200 instances of malware. I now feel somewhat unsafe posting this. edit: im dumb it's actually 26

I encourage anyone who has any interest in writing for orchestra to invest in the most high quality sound samples and synths available, and devote as much attention as possible to creating high quality mockups that can substitute for real recordings. If the current rate of technological advancement continues, within a few years all composers should be satisfied with computer sounds and not seek to have their orchestral works performed, thereby accelerating the decline of orchestras, bringing to an end the anachronistic tradition of orchestral music, and hopefully leading to its replacement with something better and more relevant to our time.

the first one amounts to i - v - iv/v - v/v - v in my estimation (if we assume all chords can be reduced to variants of i, iv and v). after the second chord, the third chord—while containing all the notes of the tonic triad—does not sound like a tonic chord; it sounds like a predominant in the new key. (bear in mind that the relative major equivalent would be C, G/B, Am7, D7...) you can't really avoid an augmented 2nd in this case since any preparatory triad for the II7 would include the E-flat (#viº, VI, i or III) except for iv, which the OP already said she doesn't want to use, and which also makes the arrival on V somewhat weaker—a common progression such as i - I7 - iv - II7 would only arrive on the dominant rather than in it. the only other exception i can think of offhand which provides a strong arrival on the dominant is i - IIIaug6 - v6/4 - II7. (Cm - Ebaug6 - Gm/D - D7) which is not particularly Fuxian but certainly a quite striking progression in its own right. the 2nd one just fits the two specified chords into a generic sequence which could theoretically go on forever (i, V/III -> III, V/v -> v, V/VII -> VII, etc etc) but i see your point about pivot tones. it becomes especially awkward when you include the fifths.

i, v6, #viº7, II7 as chords: Cm, Gm/Bb, Cm/A, D7 i, V7/III, III, II7 (Cm, Bb7, Eb, D7) could also work if you take care to avoid consecutive octaves/fifths between the latter two chords

Plenty of competitions are restricted by nationality, domicile, ethnicity, gender, sex, and/or religion, and others are restricted by economic/social/cultural background in fact if not in name. (For instance, this competition being posted in English on a website that may or may not be actually accessible from China already excludes a large portion of the Chinese population.) As competitions are private events run by private organisations that is their prerogative. If you don't like it you can write them a letter or something.