fourthage

Well I would say there are many artists that bridge classical and pop music writing who admittedly might not be as popular but they exist and some of them can be fantastic. I'm coming from a slightly British slant but here are a couple of ideas: Sigur Ros Sufjan Stevens Rufus Wainwright - has a really good mixture of commerical pop and fantastic interesting songs also just written an opera Tori Amos Mike Oldfield - though slightly old works like Amarok and Tubular Bells 1 and 2 have classical ideas Tubular Bells in particular was meant to be a symphony for pop instruments Stars of the Lid - more ambient but with titles like apreludes in C# minor and canons and fugues they have classical ideas Patrick Wolf The Guillemots I suppose all these take their music more artistically serious then one would imagine manufactured pop groups and therefore are arguably more 'classical' in intentions. On the other hand classical composers also can be classified as rock/pop composers in some ways. Trying to avoid the triteness of bands like Il Divo and G4. Philip Glass and many of the minimalists are very simplistic and accessible Kalnin's Rock Symphony while totally awful deserves to be mentioned here I'm not really sure what else to be honest. But yeah, I think the gulf between the two is not as defined as it once was - I think that the gulf is not between classical and pop music but between more intelligently written music regardless of genre and commerical music. Pop and rock music can be high art and have as much authenticity as classical music but also classical music can be commodified by cross over bands like G4 and Il Divo and become trite. I'm think what I'm trying to say is that the distinction is not genre specfic but more the attitude of the composer.

Magnus Lindberg

Not really, more that, I seem to remember somebody telling you that you needed to work on a more distinctive voice for your compositions and I find it difficult to hear your own distinctive voice. I find the discrepancy between what you believe and what you compose to be somewhat insincere... Of course if all composers could convey their musical ideas musically then we'd all be millionaires. I think that as long as the music is well thought out and has quality then ideas such as distinctive voices, especially in a composing industry are less important.

Whoa! I would like to make a comment on that but I'm afraid of the new rules... Anyway, I think the piece is a little stale as Marius said. You have some nice sounds but you need to work on how you use them. Some of the harmony is nice the melody's are functional but nothing new, I think you have potential and don't worry about "finding your own voice" one day you'll be composing and it will just happen. I listened to some of your other pieces I liked 'A New World' but again it could do with some better orchestration. So listen to lots of cool music and experiment with your orchestral sounds and you'll get better.

Perhaps I didn't phrase it properly but running concurrent to to the Code of Conduct should be a Statement of Intent, something that isn't a set of rules or regulations but a description of what the site hopes to achieve and offer and also what it expects from its members and mods. I don't think this is merely covering up the holes and extending mod power or whatever more that it offers a set of unified ideals which while bereft of actual regulatory power might provide something less controversial but not in place of the Code of Conduct. As I've said before I think Off Topic is important to the sense of community on the site.

^^It's been taking down because of people posting Russian obscenities. I think the new rules seem rather good but I also think that it could be profitable to YC if there was some kind of a constitution for want of a better word. Arguably it would just be a publicity stunt but it would perhaps provide a sense of cohesion to what could otherwise be a very disparate forum. YC, to me, is one of the best forums primarily because of the sense of community that the off topic section allows (just look at my post ratio :p) so while I would say keep the rules I think it would be good to illustrate the rights and responsibilities of the members and moderators as well. Just my three-penny-worth!

Ok so I may have been a little foolish in pretty much everything I wrote but using your forearm to play note clusters has actually be utilised by Stockhausen and other innovative composers. My comments on Debussy were totally fallacious, I adore his work. I'd disagree with anyone who argues there's a correct way to do dissonance in as far as I find it difficult for anyone to argue that there's a correct way to structure or write a piece of music. Of course there are many techniques one may explore and I cannot better the previous posts, however, from my somewhat limited personal experience I think scores can only offer you a certain amount of guidance. Of course, this is personal preference. Just sit in front of a keyboard hitting out random chords with cool extensions (like it seems you've been doing) or simply series of notes that seem unrelated then sit down and work out what you're hearing, try different inversions eg. G Bb F D rather than the usual G7 chord. Learn about modes and different scales and above all listen and find out music you enjoy. Some dissonant composers I enjoy: Magnus Lindberg: Charles Ives: John Cage: In Four Parts George Antheil (with awesome movie!) Ballet Mechanique

Profound, moving, a religious experience are some of the things said about Jesus's life. This piece is better then Jesus as it doesn't give people an answer. Unfortunately Douglas Adams wrote the answer as 42 and not wishing to be beaten by some one from the future John Cage looked from his temporally out-of-sync vantage point and pre-emptively wrote 4'33". Some believe its an actual piece written in three movements others that he misread the Hitchhiker's Guide in his search for duration... Listen.

Well, there are three kinds of dissonance: good, bad and cognitive. Good dissonance (ie. the best) is when you raise you forearm and smash it onto the keys of a piano smothering as many notes as possible, guaranteed to give you all those crunchy harmonies. Or you write music that sounds like that. Bad dissonance is everything else. Prepared, unprepared, twelve tone, it doesn't really matter to be honest dissonance should be loud and brash and Debussy's just annoying for making dissonance sweet and beautiful. Except Copland he writes good dissonance. Cognitive is when you listen to Eminem and Tori Amos's version of Bonnie and Clyde 97 at the same time. Good dissonance composers: Leo Ornstein - Wild men dance George Antheil - Ballet Mechanique Bad dissonance composers: Everybody except for Leo Ornstein, George Antheil and Aaron Copland. Especially neo-classicists (including Stravinsky) Cognitive dissonance: Tori Amos vs. Eminem

Well all completed seasons so far have had a soundtrack release and the first track of the first album is called prologue... Might be a good start. Having said that Battlestar has a wonderful score and an even better film music blog by Bear Mcreary at Bear’s Battlestar Blog Enjoy!

He's also writing the score to Peter Jackson's new movie The Lovely Bones which sounds pretty cool.

Ok well that's A#5 sounding. Just over an octave and a half above middle C. E# (F) written. I would upload a picture but my internet is just rubbish at the moment.

Hello all, Just a quick question regarding the dynamic range of a cor anglais. If I have it playing at the highest extremities of it's range (High A#) is it possible to get it staccato and forte. Similarly can I grace note to it from the G# below? I know it sounds pinched but that's kind of the point as it's meant to emulate a moorhen. Thanks very much, Chris

I've always quite liked Berio, James MacMillan and if Shostakovich is contemporary then so is Benjamin Britten.

Yes, listen to Wall-E and if you can get it Angels in America which is an absolutely amazing score, I believe the main titles are on youtube...