Rite

Well, soon there'll be a map for their convenience^^

got an axe to grind with John Galt? Why, now you know where to find him!

Thx for the feedback. Unfortunately, deadline means I can't change anything anymore, I simply don't have time. (Luckily, comp 2, no matter how boring it is, fits with the IGCSE criteria so I don't need to worry). If I decide to continue composing, I might one day decide to actually turn it into a piece of music ^^. As for comp 3, I don't rly agree with you =S (I didn't find it boring). Also, I DID change the things when I reintroduced them, usually by changing the backing. I dunno... Anyway, thx for all the help, it's been incredibly valuable to me.

These are the changes I've made to comps 2 and 3 now. Comp 2 has undergone some serious surgery, as you can compare^^ and comp 3 has been rejected and I started again with a new idea. It's a little repetitive but it's a piece to create an atmosphere. Composition 2.sib Composition 2.mid Composition 3.sib Composition 3bi.mid

Gargh, I can't figure out drum notation is, but either way, Sibelius' drum set doesn't seem to USE real drum notation. And where's the closed hi-hat?

No need. I play in a wind band and the flutes had that once. All you need to do is assume there is more than one player per voice. One player holds the note for a certain amount of measures and then is allowed to breathe while the other player(s) take his/her/their turn at it. But no need to write it any differently, unless you want only one player per voice. As for circular breathing, I've only ever met one person who could do it and he was a virtuoso from Israel who was visiting Switzerland at the time. Can't remember his name but I'll look it up and edit it in later -.- P.S. I've heard of brass doing circular breathing, but never woodwinds. Just because I haven't heard of it doesn't mean it isn't the case however...

How do I put it... It doesn't seem to go anywhere for a long time (it does near the end, but before that it gets a little redundant). It's a very interesting melody however, but perhaps it could be built on a little bit? I think woodwinds would go very well with this, but being a clarinettist and lover of woodwinds, I usually do so maybe I'm wrong^^.

hmm. To answer that, I looked at the poem: When I see birches bend to left and right Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them. But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay. Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen them Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning After a rain. They click upon themselves As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel. Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust-- Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen. They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load, And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed So low for long, they never right themselves: You may see their trunks arching in the woods Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair Before them over their heads to dry in the sun. But I was going to say when Truth broke in With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm (Now am I free to be poetical?) I should prefer to have some boy bend them As he went out and in to fetch the cows-- Some boy too far from town to learn baseball, Whose only play was what he found himself, Summer or winter, and could play alone. One by one he subdued his father's trees By riding them down over and over again Until he took the stiffness out of them, And not one but hung limp, not one was left For him to conquer. He learned all there was To learn about not launching out too soon And so not carrying the tree away Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise To the top branches, climbing carefully With the same pains you use to fill a cup Up to the brim, and even above the brim. Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish, Kicking his way down through the air to the ground. So was I once myself a swinger of birches. And so I dream of going back to be. It's when I'm weary of considerations, And life is too much like a pathless wood Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs Broken across it, and one eye is weeping From a twig's having lashed across it open. I'd like to get away from earth awhile And then come back to it and begin over. May no fate willfully misunderstand me And half grant what I wish and snatch me away Not to return. Earth's the right place for love: I don't know where it's likely to go better. I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree, And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, But dipped its top and set me down again. That would be good both going and coming back. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches. hmm, I'd imagine the piece describes the poem up to the boy swinging. Perhaps if you made a sudden change to something faster and angry sounding, to describe the blizzard, up to (and including) "You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen." Something like the fast movement of "Summer" in Vivaldi's four seasons is what I mean. This would eventually (as opposed to suddenly) change to a slower phrase, playing with the minor scale up (try and give a feel of sorrow) up to "Years after, trailing their leaves on the ground." I'm afraid I've not really got time right now to make you an example, but this would be how I proceed, using the poem as my guide.

Yeah, and something like "call and response". I could be wrong... :(

Listened to your piece. I found it had a nice melody that went somewhere, and the bassline suits it. However, the rythm could really (in my opinion) do with some variation and perhaps the bassline could have more dialogue with the melody? I'm not much of a composer, so I don't really know...

I have composed 3 pieces for my IGCSE music, but I really need some tips on how to improve them. I know for one thing that the second composition rly needs the beginning changed, but other than that, I'm pretty clueless. Here are my comps, any suggestions? Composition 1.sib Composition 1.mid Composition 2.sib Composition 2.mid Composition 3.sib Composition 3.mid