Luis Hernández

Throughout my experience as a student and as a self-taught musician in various areas of music, one thing has become very clear to me. There are two types of educators, of teachers: those who theorize endlessly (and have never composed anything) and those who are actual composers. I don’t mean to say that just because someone is a composer, they’ll automatically be a good teacher. This year, I’ve been fortunate enough to have a teacher of orchestration. He’s also a composer by profession. And he doesn’t follow or directly recommend any book, treatise, or anything of the sort.... He says—and he’s right—that the real learning comes from the scores themselves. The most valuable thing I’m learning is how to find solutions to the things I want to orchestrate, rather than formulas for instrument combinations, etc. And I want to give an example that has caught my attention recently. I was listening to Otello by G. Verdi. And I noticed that, no matter what’s happening in the score—which is a lot and quite complex—there’s a pedal in the low register of the organ with three notes in a cluster: C, C-sharp, and D. This pedal lasts six and a half minutes!! And you can hear it in the background, especially with headphones and, I imagine, in a live performance. Why did Verdi write this? Why doesn’t it clash horribly with the rest of the music? These are the questions I’ve learned to answer. What do you think of this musical device?

A lovely song. A very passionate composition that suits this style of romantic song perfectly.

A curious and lovely piece. You’ve made good use of the piano’s range. At first, the very high register can be a bit tiring, but this is soon offset. It would probably sound good on a celesta, an instrument we associate with this sort of scene.

HELLO Let me just say that if you have no experience in composition, you’ve got a long way to go before you can compose a proper fugue. I get the impression you must have some knowledge of counterpoint. But before you start composing fugues, you need to master other, less demanding areas of strict counterpoint. It’s simply not possible to come up with a logically structured composition just by studying two of Bach’s fugues and leaving it at that. What you’ve written doesn’t sound bad, but, in my opinion, there’s a point (which I think is the one mentioned by @Lithl ) where everything falls apart quite a bit, and that’s in bar 6. Because you’re forming a D#–A tritone which, although the intention is for some of these to be passing notes, I think that should resolve into a Bb chord. Enharmonically, you have Eb–A, a tritone which, in this context, must resolve in this way. The solution you’ve suggested for another context is fine, but here, at least for me, it ruins the whole thing.

https://www.carolynmillsharp.com/resources/Writing%20For%20The%20Harp.pdf https://www.harpinsideout.com/composing-for-the-harp?currency=EUR

Hi, thanks for listening and commenting. Well, I’ve actually finished the project now. For one thing, I currently prefer to compose short pieces that express exactly what I want and nothing more; I’m not interested in writing extended works or anything like that. It’s just a personal preference right now. The Cantai app has evolved a lot during this time. They introduced what you mentioned: choral masses. And also other languages (Latin, English, and Spanish for Dorico). Although I had to uninstall the update and reinstall the previous version because the new version wouldn’t let me mix English and Latin. Once I finished this project, I installed the latest versions. In the end, there were about seven pieces: prelude, introit, Kyrie/Tuba Mirum, Lacrimosa, Sacrifice, Sanctus, and Libera Me. The texts are taken from classical Latin and all those Romantic poets, Joni Mitchell, and a poem by a dear friend.

Oh, all right. I also see graphic scores as something like that, but as a composer, you have to be prepared for the fact that the interpretation of these scores can vary greatly from one performer to another. The thing is, some people believe that a graphic score is a kind of PRECISE set of symbols indicating exactly what should be performed. Well, that’s not my idea of musical indeterminacy. The beauty lies in allowing interpretive freedom and giving weight to the performer(s).

Hi I think it's a very interesting piece with an intimate feel to it, which I really like. When it comes to graphic scores like this, I don't have much to say because everyone interprets and works with them however they want. For me, that's an added element of interest.

Hello I’ve really enjoyed this piece. It’s no wonder people have been reluctant to comment – if they’re generally reluctant to do so anyway – when they come across something like this… which is even worse. It begins deceptively, presenting only the stable part, but soon you start to hear dissonances and elements that stray from the foundation. For most people, who are steeped in the harmony of the Baroque period, that’s the turning point where they might think, ‘This bloke’s a terrible composer’. But in other cases, as is the case for me, it’s the point at which my interest is piqued and I want to know where it’s all heading. The trick – or the skill, in this case – is to create a coherent piece, in which those dissonances no longer sound like mistakes but rather an integral and essential part of what is being heard. I believe this has been achieved. I’ll just make one observation, and it’s something you yourself have pointed out. The arpeggio in the left hand is like an ostinato, and it would be good to break it up (apart from the isolated bars) with another pattern. Best regards.

Hello A lovely piece. One of the key lessons I took away from this ESSENTIAL book by Persichetti is that if you use a system – that is, if you are consistent with a musical organisation, whatever that may be – the result depends solely on each individual’s skill and artistry, just as it would if you were composing tonal music. I think it’s a great decision here to have divided the timbres for each mode-scale. As well as the different registers. The fact that each part has been harmonised in thirds and sixths gives it a very familiar smoothness (common in tonal music). Yet these modes lend themselves perfectly to fourth-based harmony.

Hello I’ve had to listen to this track three times in a row – it’s very short, so it’s easy to do. There’s one reason for this: I’m really fascinated by what you’ve done here. I think this sort of music is just as valid as any other. I’d love to know a bit about how you created that ‘granular synthesis’ – whether it’s with software or something else. I sometimes think about using electronic elements in my own work, but I’m not quite sure how to go about it (as I rely 100 per cent on virtual instrument libraries). To me, that synthetic texture really reminds me of ‘flocks of birds’. It really does have several layers of sounds that are like the caws of different species of birds. This reminds me directly of pieces like Vox Balanae (Voice of the Whale) by George Crumb. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sutSUIBp-VY&list=RDsutSUIBp-VY&start_radio=1 As well as looking at the score, which is very, very complex (typical of Crumb), it is fascinating to watch the performance, as there are instructions on how the musicians should appear (masks) and in what position. performance

A fascinating topic. And lovely examples. I’m a huge fan of counterpoint, but I learnt it to use in other styles, and the issue of parallel voices sometimes slips my mind in this Baroque or similar context. I have written a few canons at the octave, but not for four voices. However, I can think of a possible alternative method; I’m going to give it a go...

The reason there are no violins or oboes is that I wanted the brass section to provide the sparkle in this short piece.

Hi I’ve really enjoyed these pieces you’ve mentioned. Video game music and the like is a subgenre that fascinates me, but one I know very little about. I’ve carried on listening to a few more tracks. I think the orchestration is very rich and colourful. It’s true that the brass really stands out. Thank you.

Hello I’ve written another sketch for orchestra. In this piece, I’ve used ‘sound mass’ techniques in some sections, and harmonies based on fourths… I haven’t really thought about any specific chords, just voice leading. The first section is the fanfare; the second is the more subdued, evocative section. There are no oboes or violins, so that the brilliance comes from the brass. Fanfarria.mp3 Fanfarria.pdf