Quinn

I went for Dorico Pro 3 originally, interested in engraving quality, having looked at several other products, their licencing arrangements, prices, and ease of use including the instructions. Dorico offered several advantages, one of which was working without a time signature. I installed it on a USB eLicenser. As Steinberg is going over to its own licenser on a computer, eLicenser support ends at end 2024. The choices were simple: if you want to go over to the new Steinberg licence, upgrade to Pro5 at a cost of £132 in the UK. I have no need for the upgrade but if I want to go on using the product - that's it. Okay. But doing this conversion was an outright headache. I kept getting error messages or claiming it can't proceed as other applications were using the eLicenser - which were rubbish. Dorico is my only product on it and it was not open. In frustration I kept clicking cancel on each popup. But then miraculously it started loading up Pro5. It took around 1.5 hours to download everything and gave me a licence key. So I was up and running. But no. Yesterday I receive an email warning me Dorico would cease to work in 7 days if I don't verify it. (I mean, for Chrissakes it must have known I already had a version to be able to upgrade it and get working). The instructions were as clear as mud. It seems that it needed to verify that I had a licence on the eLicenser before allowing me to proceed further. Thus far it had only given me a temporary licence. It took another 3 hours of faffing around, talking on the forum etc to find out what I was supposed to be doing. Just thank the Good Lord I didn't throw my eLicenser key away as I intended. It needed to see the original licence to do the verification. Eventually I got it working and "verified". I've honestly never encountered such an awkward, nightmarish installation. Even on Windows 3.1 or 95 there'd been nothing like it. A list of instructions in structured English like a program specification is cried out for. Thankfully, one of the chiefs on the Dorico forum explained what it was about and why. If only his words had prefaced the process I would have been miles more comprehensible. But it's done. The only advantage it offers me over 3.5 is that it no longer messes up tuplets when changing voices. For all that, it's probably still the best out there.

Rather morose but well balanced. Just my impression, it seemed more funereal than a run against fascism (I had in mind the likes of that N Korean bloke). I also felt the frequent use of falling chromatic intervals came as a kind of cliche to give it its sadness. The morendo ending left me feeling nothing had been resolved. All in all a good effort, good string writing. Bests

Yup, as people have more or less said, excellent. Great production values.

It would help if you numbered your bars!

Well said. Along with the rest of your post.

If you follow the (renaissance) rules of counterpoint you won't end up with poor harmony. If you subscribe to a more modern form which can be just polyphonic lines (without all the ordinances about intervals, leaps and so on) your harmony isn't limited. It all depends what you're after musically.

I envy composers who can write music like this. Most catching and lively and ok, I'm a sort-of fan of big band for relief from the other music I listen to. I'm quite fond of Harry James, so it was an easy listen for me. Very good rendering. You seem to have hit on a great sample library. Because I'm a bit naive in this genre, I can't really answer your question about what to do. When your trumpet landed on that high Bflat I expected all hell to be let loose - some kind of climax. My only comment is that I felt the piano to be too loud and present when it arrived, hiding some nice-sounding sax playing. I really think this should go in the "work in progress" section of the forum where it might receive more attention. And when you've solved the question I'll be back to hear it again. Nice.

Hmmm....'No comment' is what I usually have to say to the police..... No, seriously, I submit music here and occasionally (rarely) on another site. I have no wish to publish scores unless one was accepted by the BBC of which there's less chance than me swimming the Pacific Ocean it seems. I sometimes get 5 minutes or so for canned music to be played at a local appreciation group or live - quite rare now - at local concerts. Last one was before the pandemic. For that it has to be simple and fall into the 'light music' category.

I can only speak for the UK: there's far too much nannying - it's a growth industry. Broadcasts, through vox pop, have shown students not knowing how to boil an egg, others who can't work out how to open corned beef can with the attached key, and very few who could fit a 3-pin electrical plug. To me, AI fits in this category. It's purveyors, no doubt cheer-led by the WEF want to attenuate people's ability to think so that they become just puppets. So - for composing it has no future for me. Incidentally, did anyone see the broadcast clip of the robotic conductor..........? To me, utter rubbish. Only naive geeks would get excited. It misses the whole point of the conductor's job: to prepare the orchestra and in concert be just the figurehead and deal with anything going wrong. Imagine this machine doing an opera like Lulu when something goes wrong! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGeRlwxpDYs

Agree. What's good and bad is simply judgement. It's down to composers how they value chord progressions in context of melody, sequence, effect and so on. Personally, most chords happen through of the movement of parts. Sometimes the result is harsh, sometimes concordant.

I haven’t been around too much of late mostly due to a month long revision course but during that time I’ve just about had enough of music. There’s hardly a moment of the day when it isn’t rammed unavoidably down my shell-likes. And it’s usually rubbish. If it isn’t that wretched stuff going on while you wait in a 10-30 minute queue on the phone; it’s every shop now thinks you must hear its muzakal drizzle or a restaurant dribbling music through its polystyrene ceiling. Even in the hotel I was staying it’s there burbling away in the background. The place had a piano and before they turned the muzak on I decided to play. There were only a couple of us on the in the bar but I got told off, asked to stop. I mean, why have a piano there if it isn’t to be played? But then we come to films with its cut-and-paste soundtracks, all for what purpose? To add to the thrill of the too-often appalling cinematography? But what finally turned me off was it happened in my bank. At least yet they haven't found a way to penetrate my dreams. So I almost gave up. Gone are the days when music was an occasion – a concert to go to or play in; the act of putting on an LP (almost a ritual!), visiting a music store. Only now have I resumed composing but it’s taking many false starts. I suppose I’m fairly unique in this view but silence or environmental noise has become a welcome relief. I remember a coffee bar in Soho (Meard Street) called Le Macabre. Just what it says, the tables were coffins, the décor dark and the music to suit. But there was a 45rpm on the juke box of just silence, so if you’d had enough of music you could stick your 5p in the slot and choose that. Woe is me!

A modern(ish) piece, kind-of between chromatic and tonal, basically in C major. Any comments good or bad would be sincerely appreciated, particularly whether it conveys atmosphere; the balance between the fleeting mistiness and the more definitive brass chorales brief as it may be. I’m hoping this is an adequate mock-up (possibly) for submission so tear into it if need be. If you feel inclined to crit the score, fine...and many thanks. It isn’t Holst but still about mystical Venus – fertility/renewal, emotional love, creativity, art, poetry, Nature, attraction. In the Ryder Waite tarot the “heart” symbol is at her feet. In that deck, she's titled The Empress.. = = = About the scoring. When the brass emerge they are independent of the rest of the orchestra (except horns). They fanfare spring and renewal. Some rescoring is likely. I ask for 2 horns but at forte they probably won’t compete with trumpets / trombones – it may be wise to bolster them up with clarinets, cor anglais, bassoon – anything that’s available (except strings). I haven’t tried to condense the 3 clarinets etc because they play separate parts with different dynamics. However, I'm posting two scores: the full score - and a version with vacant staves omitted except strings, always there in full. Cheers and again thanks if you can give it a hearing! !

murphybridget. I wasn't sure how to decipher your comment but eventually found it spelled vertically letter by letter down the Right-hand end of the screen! Thank you for listening and your observation. Unfortunately, too much of my stuff is like that! .

Thank you very much for listening and your comment. (This is going to be part of a suite for free-form dancing. I keep in touch with the teacher/choreographer if one can have a choreographer with free-form dancing! She trained as a jazz dancer anyway.) so each movement / section will be short. Pleased you commented on the sparse texture. It seems to force the better development of motifs as otherwise nothing much will happen. As for guitar, thank you for your more critical comment. I'm always ready to take in such gems from someone far more experienced than I am. I'm trying to learn to play, not doing too badly though need to build up some left-hand strength and stretch. I have a fair bit to learn about notating guitar music too. So.... once more, thanks.

Most interesting. The only unenjoyable thing about it was it's too short (but I acknowledge you had to follow the precepts). It comes across succinct and clear (as in uncluttered - something I should learn from). Very nice. Also particularly interesting that you mention the parallel to the Tarot. .