Symphony Concertante

I think there is some good material in this piece, but I felt it was far too short. I have nothing against quickly changing character in a piece, but I don't think you stayed in these "characters" long enough for them to establish themselves and make a convincing statement. Of course it's your piece and I'm sure you have your own view about structure in a composition. I personally feel that each idea should be more fleshed out and developed.

Nice music! I commend you for cultivating a style that is both modern and easily understandable...don't we all dream for that. Very imaginative, lots of surprising but interesting key changes, and it kept my interest right to the end. It really sounded like music for violin and piano as well, if that makes any sense. Oh, and nice recording. Everything sounds better actually performed by real musicians. Hearing a piece for violin and piano reminded me of Smetana's two nationalistic pieces for violin and piano, "From the Homeland." That's excellent music too.

This is just for the first movement: I'm not a cello player so I can't be a critical judge. It might be too hard to switch from arco to pizz. that quickly. The music itself was alright, but I never had the sense that things were going anywhere specific. You are obviously trying to write very modern music, but as an unskilled composer and casual listener, I had a hard time grasping the whole structure.

I can't figure out how to save a finale file as a pdf, but here's the finale file. Allegro for String Trio in A minor.MUS

I had some trouble uploading the file...I didn't realize you couldn't upload wav files. Here's a midi. I can upload the Finale file if anyone wants it. Allegro for String Trio in A minor.MID

I have not posted on Young Composers in a very long time. However, I finished a composition last fall that I am told shows promise. It is for string trio (that is, violin, viola, and cello), and I first thought it would be a first movement to a work of three or four movements. I gave up on the idea; I am very inexperienced in composing and it was nice to have completed something of reasonable quality. This is by no means a "great work" or an "opus number." I do enjoy composition though, although doing schoolwork, and practicing playing music impedes, and the difficulty that comes with inexperience prevents a large output. Judge this piece as you will.

Good start, especially for a first attempt. The bad midi sounds were annoying but as far as I can tell it was pretty good. I wouldn't worry about your piece sounding to old fashioned...many people on this site don't like true neo-Classicism without any influence from the twentieth century, but I say, if all music has to be relevant to the present, what's the point of listening to music from the past? Don't worry about relevance, if its a good piece, it's a good piece. This piece is worth finishing.

From an uneducated standpoint, it doesn't sound dissonant or out of place.

Nice neo-Classicism...like Haydn in the 21st century, but changed with a bit of novelty, and good, very good. Neo-Classicism might get bad rap, but contemporary music is too dissonant to me, so its nice to hear something in the vein I try to write in, although, with no pride or authorized criticism to my own music, mine is more middle romantic. You probably already know this, but Poulenc wrote some good neo-Classicist stuff too that might interest you, maybe Dialogues des Carmelites? Again, nice to hear someone composing well and successfully in comprehensible idiom.

Lately I have been astounded at the amount of rock muscians in my area who cannot read music while they still attempt to sing it and play guitar (they only read tabs). It seems to me that this is extremely limiting, but I suppose that it is the same with rock musicians. One excuse I got for not learning how to read music is that they say it will "ruin their creativeness". This does not make sense to me because once you learn how to read music it opens up many other possibilties. What are everyone else's thoughts on musical illiteracy?

If you want this to sound more coherent, it would be good for you to know that 12/8 time is basically the same as 4/4 time, it's just used when you want your piece to have a triple time feel to it; there are four beats to 12/8 time as well as 4/4. This being said, stress should come onto those beats. For example, the beat you put the word "sank" in "my heart sank" doesn't make a lot of sense rythmically because in most music no stress is put on the third eighth note of a measure in 12/8 time. I actually do think this piece should be in duple meter. Another good course is Gary Ewer's music theory. I found it very helpful. I hope I am of help.

I just read the Guidelines for this forum, and I guess I'm supposed to say a little more. I tried my best to keep the meter of the Latin words fit the accent of the music, but if you see any faults let me know. This is a sort of experimental composition on my part because it is the first time I've used secondary triads. Comments on my use of them would be greatly appreciated. I didn't take to long to compose this piece, mostly because the melody is repeated. Perhaps this made it a little boring, but I don't think it sounds that bad.

Here's my new composition- an Agnus Dei. That's Latin for Lamb of God, and for those who don't know, is sung at Catholic Church services just before communion. The Latin words, for those who don't know, translated into English are: Lamb of God you take away the sins of the world have mercy on us. Lamb of God you take away the sins of the world have mercy on us. Lamb of God you take away the sins of the world grant us peace. Hope you enjoy! [ATTACH]7719[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]7720[/ATTACH]

I just listened to his Magnificats in C and D. The one in C was good, and the one in D was even better.

I read that Strauss didn't really care what his critics said. I also read that after a while his inspiration ran out- whether this is true, I don't know for sure. Perhaps he was just a bit ahead of his time- our modern day ears can tolerate more than the ears of those in the 19th century. Strauss was also critized for joining the Nazi's "Chamber of Culture", but needles to say, he couldn't stomach Nazi ideals and left, after which he was regarded in a better light. Here is actually a non-criticizing modern quote about Strauss from a New Zeland composer: Here's another modern one that I think is congratulating: