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Hello fellow composers! I wanted to share a short piece I wrote called Coastal Wind. With this piece, I was trying to evoke an open shoreline with gentle motion, changing light, and a calm but restless sense of wind over water. The instrumentation is small orchestra: string section, double woodwinds, and horns. The piece is in a simple A–B–A form. The A section, in A-flat major, features a woodwind duet melody over cello arpeggios. The B section shifts to B major and moves the melody into a darker, lower register with cellos, basses, bassoons, and low horns, while the arpeggiated motion moves into the woodwinds and violin harmonics create a soft background shimmer. The opening material then returns, and the piece ends quietly as the cello arpeggios gradually fade away. I tried to keep the harmony and form fairly clear, and focus more on creating a distinct atmosphere than building a large dramatic arc. I wanted the piece to have motion and energy, but still feel calm, lyrical, and restrained. I’d really appreciate outside ears on the composition, orchestration, mockup realism, balance, phrasing, use of register, or simply whether the coastal/wind-like atmosphere comes across. Thanks in advance! Coastal Wind Score - CONCERT SCORE Ver1.pdf

Thank you all for your feedback, and sorry for my slow response! @maestrowick! Thank you so much for taking the time to give such detailed feedback! There’s a lot here for me to think about. I’m glad you think the piece has enough potential to expand further. I originally set out specifically to write something short and relatively simple, so rather than expanding this particular movement into a 10-minute piece, I’ve been thinking it might be interesting to make it part of a suite of several short movements in a similar style. I could keep this movement relatively intimate with flute, harp, and strings, while the additional movements gradually make use of the full orchestra and explore different colors and ideas. That would let me keep the compact character I was aiming for here while still developing the overall concept into something more substantial. Your harp comments are especially helpful. Harp is one of the instruments I’m least familiar with writing for idiomatically, so the explanation about automatically changing hands within the octave figures is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to learn. I’ll go back through those passages and rethink the beaming and hand distribution, and I like the idea of expanding some of the runs upward into a different register as well. I appreciate the clarinet suggestion too, and I can definitely see how that could open up some interesting harmonic and contrapuntal possibilities. For this piece, though, I think I’d prefer to keep the flute as the only wind instrument. I like the simplicity of having one clearly defined solo voice against the harp and strings, and I think that contrast is part of the character I’m aiming for. And I hadn’t considered alto flute at all! That could be a really interesting alternate version, especially given the atmosphere I was going for. I’ll also go through the specific flute phrasing and notation comments you mentioned. Thanks again — this gives me a lot to experiment with, both in revising this piece and in future writing. @Luis Hernández Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed the relative simplicity of the piece — that was something I was intentionally trying to preserve. I appreciate the suggestion about violin harmonics. I can definitely see how they could reinforce the ethereal quality, although I think for this piece I prefer the warmer, more direct sound of the strings as written. I wanted the atmosphere to come more from the harmony, register, and texture rather than from extended or more distinctive string colors. @PeterthePapercomPoser Thank you! I’m glad the floating quality came across — that was very much the atmosphere I was trying to create, and I was particularly concerned with keeping the rhythmic motion from feeling too repetitive or mechanical. And yes, writing for the smaller ensemble was a deliberate exercise for me. I usually find myself wanting to add more instruments and colors, so part of the challenge here was seeing how much I could do with a very limited palette. Thanks again everyone for listening and providing feedback!

Hi everyone, I recently made a non-commercial orchestral mockup and score-study arrangement of “Fountain of Dreams” from Super Smash Bros. Melee / the Kirby series, and I’d love to get some feedback from a composition/orchestration perspective. This is one of my favorite pieces from Melee, so I wanted to see how close I could get while also learning from the orchestration, arrangement, and overall musical construction of the track. This was mainly an exercise in orchestral transcription, arranging, mockup realism, and trying to understand what makes the original track work so well. I’m not sharing the full score or MIDI because this is a study arrangement of copyrighted game music, but I may be able to post short excerpt screenshots if they would help with specific feedback. I’d especially appreciate thoughts on: Orchestration and instrumental balance Whether the arrangement translates convincingly to orchestra Mockup realism and MIDI programming Articulations, phrasing, and dynamics Any places where the texture feels too thick, too thin, or unclear Mixing/reverb balance Original music and related intellectual property belong to their respective rights holders. This mockup is for non-commercial study and educational discussion only, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo. Thanks in advance for listening. I’m looking forward to hearing any thoughts, especially from people with experience in orchestration, mockups, or video game music arranging.

Hello fellow composers! I wanted to share a short piece I wrote called Morning Meadow. This is part of a broader goal I have of writing short, simple pieces. With this one, I was trying to focus on melody, color, and restraint — something peaceful and dreamlike, but still gently expressive. The instrumentation is solo flute, harp, and violin section, with the harp providing a soft arpeggiated texture, the flute carrying the main melody, and the violins entering later with a slow countermelody. I kept the harmony fairly simple and color-focused, and I was more interested in creating a clear atmosphere than building a large dramatic form. I’m happy with how the piece turned out overall, but I’d really appreciate outside ears. I’d love feedback on the composition, orchestration, mockup realism, balance, phrasing, or simply whether the mood comes across the way I intended. Thanks in advance! Morning Meadow - Concert Score Ver1.pdf

Really nice work! I listened all the way through. The section from m 72-105 caught my attention so I took a closer look. There are a lot of good ideas here, but the counterpoint feels a little messy because there are a lot of voices on top of each other and crossing each other, so it’s hard for to hear each voice independently. M 76-80 is particularly noticeable. The second violin part overlaps with the first on and off. I would suggest maybe instead of the divisi in the seconds just give them their one independent line? Since the divisi overlaps the firsts quite a bit. Overall great work though, I enjoyed listening!

This is nice! I really like when the strings enter at m 16, it’s a really nice color. If it were me I would move the Horn 1 part in m19-21 to the 2nd Trumpet. Then maybe bring the 2nd trombone at m22 down a fourth so it doubles the 2nd trumpet at the octave (or maybe even remove it altogether…?) Also, why does Trombone 2 have that part instead of Trombone 1? Overall really nice arrangement, I enjoyed listening!

Awesome! The orchestration is great, very reminiscent of Tchaikovsky. I really like the buildup at the end to the big trombone descending scale. The only constructive thing I would say is I think the trombones should play something instead of a descending scale here. Maybe try and find one of the descending motives from somewhere else in the piece? I think this would give the piece more overall motivic unity and make this moment more impactful. Either way very well done, thanks for sharing!

Nice! Very fun and quirky

Very nice! I think my favorite part is the violin solo near the end - it adds a nice contrast. The only thing I would say is I feel like m. 55 could be a bigger moment. I think more crescendo and a molto rit. here would really make this moment shine and make the sub p chord on beat 3 more impactful. Great job, and thanks for sharing!

This is awesome! I really like the aesthetic and the unique harmonic textures. The climaxes on pg 8 and 10-11 are particularly enjoyable. Out of curiosity, do you have some sort of framework for using the quarter tones? Like a set of chords you use, or certain rules of counterpoint? Or is it more or less freely based on what you thought sounds good?

Hi @BipolarComposer, this is really good! I like all of the tense dissonant textures. This really conveys a sense of internal struggle, as is one is slowly losing their sanity. I particularly liked the cool flute texture around 2:30, and the foreboding English horn melody immediately afterwards. The celesta before 6:00 is also really cool. The rhythmic elements you introduce around 7:30 is a welcome contrast, and the subsequent buildup to the end is very intense and effective. Thanks for sharing! If you happen to have a score it would be great to take a dropper dive into this. I’ll also try to listen to the second track when I have a chance.

Found this thread, looks like there is a lot of confusion on this topic 😅 https://vi-control.net/community/threads/is-the-piccolo-above-the-flute-or-below-in-score-layout.83869/

Ah I gotcha. I put it there since it is doubling the third flute. I think I've seen it this way before... I'll see if I can find an example. But it also seems reasonable to have it above the flutes as well.

Hmm that's odd. On my screen it is pretty clear, but it did take a second to load. Maybe give it a minute to load all the way? The piccolo sounds an octave higher than written, so it is actually an octave above the 2nd flute.

@PeterthePapercomPoser thank you so much for listening, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Good observation! I suppose I didn't necessarily intend to always stay in the 3-2 grouping, it more or less just came out that way. I will say there is some ambiguity in some parts of the flowy melodic line you point out. The part I indicated below could be more naturally interpreted as a 2-3 grouping, which would go against the 3-2 ostinato underneath it in the horns. But I didn't think it made sense to change the horn part just for this, and I also kept the notation this way for consistency across the parts. Thanks, I'm glad you like it. I was really just trying to come up with an ostinato that conveyed a lydian feeling, and just wrote a melody to flow above it. But you're right, I would imagine this section is more difficult to play than one would expect 😅 Awesome! I'm glad you like it. Hmm are you referring to the resolution on the video or on the pdf itself? I would expect the video to be difficult to read at a detailed level, but I would think the score pdf should be pretty clear, depending on the resolution of your monitor at least. Thanks again for listening! I always appreciate your feedback!