AM-Valkyrie

Thank you so much for your feedback!!! The requirements for the competition listed those 3 voices (2 sopranos and 1 alto) so I assume they distinguish between the different ranges of the kids. That's what I thought. I'm not too familiar with those choirs lol. I love that you pointed out the ending!!! That is one of my favorite parts about it. By shortly going into the flats before going back to the tonic, the final chord is so bright compared to the rest, even though they're all major chords. Lol the scoring. I really need to take more time to clean my scores up. I was going to do that yet. I was for now more concerned about the music itself than the visuals. Thanks for the hint though.

I see. That makes sense then. I guess I got caught off by the cadences that are full-on preparing you for the next part already. Nice!

Merry Christmas everyone!!! I like challenging myself to a given form with lots of restrictions so I've been working on something rather odd recently. A choir piece in Finnish written for (2) sopranos and alto that is between 2 and 4 minutes. The reason for that is that there is a competition hosted by a children's choir in Finland. Because of the language as well as being very limited because it's a children's choir and you only have voices that have a range of just a little more than 2 octaves, I was a little skeptical first but then I found these two amazing poems are by Eino Leino (I'll be honest, I was almost done with the groundwork when I realized it's not one poem but two that I accidentally picked up as one because I have no clue of Finnish😉). With the help of AI tools I figured out all the pronunciation, phrasing, accented syllables, etc. as well as different translations. I've put the best translation under the lyrics so you can follow along. My main issue now is, which non-lexical vocables do I put in mm. 1-6 and 18-24 as well as the alto starting in mm. 25 (I currently have da-ba-dum but I think I could fit something better there). Does any of you have any advice regarding the that or even the piece in general?

Really nice. I like the melody, it's kind of catchy. Awesome counterpoint, sound very baroque-ish. I thought something was a little off about the phrasing and then I noticed that the second period is 9 bars while the first one is 8. That added bar is unusual, is that on purpose?

Funny that you mention that, when I had my sister as my violin teacher we used to go exactly through those two selection of works. They were a lot of fun to play. Especially Leclair

Thanks Rich! Really glad you liked it. Duets sure are tough to write because you only have so much to work with. It has been an interesting break from writing for piano or orchestra. You can't just convey harmonies with blocked chords. I do have to work on my endings that they have more build-up but this is one was, as you said, a choice to keep more straightforward. Thanks again!!!

Thank you for the feedback @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu The double stops look worse than they are I'm certain. As Rich said I tried to keep the double stops playable. That French sixth chord is just so goood. I have to be careful I don't put it into every work I write haha.

This is a little piece for two violins that I had a lot of fun writing. I hope to be able to record it myself in next months. First need to practice it😆That's why you shouldn't make your own works too difficult🙃 From the video's description: "Originally written for a Twoset competition where they would have to guess the country the composer is from (the piece is supposed to relate to it). Doubt they will be using this but it was fun to write nonetheless. I've used many fun ideas I had gathered over time and turned them into this duo. It is in ABA form with the A section being the blizzard obviously and the calm middle section depicting the common sub -30C temperatures where there is not a single hint of life found outside. Enjoy!" I have only realized later that having all fingering on print is quite messy and I should have left most of them out. Oh well, they'll help me learn it.

Writing for guitar is quite tricky as I've found out when I wrote some duets for me and my brother. Every chord needs to be checked if it can actually be played comfortably and in the context of the notes around it. I'm not a guitarist so that was hard for me, I used a fretboard to help me, and my brother still isn't to fond of the pieces because they're not ergonomic. Anyway, I don't know if you play guitar or not, if yes this whole paragraph is useless lol. But looking at the score I got doubts that it might not be comfortable to play. The melody on the quena is quite lovely. Sounds fun

Really love the chords you used. A very spacey work, fits the image

This is quite nice. The funniest thing is that I have used the first 5 notes of the melody in a just-messing-around composition myself a couple years ago haha. Really caught me by surprise there.

Yes, I have purposely went for a middle european style as that is what I'm most comfortable with. I find that a piece about a certain place doesn't need to be written in said style, even though it can be cool if it does. This piece was going to be part of an album about the western where I just managed to finish 2 pieces though. Have a couple drafts but don't think I'll finish those. The other one has a quite distinctive style that I can't really pinpoint down. In case your interested https://youtu.be/YURnwFqz4a0?si=11CtTzOrGgD-eSZ1

WOW This is beautiful!!! Nicely written, love the rolled octaves in the right hand. Also very nicely sung. Since listening to Chausson's Poeme et de la mer I have a weak spot for french songs, especially when they're somewhere between late romantic, impressionistic, and modern. French is just such a great language for music, it really makes me want to learn it.

Fun piece! I really love the ending how you introduce the C Major chord. It definitely comes across as a, how should I say it, "carefree" piece. Fits the title. As a string player there was nothing that strikes me as extremely difficult, all those fifths are giving me a scare but it's just because I personally prefer not to play barres. I think the bigger issue would lie with the cello. They usually have more difficulty playing double stops, but I don't play cello so I'm not sure. Should be fine since it's mostly comfortable double stops like 6ths

Interestingly, I have never ventured much into Wagner's music, mainly because I don't have enough patience for operas haha. My name is actually derived from my favorite car. I know that my style is similar to Wagner's though, one of my favorite composers is Chausson who is said to have copied him sometimes. And yeah, the time limit for the competition was 6 minutes. I could have stretched the slower parts probably to make it more seamless, but to be honest I didn't have much time left. Very glad you like it though. I have to admit that I really love a full brass sound every now and then even though I have little idea how hard it is to play. Some of you might know me from the discord where I have been active every now and then in the last 2 years. I have a few other pieces on my youtube channel, I just didn't want to post them here all at once because that would make me seem like an attention seeker lol. They're also of considerably lesser quality. https://youtube.com/@amvalkyrie6496?si=diYCQnRvDlSLH7DT