Alex Weidmann

Very enjoyable! Was the intention to write something in the style of Mozart? Certainly reminds me of his piano concerti.

Thanks Mark! I actually added a new ending this week (which is definitely my final revision, as I've now sent it off to a competition for judging). The new version is attached below, with an improved score. New material starts around 7'30". This is the programme note I sent them: In this piece, I’ve attempted to conjure up a dawn chorus in a jungle setting. The animals awake one by one, each embodied by a different instrument. We start with birdsong in the piccolo, and the tapping of woodpeckers from the castanets, whilst the melodic line in the oboe coils like a snake. Soon they are joined by a mischievous troop of monkeys, portrayed by a choir of saxophones. Some sounds are ambiguous. Perhaps the maracas could be a rattlesnake; or is it just rustling in the undergrowth? The tempo increases as the pace of life quickens. Predators begin hunting their prey, looking for a tasty breakfast! The mood alternates rapidly from serene and playful passages into more sinister and dangerous terrain. Some creatures are harmless and beautiful; whilst others are vicious and threatening! The work eventually builds to a heady and chaotic climax, as an intoxicating plethora of wildlife joyfully greets the new day.

I just have one very trivial comment about your scoring. Like me, you use rehearsal marks to delineate motivic changes. I too used to put my first mark (A) at the beginning of the score. Then I sent my work to an orchestra for the first time, and was told the first mark never goes at the beginning of the piece. That's because the conductor will say "go from the top" if they want to start over. I then had a look at some works by famous composers, and found this was true: they never put the A rehearsal mark at the start of the work.

Thanks Peter, that's a relief!

Yes indeed, that's one solution. Thanks!

Hi to all. Just completed a work for a competition, where we had to provide a percussion part score along with the master score. I've sent it off now: so it's too late to change anything; but wondering if I've notated this correctly? I know you often arrange the percussion instruments on separate single line staffs, bracketed together. However I decided to use a single staff for both instruments. This seems more efficient, since they never play together: so I'd be needlessly cluttering up the score to have two parallel staffs. Starting to wonder though, whether I should have had two parallel staffs, for the sake of clarity? Edit: also I couldn't find the correct Italian accent to put on piu mosso. Anyone know how to apply this in MuseScore 4?

I've been able to read music since early childhood: so switching to MuseScore wasn't such a big deal for me. The challenging part was learning to write for orchestra, when it's going to be played by actual musicians. I was much more familiar with piano scores; but for an orchestral score, you have to understand the nuances of all the different instruments. Otherwise your score may be unplayable, or very difficult to read. (E.g. Understanding which pitch slides can be played on a trombone, or how to notate different playing styles in the strings.) As a sheet music novice, you won't find it quick or easy to learn; but I would encourage you to do it. Like learning a second language, it's always going to be a useful skill. You can probably get everything you need from You Tube and Wikipedia; but it may take several years to become proficient. Since you obviously have a natural flair for composition, I would say it's worth the effort. Good luck! Alex

Musically it feels very episodic, with moments of high drama, and some vivid tone colours. The first movement brought to mind a battle on the high seas, perhaps due to its cinematic tropes. It starts with a sombre air of tragedy, then becomes more expansive, and morphs into a sort of action adventure movie soundtrack. I found the sudden changes in dynamics quite effective and evocative. It's well orchestrated (better than anything I could do), and I enjoyed your use of sul tasto, Bartok pizzicato, and handstopping in the horns. All these things add more colours and textures to the orchestra. Overall a well heard piece.

Congratulations on completing such an epic and expansive work! I wonder why you chose to used breves (double whole notes)? I don't think these have been in common use for several hundred years, and some people may not realise what they mean. (That said, I have seen them used by Colin Matthews in his orchestrations of Debussy's Preludes.) You could perhaps have used semibreves instead, at half the tempo. In your strings, you have div. followed by tutti; but I think the correct way to cancel div. is with unis. (Tutti is used to cancel a solo, or 2 soli indication.) I'm really nitpicking here: so feel free to ignore me!

Hi Layne. I think you have a good facility with counterpoint in your works, and some interesting dissonant harmonies. You're also very good at creating an atmospheric soundscape, and musical storytelling that takes the listener on a journey. I've had a similar issue with lack of tempo variation, as I was using a DAW that didn't allow for any changes in time signature or tempo within the same project. More recently though, I've begun using MuseScore as a starting point for my composition, which has no such drawbacks.

Hi Mark. I enjoyed listening to this piece, as with all your works. It sounds quite militaristic to me: so perhaps you could call it "The Toy Soldier", or "The Clockwork Soldier", or something along those lines? My only other suggestion is you could consider adding mutes to the brass during some passages (or handstopping in the French horns), to create more variation in orchestral colour. There are lots of different mutes to choose from, each with a different effect: https://andrewhugill.com/OrchestraManual/trumpet_mutes.html

Just made an improved version of this score, with more sensible time signatures, and other corrections.

Hi everyone. Have more or less finished composing this now; though I might tweak the ending a little. It's for a large wind band, and I've posted it before in the incomplete section. The piece represents a dawn chorus in an African jungle, with the animals waking up one by one, each represented by a different instrument. The saxophones are mischievous monkeys, the castanets woodpeckers, the oboe is a snake, the piccolo represents birdsong, etc... I wonder how effective it is in creating the tone picture I was aiming for? I'm not sure I've got the right order for the instruments in my score, but I went with the MuseScore setting for a concert band. Not certain what instrumentation I should recommend: so any hints on that would be helpful! Perhaps I should add some more breath-marks, or make some tweaks to the time signatures? Also not 100% sure how solo/tutti indications work in a wind band. Do they assume tutti unless otherwise indicated? Edit: The latest version of this piece is posted further down the thread.

Thanks Henry! It's not note perfect; but she brought out some things in my work that surprised me. In fact I like some of Alison's changes better than what I actually wrote!

Hi all! Just thought I'd post a link to a recent concert performance of my piano piece "The Feast Of Cheese". It's been beautifully interpreted I think by Alison Doubleday, and sounds completely different from my original computer rendition. Almost like it's a different piece!