WiseElben

First of all, sorry for the extremely delayed reply (four months!). I simply could not find the time and motivation to compose. Of course, I am still very busy right now, with college admission and AP test preparations. I will be finished in a couple of weeks, however, and I hope to finally get back to composing. I might actually go for a Composition minor, if that's allowed by the Computer Science department. Secondly, thank you for all your comments and suggestions. I will take all of them to heart. I'm now almost done my first real Music Theory class (high school AP Music Theory), and looking back at this piece, I see a lot of places that can be fixed. @Rafn: You are right, I don't really have a theme present. The simple left hand pattern was more of a "safety feature," if you will, of my novice self. Now that I know more about music theory, I will attempt to modify the LH a bit. @aerlinndan: I do not know why I did a four-measured intro. I now realize that my ears had always yearned for the intro to end after measure two. When I wrote this, I did not even realize that P5's were "illegal." I'll do what you suggested. As for the vii, IV, vii, I will look for a more powerful progression. The lack of a modulation was partly done on purpose, but I have no good reason of why I did that. I suppose I was just trying things out. I'll see what I can do with this. I also don't know why I did not end with a root chord; probably lack of music theory training. Actually, it was to make the hand movement easier and to contrast with the right hand movement, but I will rethink that ending.

Hi, this nocturne is rather simple, and it was intended that way. Sure, I love the subtle complexity of Chopin, but I find it difficult to find any piece that is simple yet as elegant. So I figured I would go ahead and try to create one myself. I used a I, IV, vii, ii, V progression through the piece. The melodic line is slow and subtle, powered by the always moving bass line. I am beginner, so I don't really know what kind of effect this usually creates. Download: MP3, Score I hope you enjoy this piece. Thanks for your time!

One of the comments read: Rollercoaster lol waffles. Anyways, simplicity can often be beautiful if used properly. I'm not saying Philip Glass is my hero(I do enjoy some of his pieces). Many 4-chorded pop songs are famous because those 4 chords are very easy to remember. Add a melody and it's now stuck in your head.

Not exactly a present if you have to pay back, is it? (Unless you mean like pay back half or something, seeing that it IS $350...) As for your piece, it DOES sound very "freehand". It sounds very empty, and I think its because you have a melody, but very little support from the other instruments. It also seems that you have no clear direction; and yes, this is hard to do. Anyway, keep on working! You don't want to have just wasted $350!

Your Op. 3 is the second movement of a symphony, so you started your first symphony after your first opus?! The lead-up at 1:30 finishes very nicely! Oh my, I love the melody starting at around 1:58. It leads up to 2:53 well! As for 3:23, I kinda like the halt, but maybe its a bit too much of a jump from that fff to the pp. :) If there was a clash, it would have to be at 3:26. And we're back to that beautiful line at 5:50ish! If you want a bit of negativity (to balance things out =)): I personally didn't like the ending. It was too sudden for me. Great job!

I liked the section at 1:30 - 1:45, its feels like that its leading up to something, yet it doesn't feel "finished." Also, some of the harmonies doesn't feel right. I thought that 3:20 - 3:35 was beautiful, with a nice resolution. I was only able to hear the MIDI version (and I'm not at home where I can examine the piece), but I hear what I suppose is a lonnnnnnnnggg tremelo hold in the background. Should give it some variations. Then again, it could just be the MIDI.

Impressive work! I've only listened to the first two movements though. I liked the introduction on the second movement, and I defiantly wasn't excepting that galloping section. I was excepting adagio throughout! (Should have known from the description of the movement, huh?) I'll listen to the last two when I have time. Can't wait for movment 4!

This does not belong in the Major Works section, that's for sure. As for the piece, I don't know what to say also. Repetition is evil. I skipped around the piece and it sounded the same everywhere. There is no melodic line!

I like what you did with the intro there. 00:30 to 00:40 sounds too empty in my opinion, there is too much left hand in contrast to the right. Also, I think you overdid it with the left hand. I don't think I'd be able to play those sequences at that speed for very long. I wonder if you can actually play this! The left hand requires a lot of work and endurence(unless you're left handed, which will help.) As for getting reviews, I think you need to understand you should try to contribute to the community first. Read this thread.

Here's my take on this (yes, with the power of all 30 of my posts): I actually feel reluctant to comment on music from others, as my knowledge and skill is close to none. I visit YC everyday and listen to a lot of the pieces, but I usually don't "review" it because I am not qualified. I then realized that for MY work to be reviewed, I would need to earn some recognition, or in other words, post more. Using a requirment limit will also lead to spam. There will be "it sounds good" or "it sounds ok" replies everywhere, especially from those who realize that they are not qualified to review a piece (like me). 50 posts is definatly too high. It's like making a user review 10 pieces, with 5 posts in each thread. Post count is both good and evil, and one way (though very radical) to fix this problem is to NOT show user's post count. Then only those who participate will be known. One problem with this is the fact that a user with a noticable avatar or signature will be morｅ "known" than others that don't even upload one. Bottom line is: let them (or should I say "us"?) post their pieces! If they're not going to contribute to the community, then don't give them a reivew! =)

Well, then it may just be a MIDI problem. I know that when I first listened to it, the violin was replaced by a piano! The second time worked better, but I dunno.

Who cares? The book is like $10, and it would be best to have the original book handy too! =)

Gary Garritan (creator of GPO) is doing this super awesome project. It is an online version of Rimsky-Korsakov's Principles of Orchestration book! Here's the link: http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=77 It should start in a few days.

Out of topic: use the MIDI Tool in Finale (I'm using v2006, dunno if its in the older ones) and use the "Scale" tool to create your dynamics.

This is good music! You capture the mood very well. I listened to "Town Theme" before I read the description, and I thought to my self "this doesn't sound like a town at all! Everything is so sleepy." I then read the desc and it IS suppose to be for a sleepy town! =P The only downfall I see is that they are too short. ne way to "cheat" in game composition is to have long sections where you only hear a little piece at a time. I know this is what the composer of Guild Wars did. When I first noticed it, I was like, why would you do this? But then I realize that many other games do this, as hearing the same melody over and over again does get tiring.