Euler

Ron, I'm sorry but I don't buy the sound field. The drum set has the same width as the whole orchestra - makes no sense. The drum roll sweeping across is a trite effect which seems out of place in the context of your more original orchestration. I guess I don't inderstand your aim - with those high quality samples a very realistic sound stage is possible but the drums are totally unrealistic - the Jolly Green Giant drums with the New York Philharmonic. The idea of a guitar and rock band drum set with an orchestra is fine but ... the effect here is very schizophrenic unless you had some such motive. I really like the last movement. Well, I like them all if I ignore the !$@# drums but the last movement succeeds very well in setting the mood you describe. Herb

The URL goes to your home page and it requires a search to find this piece - and it isn't clear whether the entry on page 2 is the new revised version or the old one. The piece has a fine flow with some interesting contrapuntal ideas especially some delightful touches in one of the upper parts at around one minute. The percussive instrumentation has fairly strong overtones which now and then clash a little - I assume you wanted this percussive effect. If one or two parts had a sustaining instrument, a recorder say, it might work well too. A krummhorn with its nasal timbre might be great and hold its own against the percussiove parts but I guess that isn't an available sound - an oboe might do. I don't know Leonel Power's original work but this is quite enjoyable.

MusicXML does work, well, I have only done Finale 2009 to Finale 2008 but that worked for 6 instruments. Sometimes a decent score (the notes at least) can be recovered from midi. I suspect Gardener is correct - as soon as a score gets large and complex, game over for the software conversion. You might try MusicXML first and then midi as a bridging format before you do it all by hand.

This is certainly a minuet with a difference! The lyra-bird vibraphone combination has some fine moments. The idea merits being developed - I was wondering if a second lyra-bird could be introduced so the pair of birds could pick up some of the harmony that now is just in the vibraphone part. Somewhat along the lines of what composerorganist suggested - a role reversal. The piece has a considerable charm with the vibraphone's steady pace contrasting to the lyra-bird's antics. :thumbsup:

I have to agree with those who found the final chord strange. Even wtih the ending, I quite liked the piece. The length and harmony seem fine to me. The midi rendition is lacking in the subtlety and expression a real pianist could give these notes so one has to use a little imagination. Well done.

There is too much reverb for my taste (I took it into Finale and tried it with less reverb). With less reverb there is the effect of bursts of rain and raindrops as well as the mood of partial visibility at dusk. I thought the piece was not bad at all. Possibly piano and harp could be used as the instruments. An occasional sweep up to higher notes would provide contrast to the steady low theme. Just suggestions - we each write music the way we ourselves like it.

Ron, I like all the different sections although the parts with no percussion are more musically engaging and more original IMO, especially the woodwinds. My downside comment is that there are too many different ideas all packed into the two minutes - the effect is curious and to me in one place verging on the slightly comical. Glides are conventionally used to indicate wooziness from alcohol, drugs or a hit on the head - I don't know if that fits into the battle theme :). I would say a 100% success as a trial of GPO 4 and the choir but a bit odd as a composition. Herb

This creates a mood that to me is "pushy" like a crowd of people with each person trying to be first in line, or perhaps the competition to get on a train and grab the best seats at rush hour. The harmony is quite modern but consistently so. I would have liked a bit more as the piece just gets going, establishing its harmonic and contrapuntal structure, and then stops. I didn't find the ending totally convincing, perhaps something more abrupt rather than a fade away would work. Considering the rather strange and possibly limiting material of my original idea, this is quite an improvement. :thumbsup:

A propos of the above discussion, most scoring software can convert a midi file into a score. For a simple short piece as this, Finale makes quite a decent score. On to the piece itself, I really liked it. It has a very delicate introspective mood. The style has a blend of modern and ancient with a few places reminding me a little of John Dowland. Well done. :thumbsup:

No problems - if you see something in it, feel free to go ahead and develop it. It is very short but if it would help having a midi as well as the score I could post a midi version.

Ron, no, the piano line - the backbone - is yours so I can at most be considered an arranger who saw something in your improv that you perhaps didn't see. The point I made in the Incidental Music thread was just that in some of your recent pieces you are going for a big complex often violent sound. Don't get me wrong - nothing wrong with that - and you are succeeding in that goal. On the other hand, I felt some of the subtleties of your ideas were getting lost in the process, or if not lost then not being developed. Okay, I suppose my bias towards small ensembles is showing. Thanks for commenting - we can agree to disagree on some things :). Herb

Ron The title is an oxymoron since no one gets a good snooze down below and the piece matches the title with an intriguing blend of ideas. The snare drum adds a march like character but there are some quieter passages. I was surprised and a bit disappointed when it started to repeat - I expected more - so I guess my main comment is that it didn't last long enough and it didn't seem that the ideas had been fully exhausted at the end. For your first go using GPO 4 I would say it is a total success. Herb

Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you liked it, more than that, I'm glad you understood the piece. The piano part is hardly changed from the original. When I heard it I liked it a lot - Ron (rolifer) has a fine touch as an improviser - it suggested the other parts that blended into a slightly more relaxed introspective mood.

This fine piece has your characteristic bold rhythmic contrapuntal style. I like the way you take the simple opening motif and develop it as different parts weave in and out. At the very end there is one note that hangs on by itself for a few seconds - was this intended? A delightful composition :thumbsup:.

Ron I like this piece but I think you could get more out of some of the fine melodic ideas that are submerged in soundscape effects. Yes it does work as background or incidental music but I find a tendency to have competitive ideas clashing with different orchestral sections as opposed to an idea leading in say strings and getting cooperative support from other sections. I can hear some great stuff that just goes by - there is melody in this and most of your pieces but it isn't developed to any extent. Here is an old piano improv of yours which I worked into a quartet: http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/white-chocolate-butterflies-13484.html#post211502 where the sound is mellow and introspective - it is you piano with a backup combo. There was no commenting back then so perhaps some of the current listeners to your music could comment now. Just my non-expert two cents. Herb