ablyth

Develop your melody first and then derive your harmony from your melody. If you think about it, everyone can remember their favourite tune. No-one has a favourite harmony. It doesn't mean you can't do different things with the harmony. But just about every composer is remembered for their melodies. So work on developing this.

I listened to two movements from this and the rondo from your piano concerto. They all seem to suffer from similar problems most obvious in the Finale movement of this symphony. Rather than develop a few simple ideas in different ways and through varying harmonies you keep bringing up new ideas in the same key. If you look at your timpani part you will notice that the player has to bang away on Eb for over 8 minutes. This is stretching any listener's ( and musician's) patience. The effect is that it doesn't sound like you know where you want to go with your material so you just keep introducing new ideas to keep the music bouncing along until you feel you have continued long enough. A lot of the ideas are not very distinguished in that they are just chord arpeggiations that continue the harmony but don't otherwise relate to each other. With your harmony, you need to work on your voice leading which seems a little erratic. There are many incomplete chords and sudden octaves that sound like holes in the overall texture.

This is a very expressive piece with rich string writing and a wonderful command of melody and harmony. I really enjoyed this. I don't know about the title, though. Given the storyline and feelings expressed in the piece, the description of serenade is a bit of an undersell as it implies lightness and entertainment. This is much more of a symphonic poem for strings in the tradition of something like Schoenberg's Transfigured Night (even though he called that just a string sextet). I think you need a better title that gives a better sense of the depth of the piece.

The important point is that you write what you hear not what you can play.

What living composers are you listening to at the moment? And what pieces would you recommend as having something worthwhile to say? If you suggest a composer you should probably suggest a work. Andrew

Yes welcome to the forum. I found this to be another attractive piece with a lot of good ideas in it and some very rich string writing. Siwi has covered most of the technical stuff. The only thing I would add is that when you have written chords in the parts you should indicate whether you want chords played or the section to divide. Usually one is more appropriate than the other. You have used both in your score but don't give any indications. I only looked at the first movement which like your viola sonata has some attractive tunes in them. I would say that structurally you have approached it in the same way which is to link several contrasting sections together rather than develop material from one section.

This is a very substantial work. I can see why the 2nd movement is your favourite. It is the most together of your movements in terms of using your material well without drifting off on to other ideas. The first movement seemed to ramble from The Carpenters into an Irish Jig via a slow movement and back again. There seemed to be enough material for another sonata in there. I'm sorry but I didn't listen to the whole movement. The third also had the same problems. It starts with a slow intro after a slow movement. Then there are some ideas again from The Carpenter and Queen. There is a lot of material and not much harmonic contrast in the music. You could get at least another 3 movement out of this movement with more judicious development and some key contrasts. You don't seem to have development sections just new ideas. Fecundity is a great asset to have but you need to use it better.

I'm not sure what sort of effect you are trying to create. It sounds medieval in some ways with its fairly aimless counterpoint. It's not unnattractive but it is a little bit stream of consciousness. Presumably improvised?

Not at all. I think we should all be developing our own marketing juggernaut because no one else is likely to do it for us and if you want to get your music heard you do have to sell it. No I meant it in an admirable way. I think what you are doing is a good use of the forum.

So in other words we have been at the pointy end of the Nikolas marketing juggernaut. Well, way to go. Although you have probably considered this ,you should make sure your pieces are registered with your national performing rights organisation. Although I sell the odd CD here and there, most of the money I get from CD releases comes from broadcast rights and not really sales.

I mean it can benefit all of us. Andrew

I've been thinking again about your question and I realise that what you are doing-some market research- is an extremely good idea. However you are asking the wrong question. This forum has an inbuilt prejudice in favour of new works by unknown composers. Consequently what they/we think of your title is irrelevant unless they are also radio programmers and presenters. Given the far-flung nature of the respondents on this forum it does have the potential to do a lot of market research. What you should ask is whether anyone knows of a radio programme that would broadcast your piece with or without title as given. You will get an entirely different answer but it will more effectively serve your purpose. For example i programme a drivetime show on a community classical broadcaster. I do programme a lot of new pieces but I can tell you that I would not programme the piece with that title. I don't think that the new music presenter would. Knowing that the station is largely run by retired teachers, bankers, public servants etc, my feelings are that your title would be a liability regardless of the quality of the music. However other members of this forum may be able to tell you what presenter/programmers you can send your CD to get airplay with or without the title. I have already done my own research on this question and I don't believe it is a big market out there. And most of them are probably more conservative than my community classical music station. Nevertheless, great idea. Keep up the good work. I can benefit all of us.

Also in QL libraries you can also, under options, tell the programme how to use the controller data depending on what equipment you have - pedals, software etc. So you might have to choose one of right options to get it to work

I am not sure what you mean by the continuous data but the QL libraries I have, use the expression controller ( which I think is 11) to control individual crescendos. I don't know how you do this in finale but in other programmes it basically involves drawing the begin and end levels so you have an envelope in a controller window. Since Finale is mainly a notation programme it may not have controller screens/windows

Yes I think if you are trying to get airplay then the title is a loser. I can accept that it reflects part of who you are. I don't know what radio stations you are aiming it at. Having done the same thing with recordings and having sent out a lot of comps, the question is who is likely to play the music. If the music is similar to the pieces you are posting on this forum, it would be logical to assume you are targeting new music shows wherever they are. My impression from having looked at classical music broadcasters around the world is that 1. there are not that many new music shows and 2. classical broadcasters are mostly catering to an older well-heeled audience with refined tastes and attitudes. So as robinjessome has suggested, the title would never get to air. Its a bit of a dillemna but the reality is that you are now considering marketing. Marketing has nothing to do with selling the real you, unfortunately. Its about getting your piece heard. There may be radio broadcasters out there I don't know about who are appealing to a young switched on audience who would appreciate the controversial title. The question is then whether your music is going to fit their type of programme.