Andrew Hopper

I've had it for a while, and always enjoy dipping into it randomly. The actual "theory" part of it is certainly useful, and it certainly goes into a lot of detail. But I find it much more interesting when he goes off on a tangent (which he does rather alot!). It's very enlightening from the point of view of aesthetics! Of course, it's best to realise that there's an aweful lot of opinion in that book. His description of diminished 7ths as "vagrant chords" has always made me chuckle.

This is one of my first "proper" pieces since starting at music college. It's being performed on Monday, and is pretty fully rehearsed (so it's too late to be making any major changes!), but I just wanted to know what you all thought of it. I realise that the instrumentation is a little bizzarre, but it is literally all I had to work with! I'll post a .sib and .pdf for now, and put up an MP3 when I get a half decent recording. sunrise.pdf sunrise.sib

I recently dug up a book at school, by Cecil Forsyth. It was written in 1914, so it's a little outdated, and some of his scientific explanations about how woodwind instruments work are a bit dubious. But it's written very well, and is certainly informative. I found his chapters on horns and strings to be especially useful. There's also alot of interesting, if slightly useless, information about the evolution of each instrument. And, best of all, there is an abundance of examples from Wagner! I also quite enjoy his slightly sarcastic tone. He keeps making snide comments about instruments and composers, and he has a right go at "the German school of oboe playing" :D And, rather than "tuned" and "untuned" percussion, he uses the words "musical" and "unmusical". That made me chuckle!

The hardest solo piece I've come across is probably Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B minor. The 2nd movement is playable, but the 1st and 3rd...they're just cruel! Still, they do make very good, yet musically interesting, technique exercises. The hardest orchestral piece I've been a part of is The Rite of Spring. I was on Eb clarinet, so the technical difficulty (or lack thereof) of my part wasn't a problem, it was the sheer level of concentration needed. Constantly. I've never counted so hard in my entire life!

Ah...I poked MYSELF in the eye with a tenor sax. About two weeks ago. I'm not sure if that's more stupid or not. I had my stainless steel mouthpiece on at the time too. Nasty.

The past 2 years have put me off MIDI sequencing for life. And those "log books"...*shudder*. The worst bit was the question about "describe the process you went through to compose this piece". I literally didn't know what to write, and ended up just being facetious :(. I've uploaded an mp3 of the piece here. Enjoy!

I just listened to the MIDI (for the first time), and I can see what you mean about the circus :laugh: . It sounds ALOT different on sibelius/mp3. I might try and upload an mp3 somewhere, as it gives a much better impression of what I intended the piece to sound like. As for the chromaticism: surely it's not that wild? Most of it is just fairly predictable chromatic falls. The slow middle section is a bit different (I venture into a bit of bi-tonality there), but that's simply for the whole "tension building" thing. Oh...and talking of the slow middle section, that reminds me: I stole the clarinet part from The Rite of Spring. Sly :D

Hey, I'm currently taking A Level Music Tech, and as part of the coursework I had to write a composition to a brief. I chose the "movie soundtrack" option, where the task was to write a 3 minute cue to exact timings. I've included a text document with the timings and the description of the on-screen action. It's a bit late to be making any changes now, since I handed in all my coursework on Monday (It probably wasn't a good idea to be putting up my work on the internet BEFORE the deadline!). But I'd just like to know what you all think of the piece. Oh, and there are no marks for guessing which famous escape related film I was "inspired" by :D escapenew.sib escapenew.pdf brief.txt escapemidi.mid

I quite like it...it's a fun, convincing pastiche (and I use the word in the good sense). I can't see why any music college would "rip it to shreds". I think it's a very good idea to show them that you have a good ear for musical styles, and are a flexible composer. It's better than alot of the stuff I sent to the Birmingham Conservatoire for my audition, and I've got a guaranteed place there now, so you should have no problem! :D I submitted this baroque style piece which took the word "ripoff" to a whole new level. And there was a film-score style one which was just...well...naff!

Haha, I've done that too. My current startup music is the theme from the last movement of Beethoven 5. Very loud. It scares the crap out of people :D I had it as the Benny Hill theme at one stage. That was surreal.

I'm a 6 foot 3 cellist, so I'm constantly getting back problems from not having big enough chairs! Playing the tenor sax probably doesn't help much either. It got really bad a couple of years ago, to the point where walking was painful. I'm more careful now to stop and sit back whenever I feel my back playing up. Other than that, I've been lucky enough not to damage anything seriously. I've also got all the standard complaints: blisters on my left hand, bruised left thumb (too much thumb position practise :dry:) etc. I play clarinet too, and over Easter I played so much my lip bled, which was a bit silly. I've also got a lovely dome of dead skin on my right thumb, from where my clarinet sits. Ah, the things we do for our art :D

I got Sibelius 5 a few months ago, and in general I love it! However, there's one little thing that's been bugging me pretty much constantly. When I write in ANY note on the snare drum, it plays it as a role, for the entire duration of that note. I end up having to write out the entire part in semiquavers just to make it sound right!:blink: Has anyone else noticed this problem, and is there any way to fix it? Thanks, Andrew

I recently discovered how to do this, and now do it all the time. even when it's probably not necessary :D Select the note/s you want to edit. Then, on the keypad box thing, select the 3rd layout along (in between the rest and the pause...it looks like a joined semi-quaver tail). From there you can edit which ways that note's tail goes.

No, don't worry, none was taken! Thanks for all your advice.

I see what you mean. I wasn't going out of my way to make the music "look hard"...it was the just way it turned out for some reason! But I'll probably turn everything to quavers at some point before the performance, just to keep the string players happy!