Evan

That was profound.

Casey, Welcome to YC! I have a question. Why so many instruments? It took me like, half an hour to scroll from the piccolo to the basses. You never use them all at once, and some I don't think played a single note. The score looks more like a huge medieval scroll. Visuals aside, it sounds pretty good. This music reminds me of a movie score, like it should be in Last of the Mohicans or some adventure movie with vast, beautiful scenery. There are places in the music, however, that are too randomly dissonant for my taste. I really liked where you piled up that huge cluster chord at measure 30, but, for instance, measure 12 seems too dissonant for an otherwise rather peaceful section of music. Speaking of that section, the two oboes are playing a duet, and the rest of the orchestra is accompanying. I think it sounds odd and bland when both oboes move to the same note in measure 10. It lets me down, musically. When two instruments are mingling, don't waste a voice with unison notes. (it happens again at 14) But, yes, excellent work. How long have you been composing? Cheers, Evan

Thank you very much! The mp3 has been updated, and should work now (though it will be slow...).

Hello all! I feel bad that I have not posted in such a looooong time. Due to college prep, I've really had little time to upload stuff, or even compose for that matter. I wrote most of this symphony a few months ago as a cello/viola double concerto, left it for a while to ferment in my brain (got bored of it), picked it up again later, thought better and rewrote the whole thing as a symphony, with a larger orchestra and most importantly an ending. Then I left it again for a month or two, just picked it up, refined some minor stuff, and made a better recording for all to hear. I guess this is a product of my studies in music theory, or rather, in spite of them. Mainly, my knowledge of some music theory was bogging down and drying out my compositions, and this was somewhat of a rebellion against that, because I didn't want to think about the theory, I just wanted to write the music. Of course, it's still incomplete..."technically." I have suppled [EDITED] AN MP3 (about 5 mb), a finale file and a pdf. Thank you for listening. I really hope you enjoy! Cheers, Evan EDIT - The mp3 should be working now. I used upload hut, so it may be a little slower... symphony_no1.MUS symphony_no1.pdf

Okay, I lied. I've only gotten 3 done so far. Why I am writing these pieces for piano: Because I was told to by my theory professor. I believe the point was to make 4 short, but cohesive pieces. Emphasis on the cohesive. I have a tendency to write whatever random things that pop into my head during the course of a piece, which leads to somewhat jumbled sections of good, but random ideas with little, if any, development. Okay, here are the pieces: Piece No. 1 - Jig-ish? mp3 pdf Piece No. 2 - Bolero mp3 pdf Piece No. 5 - I dunno. It's "classically inspired," but definitely not classical. mp3 pdf I'm pretty sure some of this music is impossible to play, especially in no. 5, but I'd like to hear from someone who actually plays piano. Any commentary or advice would be most appreciated! Most of all, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for your help, Evan

Haha, the ending makes me laugh. You definitely went the right way with the new ending. But I don't like the last cymbal. I think it either needs to be louder, or just removed altogether. Other than that, great piece. Very energetic and definitely alien. I disagree about what others said about 5:30. Sounds fine to me. Can't wait to hear an mp3. Cheers, Evan

To make a PDF, go to "print." Then go to setup and change the printer to Adobe PDF, or whatever it is. Then hit print, and it will create a PDF file. Yeah, kinda weird, but that's the way to do it.

One other person I know said it wasn't working well. Do you happen to have an elderly computer? Well, I'll post the midi tomorrow, in case anyone else is still having difficulties.

Thank you. :) I do play cello, and I know that the A and C have very nice harmonics on the cello, and are actually relatively easy notes for most good cellists. [actually, the harmonic can even be played in 1st position, but that wouldn't be as flashy and virtuosic :happy:]You know, I sort of agree with you about the ending. I wasn't sure exactly how to end it, and this was somewhat of a hasty fix. I was excited and eager to finish it after all. Thanks for mentioning that. I may go back and redo that. Maybe another time through the melody, or add a little coda or denoument, or something. I looked at 141. That's in the cadenza. Haha, funny thing about the cadenza actually, I didn't really want to write my own cadenza, so I just made something quickly to show that there would in fact be a cadenza there. Anyway, back to 141/142. I agree that it's quite a shift, but this being a cadenza, there is a lot of time to get back to first position [time which may be aliased as "musical interpretation"].I'm not sure exactly what you mean about the nonexistent breaks between non-existent movements. :ninja: This is only one movement. Although, now that you mention it, I like the idea of the second movement starting after only a brief pause after that last big chord. Thank you for your comments! They are well appreciated. Evan

Interesting piece. I rather liked it. I agree with M, though, that it was rather terse. Maybe as another experiment lengthen it? I realize it's just an experiment, so good job. Evan

Beautiful. I envy your abilities. :blush: In case you didn't already get the picture, I agree about the reverb. Maybe makes it a bit muddy in some places, but perfect in others. Maybe just a small adjust.

Good day, everyone. Okay, so here's the deal. This is my first hopefully "major" work, and I'm kinda nervous about how it will be taken. The MP3 - Yeeah! Click me! ...And the PDF - ceo NUM.sib This concerto is for cello and string orchestra. I'm not at all adequate at writing for winds and percussion, so I avoid writing for them. Perhaps some day I'll arrange this piece for full orchestra. But for now, just strings and cello. Anyway, let's get to the business. In retrospect, this piece didn't take very long to compose. Maybe 4-ish days at a few hours each day. There is no traditional structure to the piece, I suppose. Thematically, there are three or four themes that recur and develop throughout. Frankly, there weren't many obstacles faced while writing this piece. Maybe keeping quiet at 2:30 in the morning so that my parents would yell at me to go to bed. I imagine all of the real obstacles will come after all the criticisms and during revision. Please excuse the crappy cadenza quality. There's only so much I can convince the computer to do musically. Thank you very much for listening. I truly am appreciative. Cheers, Evan cello_concerto_no1.pdf

Haha, this is a funny piece. Well done. Cheers, Evan

This is a lovely piece. For some reason, it reminded me of the Lon Lon Ranch song from Zelda. Kind of repetitive, but it definitely sets the mood and has personality. Yay for this, Evan

Whoa, totally not finished. Nice until then.