clark

It will open in the browser with Sibelius Scorch, but I can't get the playback to work...

Wow, nice piece! I like the Kyrie very much also. Remember that the pedal part for organ does not have to be limited to one note. It's not uncommon to see octaves in the feet, and they're fun to play!

Oh, what a cool piece! And a great ending. It's funny, the first thing I thought of when I heard the pizzicato strings at the beginning was "Shostakovich." What exactly is a reading session? Is the orchestra literally sight-reading your piece?

I love the section starting at Measure 76!

To build off of what Nathan said, it is important to compose regularly and become practiced at it so that when the inspiration does strike, you will be able to get your ideas onto paper quickly and efficiently, and not lose some of them in translation. To look for inspiration, I sometimes just put on a tape recorder and improvise on the piano for a half-hour. When I replay the tape, there are always a few bits that make good starting points for new pieces.

This is quite an accomplishment! I can't see the score, so I'll comment just from listening. The theme you introduce at :55 is great, and the way it is developed after that is really neat. My favorite part is around 2:00-2:20...the style reminds me of Schumann. The section from 4:10-4:15 is a little jarring (sudden shift to minor, then back to major). What an enjoyable piece though! I hope that you have the chance to hear it performed live.

This is a short prelude for solo piano, in A minor. I'll try and get a live recording up here some time soon. Mp3: http://homepage.mac.com/chchaisson/PreludeOp2.mp3 I've attached the PDF and .mus versions of the score. -Clarence Prelude.mus Prelude, Op. 2.pdf

What a neat piece! Please post a PDF when you get the chance...I"m really interested to see what it looks like.

Hi Joseph, I really enjoyed this, even from the MIDI playback. The section from measures 32-37 was the highlight of the piece for me. If you have time, a recording on an acoustic piano would be very nice.

Not sure what you mean when you say it sounds dry? Listening to it on my speakers, it sounds like it has plenty of reverb. I feel that if it has too much reverb, it won't have a certain "presence" in the soundtrack. But maybe you're right; I'll try adding some reverb and see how it sounds. Right now I have the Space Designer preset on "Sound Stage 12." Nigel, the instruments were included with Logic, and I believe they're derived from the Apple Jampacks for Garageband (not top-notch quality). That's why I mention possibly getting some plug-ins (Vienna Symphonic, East West/Quantum Leap), because even with reverb, some of these samples still aren't convincing. There are certain areas in the string section I avoided using (the higher range) because they would start to sound electronic. TheHarrowing: yeah, I was just going for a general action movie sound. I did not want to include any snare drums or other things associated with war films.

So the workflow would be something like: - Write score by hand/In notation software (notation software provides MIDI mockup) - Take the more prominent instruments and record them live (strings, brass) - Using MIDI, record the less prominent instruments (some percussion, woodwinds, keyboards) in DAW such as Logic and create an audio file from it. - In DAW, combine the two elements and mix. - Possibly send to sound engineer for further mastering. Couldn't combining live and MIDI elements be a potential timing nightmare? How exactly do you line everything up?

Here's a direct link to the file: http://homepage.mac.com/chchaisson/MassDestruction%20mp3.mp3 You need Quicktime to play it; maybe that's the problem?

Wow, great work! As everybody else said, the music fit very well. I'm by no means an expert, but some things that I thought could have been different/improved: 1) The score on the whole was a bit loud, especially the piano part. Not volume wise, but velocity wise. It seemed like it could have been lighter (it is animation after all). 2) There is a crescendo at the end when the man turns to walk away. It might have been more fitting to crescendo when he actually turns to go into the store, deciding not to walk away after all. Again, really cool piece; especially for just being a practice. You've obviously drawn the right emotions from the film and brought them out in this. Just out of curiosity, did the original film have a score? It would be interesting to compare this and the original.

The transitions are admittedly strange, especially the flute (I never liked the timing on it, but didn't feel like fixing it either). But underneath the the explosions and gunshots, I don't think it will prove to much of an issue. Part of the reason the instrumentation is so ordinary is that I don't have a large sound set to work with (I'm using Logic 8). With Logic you've got your basic string samples, percussion/timpani, some decent brass, a few woodwinds...nothing too exotic. Of course I'd rather write the music within a notation program and have it played live with the whole complement of orchestral instruments, but playing directly into Logic is much more realistic for me. Hopefully I'll expand the sound library in the future. Jada, I was not writing to picture (this piece was made as a favor, nothing professional) so I had no sound mix or images to work with. I assume you mean live? Or just with a better sound mix? Thanks for the feedback and the warm welcome; I'll be sure to have a listen to other people's work and give my thoughts.

So this is my first post. I'm a 15 year old high-school student. My instrument is classical piano. I've been composing pieces for a long time (started after a couple years of piano lessons); most of my recent work has been for film scoring. This is one of those more recent pieces, made for a short war film. It starts off with fast-paced percussion rhythms and staccato strings. Gradually, it lightens up. In the final half, the main theme of the film comes back on the piano. Here's the link: ActionCue I'd really appreciate any feedback you have, and am looking forward to meeting some other composers. -Clarence