cooperboy2000

Quite lovely, I appreciate the marriage of modern harmonic material with a more Baroque form... they suit each other nicely. The harmony in particular connects with me. A fine piece!

I would think that, as far as that goes, the idea of music is to communicate that which cannot be communicated otherwise? :thumbsup:

*bump* Just wanted to tell you guys... I won the Southwest United States Music Teachers National Association Composition Competition with this piece!

http://www.csandlewis.com/Audio_Files/LTTM/02%20Don%27t%20Kill%20The%20Messenger.mp3 Yeah. We're not good with genres. So this is track 2 of my band CS & Lewis's first album, Listen to the Madman. It's what the title of this thread says. http://www.csandlewis.com/Audio_Files/LTTM/02%20Don%27t%20Kill%20The%20Messenger.mp3

Pieter - Thank you! Small is a good word for this piece; it describes a drop of water being carried down a river to the ocean. Hopefully the Sonata will be complete this year. Terve - Thanks! I can see how the change at 21 is a bit jarring, pitch-structure-wise. I was going for the feeling that at that point the theme is transcending its surroundings, and is finally fully realized, before once again dissolving into the scenery. Hopefully it will make more sense with the rest of the piece around it. If you are interested in playing it, by all means, feel free!:thumbsup:

Is "worthyness" similar to truthiness? :P As for the piece itself, it was quite reasonably playable. The right hand jump at measure 41 is not a problem, as the C# and A at the fifth beat can be taken with the left hand, leaving only the single E for the right. :)

Please do post a score, so we can give constructive comments. :)

By next July my Piano Sonata in C should be very completed (probably through several versions by then)... if you are interested I can keep you posted on its progress.

You're welcome. I still remember being a beginner (in a way we're always beginners). What would probably be most helpful is to work on the fundamentals. I say in an earlier post that you needed to ask what the dominant was? That's not a bad thing, but that type of information is extremely helpful in composition. Theory is essentially the scientific description of why music sounds good. Knowledge of theory helps you figure out which notes make the beautiful sound you're imagining. It's like learning to write; first you learn the letters (notes) and start making words (chords). Then you construct sentences (phrases), paragraphs (sections), and eventually write essays (sonatas perhaps?). Like writing, it is a complex process which requires each step to be sloid before building further (by the time you get to writing research papers, you should know your vocabulary pretty well). I would recommend the Steinke series of books. They're a bit expensive, but very effective and quick. Good luck with your compositions!

That book has a whole chapter about me. :ermm: I would recommend Erno Lendvai's book B

http://www.csandlewis.com/Audio_Files/LTTM/04%20Say%20Hi%20To%20Tim%20For%20Me.mp3 This probably isn't what you expect from the designation "Piano Rock." Intense, driving classical piano, thrashing rock drums, a grooving bassline, and distorted synths playing syncopated harmonies at the edges of the stereo image, all backing a classically trained baritone. Weeeee! This song is being performed by my band, CS & Lewis, on our first album, Listen to the Madman. The song is pretty straightforward; d minor harmonies and some counterpoint feature through most of the song. The only real divergence is the borderline-metal bridge, based on the Locrian scale. Thanks for listening; I hope you enjoy it. Please comment if you like what you hear. :) http://www.csandlewis.com/Audio_Files/LTTM/04%20Say%20Hi%20To%20Tim%20For%20Me.mp3

Hello all! This is my first post to the chamber music forum. This is a piece I wrote summer 2007 while at Interlochen. Originally it was for 2 celli and 2 flutes. I ended up going a bit too high on one cello, so I rescored it, adding in a violin, which enabled me to alter some colors. It's in the sonata form I favor, which repeats the exposition but not the development. The first theme is a mournful, folk type melody in b. After some transitional material, the second theme appears in a sunny D Major. The development begins by playing the first theme in d, then expanding it from 4/4 to 5/4, and going into the octatonic scale for further development. The recording was live in a classroom. My classmates were practically sightreading, which just goes to show how talented they were. :) MP3: http://csandlewis.com/audio_files/01 Sparrowhawk.mp3 Sparrowhawk Score.pdf

In order of priority for each era: Classical: Mozart. Beethoven. CPE Bach. Romantic: Brahms. Mendelssohn. Chopin. 20th Century: Debussy. Ravel. Bartok. Stravinsky. 21st Century: The major works forum on this site. :)

I cannot listen to this piece yet (no sound here at school), but I think I can address the theory question that you didn't get answered. (The idea of this forum is to be supportive and helpful, yeah?) A Trio Sonata is a piece in Sonata form for two melodic instruments and a basso continuo. This means threes lines of melody, the bottom of which is for unspecified instrumentation. Two violins and basso continuo, or two flutes and BC, are quite common instumentations (Flute, Bassoon and BC is quite nice too!). A fugue is... a large fughetta? Haha it's a bit hard to define. A fugue is a specific type of contrapuntal composition. The fugue is a form which takes a main melodic theme (the Subject) and develops it polyphonically. I have to run to make a rehearsal, but for now look at the wikipedia entry, it's not bad. Fugue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia And PS don't worry about the lack of theory knowledge. Everyone starts out not knowing theory. But I would suggest that you study theory, preferably in a class situation (most community colleges have theory courses, for example), before attempting to compose a fugue. The fugue is one of the most difficult forms to master (I still struggle with it), and is kind of a right-of-passage for the composer, to be able to compose his first fugue. Best of luck with your compositions!

Hello again! This is the second movement of my piano sonata - the first movement is uploaded here as "Olympic Sonatina in C," and the third and fourth movements are still in sketch and draft stages. This piece is what I consider my second moderately successful work in bitonality. I love the sounds of diatonic, pretty materials played gently a tritone apart; something about it is pure magic to me. It is in a structure like my older pieces: a loose ABAC with a lot of variation and improvisatory stylings. The are two main themes, variations on each, and a coda. This connects back to a passage in the development of the first movement, which played a B Major section over an F pedal point. Not exactly bitonality, but leaning in that direction. Here is an mp3, which is actually me playing it on a for real piano. http://csandlewis.com/audio_files/Nocturne.mp3 Hope you enjoy! Finale 2007c - [Nocturne].pdf