K. Alex Cronin

Warning: longish post ahead. I was hoping to get some feedback from former and current composition students. I graduated from Western Michigan University last spring with a BM in composition and am pursuing grad school for next fall. Unfortunately I'm stuck on where to apply and time is obviously running short; hence the post. At this point, I lack both the funds and likely the portfolio to get a master's at one of the biggies, e.g. NEC, Eastman, Yale, which are probably the easiest places in the U.S. for me to name that have a reputation for producing talented composers. So my search for a grad school has two main criteria: 1. A good teacher I can make a real connection with 2. Available assistantships or other financial aid The logical thing in a search for good instruction seems to be to look at state schools with respected music departments. I don't have a good sense of where to investigate outside my corner of the country, though. I don't expect a mentor to fix all my problems and I definitely take responsibility for my artistic development. What I am seeking is excellent technical instruction from a professor willing to make a personal investment in dedicated students. My own personal musical principles are abstract ones where every note counts and the musical line always has direction and purpose. Contrapuntal coherency in particular is important to me. I need clear and honest guidance without any particular styles (including jazz, world music, and electronic music) being forced down my throat. I have a few wild leads on schools that might have decent programs but know absolutely nothing about the teachers. Here's a short list of what I've collected: 1. University of Colorado, Boulder: Daniel Kellogg 2. University of North Carolina, Greensborough (Gregory Carroll, Mark Engebretson, Alejandro Rutty) 3. University of Iowa: David Gomper 4. University of New York, Buffalo: Jeffrey Stadelman 5. University of Maryland, College Park: Lawrence Moss 6. University of Southern California: Marta Ptaszynska, Erica Muhl 7. University of Illinois: Erik Lund 8. University of Texas: Yevgeniy Sharlat 9. University of North Texas (Joseph Klein, David Bithell, Andrew May, Elizabeth McNutt, Cindy McTee, Jon Christopher Nelson, Phil Winsor) I know this is a lot of information to ask about, but if you can tell me ANYTHING about any of these instructors or schools, both positive or negative, I'll be incredibly grateful. Perhaps more importantly, I would also LOVE recommendations outside of what I've already found. Please feel free to send me a message if you don't want to publicly post something (I promise confidentiality should you wish to issue a warning against someplace). Of course I'm open to regular old discussions as well as sharing music with anyone interested. Again, thank you all so much!

Thank you to everyone for all the comments and encouragement. Please don't hesitate to give whatever feedback comes to mind--I can take intelligent criticism. ;-) And to clarify: yes, of course I've gotten feedback from teachers and peers in the past, but not necessarily truly constructive remarks--things more akin to commentary (which I still appreciate as long as it's honest, mind you!). Chris: please don't give it a second thought; everything you said was right on point. I was a horn performance major for a while, so I do have some experience in quintets, but the genre is by no means my specialty and this is my first effort. The work has major structural problems (it's actually an arch-sonata form--LOL) and you actually inspired me to start revising it (rather than hate it unremittingly) for the first time in over a year. My focus right now is on making the counterpoint more goal-oriented and motivically sound. Of course this makes the mp3 obsolete, but it's more important to have better music. I'm posting a transposed score, since you asked--I assumed concert pitch would be more felicitous in understanding harmony and scoring. If you're able to look at it, please forgive the sloppy presentation, as I don't want to bother reformatting a score that I'm revising anyway.

First of all, thank you for the wonderful feedback on my wind quintet. I will reply on that thread soon, but I have a massive amount of work to do in a very short time (so I really shouldn't be here right now at all...). Chris, this piece has some amazing writing. I definitely think the first four bars are the best and I would guess that they're the ones you put the most work into. The voice leading is excellent and the verticalities genuinely satisfying. I recognize the idea of chorale variations here, but I'm having trouble finding bases for the variations in the theme, though I can't imagine they're not there because the piece sounds too unified to have been composed otherwise. I was going to ask if you admire Hindemith, but on reflection I'm not so sure it's a good hunch. I appreciate the title because of your description (I think I understand what you're getting at), but really...does it fit? I can definitely believe the idea inspired parts of the piece, but I think it clutters the music. And I am inclined to agree with some of the others that the piece does not sound self-contained. I think you may have become acclimated to its abrupt ending, but this is just my opinion. Some parts of this scream "organ suite" to me and I think it could function really well as a complete first movement, especially if you were to transform the chorale theme in subsequent movements. That's all I have time for at the moment, unfortunately. This is really great stuff. Alex

Jean Fran

Hey everyone! I'm Alex and I just found this site a few hours ago. I had no idea such a place existed, and it seems very positive, so I'd like to share my first serious composition, finished in the spring of 2007, and get some feedback on it. Although I composed almost nothing throughout my entire life, I decided I wanted to be a composition major. I wrote the quintet in the first of two years studying composition privately (just graduated with a BM in comp last month) and it was really, really hard for me. To call it writer's block wouldn't even begin to describe the agony it was to just come up with several bars of this piece, which is about 10 minutes. I've uploaded a PDF and a MIDI realization here and an MP3 of the live performance that's pretty good but not great. I've come a long way (or I think I have, anyway) in the last few months, and I know there are problems with the piece. I really want the benefit of objective viewpoints that offer constructive criticism, suggestions, or praise (if due) of specific parts of the score, the overall effectiveness of the piece, and general tendencies in my compositional approach. I see glaring flaws, quite honestly, and half the time I just want to tear the whole thing to shreds and deny I ever wrote it. I wrote a song cycle this academic year (on texts from Anthony Hecht's The Presumptions of Death), but it's not in shape for me to put up yet. I plan to some time this autumn, after I've thoroughly revised it and gotten it performed (well). One last thing: I've recently realized that yes, I actually do want music composition to be my career. It's my passion and I want to create works of art as great as I can possibly have the vision to. It's dangerous to ask so don't worry about hurting my feelings here: based on my wind quintet (again, my first attempt at a substantial piece), do people here think I have "what it takes" (enough compositional talent and insight) to become a successful composer? I know it's a really mean question to ask, but if I'm no good at writing music (which would explain why it's so difficult for me) then I need HONEST feedback now so that I can re-evaluate my long-term goals and pick an area that I do have talent in (no clue what it would be). It's better to know people's impressions now than to hear that my music sucks after a decade of working on it... That got a little heavy. Sorry for all the questions! In any event, I'll be less confused and self-conscious the next time I post. Thank you all in advance for your time and patience. This forum seems to be such a godsend; it's incredible to find a place like this only just now and have like-minded individuals to bond with. I've missed everyone here! Alex 01. Wind Quintet.mp3 - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage Wind Quintet.pdf Wind Quintet.mid Wind Quintet (transposed).pdf