Asparagus Brown

Nobody's mentioned Dvorak's America quartet yet. It's not necessarily my favourite, but I think it seems to sum up about everything good in humanity. It's a piece that I know I can put on and always feel happy by its conclusion. Anyway, just tossing that one into the bag!

First of all, I have to say that listening to metal as a midi file is absolutely hilarious. Anyway, this is a cool piece. If you're in a band playing this kind of music at the moment, you should definitely try to get yourself a recording. It has some great potential if you can throw it at a good enough group of musicians! It reminded me a bit of Mr. Bungle's first album in the way it starts out with a lot energy and changes, and eventually fades out to distant jazz chords. I'd say that the drummer might struggle banging away so quickly on the double kicks at the end's soft volume, but with a drummer good enough to play the rest of it, it might not be an issue, anyway. And it's not really an issue for him to change what he plays in that section. Suave work. Michael.

Hova, I think the point other of us are trying to make is that, while some universities come with certain amount of prestige, that doesn't necessarily make them the best place to study music, or more specifically, composition, and even more specifically, certain types of composition. Every place has its pros and cons, and finding the place ideally suited to the individual is the best approach. If you feel its important to attend a university that has a very good reputation, that's completely understandable, but it might not be the best approach for everyone. The poster of the OP is weighing up where to study with how far he's willing to move away from home. Some people have other priorities and preferences when it comes to choosing where to study.

First of all, I'm in Australia, but I'm assuming a lot of what I'm saying will be relevant to the States. I'm going to study next year, and I did a fair amount of research of different places around the country to decide where would be best for me. If you're wanting to study composition next year, you probably have a decent idea where you want to go with it, so look into the places you're willing to go and check which place seems most sympathetic to the direction you want to take. Different schools have different specialities. Some have a leaning towards electro-acoustic music, audio-visual projects, tonal music, computer-generated music, etc. while others offer very broad courses. Another decent idea is to read up on the composers working at the schools. Composers are generally open-minded people (here in Australia, at least), but being taught by someone with similar musical goals and ideals is always a bonus. The final thing you should consider is the direction the course could lead you career-wise (this is the part I'm not sure applies to the states). Some schools have a very practical, industry-focused approach (ie. making you work with film scores, computer programs, etc) that are intended to lead you towards being able to make a living from composition. Others have more academic sensibilities that are likely to lead to research, pedagogy and concert compositions. Anyway, I've written a long post that may or may not help at all, but hopefully it'll do you some good to read! And finally, don't necessarily aim for the most prestigious schools for their reputation alone, while it looks good on your resume, I think it's more important to look at which place suits you as a composer, and where you want to go with your composing.

Hello, Serge. Welcome to YC. I see you've been commenting on lots of people's works, which is great! I also think I read somewhere that you're quite new to composing, so welcome! Anyway, onto the piece. I don't mind your ideas here, there's that bit of dissonance thrown into the piano part, which works nicely. I do get the feeling, though, that you've been sucked into the temptation that's always there with Sibelius, which is "copy and paste." Repeating material is a great way to reinforce it to the listener, but you need to be careful in how you repeat it. An exact repetition leaves the listener with no surprises. So while copy and paste can be a time-saver, be very careful to use it wisely. The other thing I think you need to work on is some counter-rhythms. Listen to any of the "great" composers and you'll notice that they constantly have something happening rhythmically that keeps the listener focused and interested. In this piece, you have all the rhythms working together, which ends up being predictable. Things like syncopation and counter-rhythms help to avoid this problem. Anyway, hope you find the feedback useful and welcome again to the site!

Thanks for the feedback, Ron. I know I'm bending Rimsky-Korsakov's rules a bit in this, but I really wanted to have the individual timbres really flourishing, with equality, in a way that would normally be reserved for smaller ensembles and solo instruments. I've tried to keep it from being too over-the-top, though. This isn't really conventional orchestration, so I've been wanting on feedback on if it would actually work in the way I've intended. This is also why I originally hand-wrote the parts individually rather than two players to a staff, but I do agree that there are long sections where it would make for a cleaner score to tidy it up like you suggest, so thanks for that! I'll have to get onto Camilla! About the distortion, I guess the MP3 didn't turn out too well from Finale! But it's interesting how that should happen, since my original intention was to have the piece fade into a kind of white noise rather than discernible parts. I'll look into it. Anyway, thanks very much for the feedback! Thank you also, to Serge for your feedback, too. And Heckel, Camilla replied to Ron for me because she put it into Finale and edited it for me, I thought that was clear enough! :)

Hello! You have some really interesting melodic and harmonic ideas here! So, congratulations on that. I do think you could do a lot more with them, though. For instance, adding some rhythmic variation could be a good idea. Throughout the five minutes of this piece, you only have three different values for notes: quavers, minims and semibreves (eighth notes, half notes and whole notes if that doesn't make sense), with no ties or syncopation. Also, there are some problems with the score, like having a tempo of 111 is a bit of an ask, and for the final two chords, rather than changing the tempi of them, it makes more sense just to put in fermatas, or if you really want, write in long note values. Also having dynamic markings below empty bars seems a bit strange to me. Anyway, as I said, you have some really good ideas in here! Michael.

It's interesting to hear different people's takes on having a website. Personally, I like Gardener's approach of having a website where, if people are interested in finding out more about you and your music, they can, rather than trying to reach people through it. I also like Nikolas' idea about it showing a certain dedication and commitment to composing just by having a well-produced, up-to-date website.

I, too, write at a desk, but I'll usually have instrument nearby like my keyboard or a guitar. I usually use the instrument to double-check what I'm hearing in my head to make sure I'm actually writing down what I want. I don't do this for every note, usually more for melodic parts that I need exactly as I hear it and that it still sounds good coming from a proper sound-source. Sometimes I'll hear something in my head, then play it and it decide that it wasn't that cool, after all! Anyway, I write at a desk, but having a instrument nearby comes in handy.

Well, everyone seems to have their own, personal page on the net dedicated to showcasing themselves as a composer. I've noticed increasing amounts of people posting their pieces on this forum with just links to their site rather than uploading the score here. I'm not saying I'm opposed to this in any way, just an observation. What are your thoughts on having a website? Do you have one? Do you think it helps in promoting yourself or in some other way? I'm interested to see what people think of the idea. I, personally, don't have my own site, but I'm also wondering if, in the future if I wish to be competitive as a composer, I'll need one. It's an interesting little thought, I think. Please, discuss! Michael.

Hello I have a recording of an orchestral version orchestrated by Alfred Luck and performed by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Personally I prefer the piece on piano, but perhaps look that up and see what you can find! Michael.

Hello all! First of all, a quick analysis of the piece: The piece is built upon a two competing points of interest. The first is a five note motif (in an incredibly subtle move, the first five of the piece), which recurs throughout the piece. The second is simply the use of upwards chromatic movement. In most cases, this becomes more of a recognisable texture than a specific "theme." The ending is a recapitulation of the beginning of the piece with the intrusion of the upward chromatic movement before becoming entirely overcome by the texture and lead to a concluding chord that contains all 12 semitones. Secondly, on a less-analytical note, this is my first composition for an ensemble this size. I chose to write for a fairly standard classical double-winds chamber orchestra because I really wanted the voices to maintain a bit of their individuality and sing through in certain parts, but at the same time have an ensemble large enough to create thick, complicated textures. I'll also note that, since I had no misapprehensions about the chances of having this piece performed, I decided I may as well not limit myself and write for a very high-standard level of players. Despite my good intentions, I imagine that there will be parts of this piece that wouldn't work for whatever reason, be it passages that are too technically demanding, or poor orchestration, etc. Anyway, I'd be very grateful to have these aspects pointed out to me, as well as anything that you think works, too, so the learning process can continue! Anyway, the .pdf of the score is attached below, and here's a link to an .mp3 Thanks very much, Michael. Chamber Music Piece.pdf

I think Sibelius is more intuitive if you're using traditional notation. Anything outside standard notation is possible, too, but you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get there. Finale manages much better with less-common notation, because it seems to have a button cluttered somewhere in the interface specifically for what you want to do. Anyway, this comes down to my opinion being that they both have their strengths and weaknesses without one or the other being "better." And a lot of the bias that comes into arguments seems to be a "what you're used to" kind of thing.

I don't think there is this gap you speak of. Yes, there is music written with that aims to expand the boundaries of music, and there is also music that is written with no meaning other than to make money and be popular. In between these two kinds of extremes, however, there are countless other kinds of music that fill this gap. There are popular bands who write experimental music, and there are highly-trained composers who write popular music. Then there the missing definitions of "popular" and "serious." You can talk about this supposed gap between music, but it's just not black and white like that.

Hello, Cody! I like your overall idea, and I really like the electronic interludes. They sound great. That said, I found the instrumental movements a bit rhythmically dry. They beat on my ears after a while. I'm not saying the rhythms need to be more complex or difficult, just that having those quavers pounding away all through the first and third movements, and the semiquavers in the second, it felt like it really needed a bit more syncopation here, some triplets there, or just anything to break up that drive. Maybe a bit of call and response between the instruments? I'm sorry if I sound negative at all, I don't mean to be, I just thought you'd like to hear my opinion! Anyway, I'm glad to hear the performance went well! Michael.