JMisciagno

Interesting topic. I believe that the reason is a little mathematical. When we hear 4/4, our minds are grouping the notes into its factor, 2. The number 2 is the smallest prime number that can be divided into subdivisions(this excludes the number 1) and therefore is the most simple for us to process. This explains why 2/4 and 4/4 are the most stable, 3/4, a little less, and 5/4, 7/4, 11/4 etc. increasingly less.

Thanks for the input. SYS65, you're absolutley right about the Satie influence; mostly in movements 1,3, and 5. The other movements were written with a different emotion in mind, and the harmony just kind of happened. I also see your point about the end of movement 4. I'm gonna work on it.

Hello everyone, This piece is a collection of five short movements for piano that I wrote without much technical preplanning, but rather the intention of depicting a good friend of mine: Carah A. Naseem. I began composing the work in July and finished in September, however, all movements were composed weeks apart during two-day emotional catharses of sorts. On an analytical note, the piece contains extended tonality and untraditional chords as well as some frequent changes in meter for the sake of expression. Most chords were built off major and minor chords, without tritones or augmented chords for an organic effect. On the contrary, I kept the form VERY simple. Please let me know if you believe that I overdid it, as well as any other criticism that you have. Enjoy. John Misciagno ? Portraits of a Nightingale ? Free listening at Last.fm NOTE: The pieces use very softer dynamics with the exception of the ending. I wouldn't recommend listening to them at high volumes. Portraits of a Nightingale.pdf

Lately, my inspirations for composing have been emotions I've had, but listening to music of Allegri, Tallis, Byrd...(jump a few centuries), Schubert, Faur

Despite it being based on repetition, I just listened to it 3 times in a row, and it's still just as fresh. Very nice.

Yeah no problem. I'd say measure 46 and 56.

Well I can't speak as somebody who knows about church music...as a listener I enjoyed it. Maybe I can help with the organ part. In my opinion, some of the tritones stick out and break the nice flow you have going. I would replace some of the V7 chords with V and the ii

Hey Zephler, This is impressive. I'm a big fan of polyphony so that was a plus. I like the imitation at measure 2 and 38. Great use of unconventional chords like D-G-C and E-F#-A throughout the piece. I didn't expect them and when I heard them I died a little bit. Then the way the you tied it all back to the beginning line at measure 42 was very natural and rounded out the form. And of course my favorite part of the whole piece was the final cadence, because of the unresolved chords that lead into a tonic chord without the third. Very strong ending. The only thing that I wasn't crazy about was the F natural at measure 20. It was just a little too dissonant for my taste. Great piece, and thanks for commenting on mine.

Wow thank you. That means a lot. I'm actually a rather confused composer and everything that I write seems to be a different style with a different technique. I'm always saying, "Oh I'm never gonna write like that again". haha For this piece, I made it a point to focus on rhythm more than I usually do, so I used 3-2polyrhythms throughout the piece. The middle section is in 7/8 time because I wanted it to be more loosely-knit than the rest of the piece. As for the melody and harmony, I haven't been writing diatonically lately; either I use a synthetic scale (as I did in this piece) or write atonally, but not 12-tone. I always write the melody first because I feel that too much contemporary music ignores that particular aspect of music. Then those little diatonic parts where the chords sort of "morph" into each other were written after I heard it in my head, and then typed it into Finale with trial and error. That happens enough in my music, but I could never write a whole piece like that. So basically, I use different techniques depending on what kind of genre or emotion that I'm going for.

Wow. First I'd just like to say that the title could not have more accurate. I'm also in love with the emotion that permeates the entire piece and hearing a live performance with players that convey that emotion was a real treat. Please post the score if you can...and keep writing!

Hello everyone, This the first time that I am posting one of my compositions up on this website. I hope that you all enjoy my work and I plan to be posting more of it in the near future. For this particular piece, Prelude, I used a bit of set theory. I started with the hexachord, E, F, G, A#, B, C# (0,1,3,6,7,9) and it’s complement and transposed inversion, A, C, D, Eb, F#, G# (5, 8, t, e, 2, 4), being used in imitative counterpoint. This can be heard between the viola and cello near the middle of the piece. Next, I used the viola melody as the main theme of the piece which is later transposed up a tritone and other intervals. There’s a bridge between these parts which is ACTUALLY DIATONIC, but has no motivic material and a rather different mood than the rest of the piece. Ok so that was my rant for those who might be interested… All comments are appreciated. John Misciagno ? Prelude for Chamber Orchestra ? Free listening at Last.fm Prelude PDF.pdf

Your idea excites me...It also reminds me of something Sch