thethirdpoliceman

Hey, thanks for responding. It think part of the problem is that the word you're talking about is "weary" not "worry" lol. In any case I can kind of see what you mean, I just thought that chord represented a kind of weary trying to rest kind of sound but then the again the words are "never weary" so maybe it's still not appropriate, I'll think about it.

Hey thanks again maianess for giving me some advice. :) Ok, well I'll try and change this and see what it's like. I think it will take some time to do this in sibelius though unfortunately! Thanks for clearing up that stuff about melismas and score layout. I'll consider what you've said about smoothing the transitions out because I agree they are a bit abrupt at the moment. I'll post the edited version of the score and MIDI files when I've made some kind of substantial changes to these bits. Dev: Thanks for commenting, I see what you mean about not changing the orginal text, I'm not sure if that's allowed or not really. I did find another setting of this text by Arthur Sullivan (which I think is pretty terrible to be honest), and on that score it is seperated as "ev - 'ry" but he only uses to notes for the word so it's not really the same so I'm still pretty confused what I should do about that! Too much conflicting information lol. Sullivan's setting can be found here if you're interested. Sullivan's Part Songs - The Rainy Day Well, the reason I said "I'm trying to sound like Whitacre" was because this composition is for my A-level music qualification and part of the way to get marks and a ultimately a good grade, is by saying what composers or works influenced you, and you're supposed to name specific works and things. So, I agree with you that no-one can be more like Whitacre than himself and I'd much rather create my own sound than imitate someone else's but sadly at this point I have to do it this way because I need to get a good grade!!! I suppose I have to imitate, before I can create! Thanks for the advice though. :)

Hey, I thought that was a really nice piece of music and the poem is really good as well! Nice work for a couple of hours, I wish I could compose that quickly! I'm not too sure if I would agree with you that the bass part is perfectly manageable at the start it does seem too high, but I don't know that much about that kind of thing so I'm not too sure! I like the build at the 'overflowing' bit but I'm not too sure about carrying that on until the next pools of light bit. I think you should start thining out the texture a little bit on the words pools and of, but still keep enough of it there so you can feel the contrast on the word light. The one other but I don't really like is the descending chromatic bits at bars 27-29 and 31-32, but that might just be my personal preference. The ending is really good! Keep up the good work!

Hey musicdecomposed, thanks very much again for taking the time to give me some feedback! I think you may have meant bar 28 (where the 4/2 bar is I assume you mean). It is quite a sudden change I suppose but I quite like it. It might sound worse because the MIDI doesn't really properly crescendo in the bar before it so the forte is a bit sudden. I might see what happens if I just half the note values there and make it a 4/4 bar, but I'm not sure yet. Thank you very much! :) I think you're right about that probably, I might change the main melody to the tenor or bass and swap their part round with the soprano/alto part or something like that anyway lol. Personally I like the sudden change to minor because the mood of the text changes again, but I'll think about it! I think you mean 55 but anyway I definitely agree. I did the end in a bit of a rush and in retrospect the unison bit is pretty terrible lol. I will change this. I can see what you're getting at there, I might just try changing the end of that phrase so it doesn't sound so finished. I'm gonna try and change that bit right now actually so I'll see what I can do! Thanks again for the comments!

Hey maianess, thanks so much for the comment, I greatly appreciate your feedback, especially as you've actually said more than just 'that's good' or 'that's bad'! Sorry for the length analysis of your comment that is to come! Yes, I'm also not to sure about the time signature changes. Personally I was thinking that maybe it should be 6/4 throughout most of the piece as maybe that's what the 4/4 + the 2/4 bars would add up to. My only problem with is that it might take away the emphasis of some of the words at the start of the 2 beat bars, but I'll think about that in any case. To be honest I'm not entirely sure what the meaning of slurs is in vocal music. Is it just when there is a melisma that you use it or not? I partly wrote it in this way because I was trying to draw on influences from works by Eric Whitacre and I was looking a lot at his piece 'Water Night' which is also very blocky. Having said that though I do realise that not all of his pieces are like that. I will try and put some more contrasting lines in now, and I agree that if I just use the unison for sections like the 'shining' bit it will definitely improve the piece. Yeh I agree that it would be better if I were to lead into it, but I'm not to sure how I would go about that: should I just extend/develop the last line of the previous verse 'And the days are dark and dreary' and then somehow merge it into the next bit? By the layout do you mean the actual way the scores laid out or the music itself? Hmm, actually the reason why I have it like that is because someone else on this forum told me to do it that way lol! So should I have 'ev' for the first two quavers and then " 'ry" for the next two? Yeh, now that I think about it that probably would be a bit abrubt, I'll try and think of a better way of doing that. Yes, I do hate MIDI!! Hopefully I will be able to get my school choir to sing this, but it's not hugely likely this will happen, which is very annoying!! Once again thanks for the comment and sorry to write such an essay in response. I will try to change some of it and then upload the files again here. Does anyone know how I replace the current files I have uploaded in my above post with new ones, or do I have to just upload them in a different post?

Hi all, This piece was in the incomplete section for a while but i've 'finished' it now, although I expect I will end up changing a lot of things before it's truly finished. This is a composition which I have writen for my music A-level, and we have to set a given text to music. The text is a poem called The Rainy Day by Henry Wadsworth Longefellow, and it's extremely depressing, although the last stanza has a moment of relief! I have tried to write it in quite a 'modern' style, so there is lots of interesting harmonies with added seconds, fourths, sevenths, etc. I also tried to write it in a style similar to that of Eric Whitacre, although I'm not too sure if it turned out that way in the end. I have posted the words to the poem below, and the pdf, midi, and sibelius files. I would be extremely grateful for any feedback, be it positive or negative (or worse!). The day is cold, and dark, and dreary; It rains, and the wind is never weary; The vine still clings to the moldering wall, But at every gust the dead leaves fall, And the day is dark and dreary. My life is cold, and dark, and dreary; It rains, and the wind is never weary; My thoughts still cling to the moldering Past, But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast And the days are dark and dreary. Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; Thy fate is the common fate of all, Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary. The Rainy Day 2.pdf The Rainy Day 2.mid The Rainy Day 2.sib

I just found a website which seems to have masses on music theory, and it also links to another website in places which also talks in great detail about composition. Dolmetsch Online - Music Theory Online - Staffs, Clefs & Pitch Notation The other website it seems to link to a lot is this: Alan Belkin, composer Hope that helps (even though this thread started a long time ago lol)

Ok, I've now got music for the second stanza as well, and have uploaded the latest files below. Once again I'd greatly appreciate anyone's views on this so please listen if you have the time and leave some comments. There's one more stanza to go after this which is more joyful, so that will be quite different from the other two, and hopefully it well develop a lot more there as well. When I have finished that I will load it onto the complete works section. The Rainy Day 2.pdf The Rainy Day 2.mid

Hey, I thought that was brilliant, really orginal and kind of mysterious sounding.

Hey, thanks very much for the feedback, it's much appreciated. I must admit I'm not too familiar with the term 'voice leading', but I'll google it in a bit. Most people seem to not like the beginning, so I'll definitely think of revising that bit as the opening really shouldn't be the worst bit! Once again, thanks for the comments, anymore from anyone are always welcomed!:)

Hey, Ralph. Thanks taking the time to have a listen, I appreciate your comments. Yeh I thought the dissonance was appropriate to represent the word cold. Yeh I wouldn't say there is that much dissonance after that but there is a lot of added 4ths, 6ths, 7ths, and 2nds. I didn't really want to go overboard on the dissonance but still try and keep it quite somber, but maybe there should be more, and yeh tritones are always good lol! I was partly using the long, dull rhythms to represent the meaning of the words, but i agree it does seem a bit too monontonous after a while. I might not change what I've done thus far, but I will however begin to add more interest as the piece goes on, both rhythmically and with the dissonance, etc. Thanks very much for the advice, I'll give you a shout, so to speak, when I've progressed further.

Hey, I don't know all that much about accordion music, but I thought that was brilliant and your friend is amazing at playing the accordion! I can really imagine walking through an Italian city at night when listening to that music. Keep up the good work!

Hey just listened to your piece. I thought the main vocal melody was really beautiful and i think you definitely achieved that wistful atmosphere that you said you wanted to create. I also like your creative use of harmonies. My main criticism would be the piano writing. Some of the left hand passages seem a bit odd like in bar 15 with the thirds, it might just be me but it's just not what I'd expect to see in a piano accompaniment part. LIkewise the moving triads at bar 38 don't really work that well. There also quite a few moments where the piano copies the rhythm of the vocal part where i don't think should. On the whole though it's pretty good, nice work. :)

Thank you.

I need some soul destroying criticism, please listen. :)