wboe

Hello, I wrote a music composition progam, called BigBand. It is meant to be all you need to write compositions for a small ensemble. You can read about it and download it from BigBand - composing music for small ensembles Linux users will know what to do next: unpack the archive file, read the README file, compile and install the program, then try it out. Bigband can do a lot, but of course not all that you might whish. Then as usual you could write an email to the author along the lines of: Hello, I liked your app very much, however you could make me happy if the following feature would be added: ... Linux geeks are fond of writing and testing new applications, but actually using them seems not so important. That is my reason for this post in this forum. Regards.

Thanks for all your advice. By the way, the notation really is a software problem: I enter the notes as horizontal lines (for the instruments) or dots (for the percussion) in one big staff. If the music sounds right, I click a button and the complete score is generated.

How dare you ... ;) Still, thank you for your comments. Hey, this is a forum for composers, you don't have to deliver a professional sounding end product. About those dynamic markings: we (the bigband that I am playing in) never see dynamic markings in our scores, the conductor tells us how to play the different parts. The timing is the most important, not the dynamics. If you try to emulate that on a computer the result will be disgusting most of the time. That's right. Real musicians forever! Now you've got me. I write my own (open source) software, and the drum part needs upgrading. However, our drummer hardly ever looks at his score, so why should I bother? Who said that this piece is jazz? There are some jazz influences but not much. About the books: I read several of them, and I know that I should start with the chords beforehand. That's not easy, because good melodies jump into my head now and then, and I want to use them. Finding a melody that fits a given chord progression is something that's not natural for me. Actually I joined this forum in order to find out how other composers are working.

This piece is for a small bigband, where the bariton and the soprano sax are good players, and the guitarist refuses to read notes. So he gets only a dull part and this is not included in the next mp3: http://members.chello.nl/w.boeke/bigband/how-low-midi.mp3 The score: http://members.chello.nl/w.boeke/bigband/how-low.pdf I work as follows: First I devise some melodies, then I combine them, then I make them polyphonic, then I find out what might be the appropriate chords, then I add guitar and bass. It appears that finding the chords is much work, still I cannot start with the chords. I simply am not able to. If somebody has a good advice, I would be happy. Wouter

Sorry, you misreaded my post. I did not ask for a motivation for his harmonic progressions, I asked how he arrived at the specific notes of his piece. Maybe you have visited a conservatory and learned fixed methods how to compose a piece of music, but for simple amateurs (like me) this is not clear at all. I know that Mozart wrote down his pieces straight-ahead on paper, and that Strawinsky sat down at the piano and tried different chords and melodies all the time. I myself am relying heavily on the computer, with all the support from the software and immediate feedback of the sounding results, and I'm not proud of that. Our friend Ghostofvermeer wrote a surprising piece for trumpet and piano and was praised for his harmonies, still he stated that he knows little about theory. So he seems to be the right person to ask: how did you do it?

I have a question for you. If you are lacking on theory, how do you arrive at your harmonies? Are you just trying on the piano or on your computer? Or do you hear the sounds that you need in your head and write the notes directly to the screen? In both cases, knowledgeble people will ask you questions about your harmony that you cannot answer.

"does not work at all" ... I don't agree, cause that depends on your taste. People (like me) who are fond if non-diatonic scales will like it. That also counts for repetition in the melody: that can have either a hallucinating or a boring effect. You cannot make everybody happy all the times. To add my own personal recommandation: after the last monumental organ solo there should better come nothing. A few teasing chords would leave the listener in a pleasant uneasy mood. I am curious what sounds are sampled and what comes from real instruments. That guitar solo for instance. Wouter

As Ticktockfool pointed out, the piece would need proper harmonization to become a good jazz composition. However, it was not meant to be jazz at all! You can hear this from the feel, which is not swing but as straight like an old steam locomotive. As a matter of fact I once tried to introduce swing and also blues-like harmony, however then the piece lost its character and it did not work. You heard a Middle Eastern feel? This must origine from the many dissonants that I used. Most passages sound as intended ("Lekker Boos" means: angry and I like it). I tried to find some system underlying the choosen pitches, using the theory books that I posess, but I could not find it. By the way, I also tried to find the system used by someone like Shostakowitch. I know that he used his own scales, but apparently he didn't adhere to them. Why? I dunno, I only hear that it is sounding perfect. Maybe I talk like the self-taught amateur that I am indeed. However once I will create a piece where the chords float from one to another in perfect harmony. A score file is here: http://members.chello.nl/w.boeke/bigband/l-boos.pdf Wouter

Ai ai, this sounds like a reprimand. As a matter of fact, I know how to harmonize, be it with much hesitation. The piece that I submitted is a stripped-down version, several instruments have been left out, because it is easier to listen to it this way. The main harmonizing instrument was a guitar playing a very boring part (always 4 quarters in a bar) because our guitarist refuses to play something different. I have to admit that "Lekker Boos" has hardly any harmonic progression. Later on I will submit a more interesting piece. Wouter

I'm afraid I don't understand you, as the only file that I supplied was an MP3. The instruments were not created by MIDI equipment, the sounds were generated directly (by means of extended FM synthesis), so they did not sound natural at all. Maybe that was not the best option for this forum, so I replaced the MP3 with a file generated via MIDI. However, you should believe that the piece is sounding far better when my bigband plays it! Wouter

Hi, I am playing the flute in an amateur bigband, and it's not easy to get heard with all those saxophone's around me. To compensate for this, I now and then write a composition for the band. One of these is called "Lekker Boos", and it sounds like this: http://members.chello.nl/w.boeke/bigband/l-boos.mp3 The sound comes from a program called BigBand, running under Linux. Therefore, I have an additional question: are there other Linux users here, or is everybody using Finale? Regards, Wouter