Morty

I have a piece that is sort of in 9/4 for most, if not all, of the piece, except it's divided into a bar of 5/4 followed by a bar of 4/4. I'm not exactly sure how I should format this - should I do one long bar of 9/4, a bar of 9/4 with a dashed bar line between the 5/4 and 4/4 measure, just have a bar of 5/4 followed by a bar of 4/4, or what? Thanks!

Um, I don't think anybody said that there are no schools to go to... It's impossible to simply suggest a school. Although I see that your grades aren't that great, I don't know what your financial situation is, if you want to stay close to home, exactly how much experience you have, etc. Muzic gave you some of the best places in the US (except for Berklee, personally, I really don't agree with their philosophy, sorry to any Berklee people out there), but all of those are very competitive. Given what you've told us so far, I'd look for a university or college that fits your basic needs, that seems like it has an environment you would feel comfortable with, perhaps research the music department a bit more, and go from there. And if you're a senior, if you haven't already, you should get started very, very soon, many schools' application deadlines are Dec. 1 or Jan. 1.

Oh, please. Having somebody as your mentor doesn't mean they're brain-washing you. They're not going to tell you what to write, they'll facilitate the creative process. There are so many incredibly important things you learn form a teacher besides just, say, theory or orchestration.

One would think that, but it doesn't seem to be possible, I've messed with it for quite some time.

I have a sort of long appogiatura run that goes over two piano staffs, so I made the left hand treble clef for the run, but I want it to return to the bass clef for the note it leads into. Unfortunately, Sibelius seems to only recognize clef changes before actual notes, not any grace notes. Does anybody know if I can change the clef just for the appogiaturas (appogiaturi?), then switch back for the first note? Thanks!

Thanks a lot, everyone! I am looking more towards notation, theoretically, than creating audio. I'll look into it, and get back to you if I have any more pressing questions.

Yes, I'm sure this has been asked many times, but I'm looking into getting some sort of notation program - right now I do everything longhand. Keeping in mind functionality and price (i.e., the cheaper the better - but obviously I don't want it to be so simple that I can't use it), what would you suggest for me? Thanks!

Thanks a lot! That's pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

Hi, I'm going to be applying to a music school in composition, and I was thinking about trying my hand at a 12-tone composition as one of my submissions - I don't know how it'll turn out, if it'll be any good, but it's something I'm interested in anyway, and I thought it might be good to get sort of a basic understanding. I haven't really found a good resource that explains how to use 12-tone, rather than simply an encyclopedia-type article about it - can anybody recommend one? Also, although I've heard a fair amount of 12-tone works, I realized I haven't followed the scores of any - if you were to suggest the best piece to listen to to get a better grasp of it, especially from a composer's perspective, what would it be? (And do you know where I can find a score of it online?) Thanks!

The term "classical music" is, frankly, half responsible for the fact that many people, like that poster above, call classical music dead. The very term implies that it exists in the past, that it's stagnant, that it's something to be "preserved." In every other genre, with perhaps the exception of jazz (which in itself is sadly half dead), the majority of its listeners focus on the present, on what music is being made now. Now be honest, how many of you, supposed fans of "classical music," have actually listened to a piece composed in the last year, five years, decade, even the last fifty years? Not as much, I would say, as how many people have listened to music more than two centuries old. See this great article by possibly the smartest music critic alive, Alex Ross: http://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/05/more_to_come_6.html