pianoman216

Rendering midi as notation is always going to return sub par results. The best thing to do is use it for roughly getting down the outline of the piece and then use the original sheet music to compare and correct. Personally I find it much easier to manually input each note from the original sheet music...then again, I think I can "type" music faster than I can type words

I really enjoyed the sound of this piece. It flows well and has great harmonic texture. The issue of the improper sylabolic emphasis can be fixed easy enough with a few tenudo markings or temporary changes in time signature. My biggest concern is actually the staffing. Most of the piece is really only 4 parts as the 1 and 2 voices simply mirror each other. It should be SATB divisi with 2 layers on the same staff in places where parts split. It will make it a lot easier to read and analyze. 8 staves should really only be used when you have 8 distinct polyphonic parts or true 8 part harmony (very little doubling) with extensive 12-16 part splits.

Well, you know I'm in. I can sing bass 1 through alto 2 (somtimes down to bass 2 and up to alto 1, just not on the same days :) ). I'll sing all the parts I can.

Yes, those would be key changes

I just downloaded it and didn't get a virus...I think you're good :)

You know, that is probably the best description of dissonance I've ever heard! Though I think the drug reference covers it all. Some people have less tolerance for that sort of thing and any kind of drug makes them sick, others are straight up addicted to the high. I for one am addicted to dissonance...It is more vital to my life that breathing :)

I had the same problem as Peter_W. I went ahead and played it out on my piano so I never heard you're midi version (and we all hate crappy renderings of our pieces...few things frustrate me more). I also sang through each part and I noticed what you were saying about each part being somewhat independent. And I appreciate the fact that you understand how written music translates to a live performance. It is very clear from your writing that you didn't just sit down, drop in some random notes and move them up and down until it sounded good on the computer (one of the biggest mistakes I see in unpublished composers...and the biggest reason they stay unpublished). I think one of the best ways to make a piece sound good is to make each part enjoyable for the performer. It can be simple and theoretically perfect, but if its boring you will loose pitch constantly. On the other hand if it breaks every "rule" in the book, but its fun, it will land right where you want it. I really enjoyed singing through each part and would love to help out on a virtual performance of the piece. Keep me posted!

You have some amazing chords in this piece! I love the voicing of the AM9 chord in measure 16. I think my only issue with this piece is the constant shifting and inverting within a single chord. This is not inherently wrong to do per se, but it will dampen some feeling of movement and motion. The fact that you specifically ask for movement at the beginning of the piece seems rather ambiguous when you then write it in a way that restricts that movement. Don't get me wrong though, I really enjoyed the piece. I was concerned with a few voice crossing/overlap issues in a few places, but they grew on me. I assume you knew what you were doing and purposefully included these elements for balance and a certain sound (if it was an accident however, please remove them immediately :) Great job on this though! I really liked it. Thanks a lot!

great use of sub-dominant suspensions! I love those. The chords flow nicely, there is enough rhythmic contrast to make it interesting throughout the piece and you use secondary modulation wonderfully! I'm a little confused as to the difference between the pronunciation of dog, boston and spa, but then again I'm not very familiar with the IPA :). I think some words would add a lot more meaning to the piece and wouldn't be terribly difficult to add to the setting, but thats just my opinion and I can see the artistic value of leaving it open as written. Well done!

I definitely agree with siwi on this. Its to statically full to really go anywhere. Thin it out a little bit, create more movement and allow it to thicken up for certain climactic points. I must say though, I absolutely LOVED your key changes! They gave me chills :)

I loved your use of triplets versus duplets (most of them anyway), but I almost always enjoy any sort of contrasting rhythms. The melody is well written and has great forward motion. The accompaniment supports the melody nicely, but I felt it lacked something, perhaps a little more between vocal phrases to create more drive and movement. It just kinda stops for a bit before picking back up in the next phrase. Thats just my opinion though, overall I really enjoyed it. Thanks!

Yeah, its all very personal and varies significantly from individual to individual. I, for example, find it significantly easier to write 8 part divisi choir music (or double choir) than solo piano. I can write out a full length, fully orchestral movie score off the rough draft of a screen play, but find it quite difficult just to write a simple symphony. It all depends on YOU. What YOU find interesting, what YOU hear in your head and what comes naturally to YOU. My best advice would be to experiment a little. You should be able to at least get a general idea of what area fits you best pretty quickly. Try writing a string quartet, a piano solo, a vocal solo w/ accompaniment, an SATB choir piece, a symphony AND a few different instrumental solos (plus whatever else you can think of like concerti, advent garde, electronica etc.). You don't need to finish each piece, but you should push yourself until you have written at least 1:00 of play time on each - sometimes you feel like it's not going anywhere, but you just need to hit your second wind. See what comes naturally and easiest and go from there. Focus on that for a while and then try your hand at incorporating the experience you've picked up into a new area.

It was a joke...but still partially true. I went through my "John Williams is the man" phase and then started actually analyzing his work and found that it all is remarkably similar...good, but with little variation (like I said, "mostly" allowing for some works that are different) I absolutely think jazz had a positive effect on his composing skills. At the same time, however, I think that any experience in any field of music, performance or otherwise, will have good affect on the composer.

There aren't to many more I would like to play. I play the piano, the guitar, the organ, I'm vocally trained and I have taught myself the basic technique of the violin (though I don't officially count that as knowing how to play it). I think my first choice would be the cello, even before working on the violin more. Second would be drum set (I suck at it currently...though guitar hero and rock band are helping, lol) and third would probably go to trumpet, simply because its so functional as a solo instrument, but that is up in the air and #3 could go to french horn as well, I'm not entirely decided. Oh, and its not exactly a new instrument, but definitely a new learning curve...I want to learn how to play the piano with my feet so I can play both parts of "Heart and Soul" by myself...among other duets ;)

And almost all of his stuff sounds the same...makes sense ;) (P.S. I do respect John Williams works and there are actually quite a few composers and famous, professional orchestrators that got their start in jazz...or at least got good through jazz) (P.S.S .....where did that comment come from anyway? :huh: