September Contest - Writing for Organ

Dont fit the enire piece in 1 measre, only each, row/line/system (dont know how its called...)

But hey, since the presentation of the score is one of the items being judged I suppose no more freebies? ;)

Jcrmer - Great you are entering. Not to overwhelm you but can you recommend to some a good soundbank/library of pipe organ sounds that may come somewhat close to the organ I gave to write for?

Oh, btw if you want to see clearly indicated registrations look for jcramer's work for organ. Only difference is he placed his registration indications a little differnt from what I ask. The amount of notice for the changes he gives is excellent.

thanks for the compliment :)

I know of two good soundfonts for organ.

Jeux14.sf, a French Baroque with a Romantic addition.

and Stefans Cathedral Soundfont (or something like that). Very big, many stops and even more presents. I thing I like this font a bit less than the Jeux14

These two are huge, and I think OK. I guess they are both more oriented on French style. I am not familiar with the sound of American organs, I guess their sound is more in the English organ tradition?

Recently someone asked for them, but then they were unavailable on the internet. The way the soundfonts are composed differ for each Soundfont. For example the Jeux14 file has especialy the separated stops recorded. You have to use as many separate channels as different stops, to make them sound simultaniously...

With Stefans Soundfont many presets have been made. The bad part is solo voices are less available...

Currently available: Jeux d'orgues (based on two French organs) Different that the Jeux soundfont I talked about earlier...

available at www.archive.org

Jeux 1.4

list of stops

When needed I create a box-folder with the soundfonts. At least people can toy a bit with the sound of different stops, and what this special "orchestration" is about:)

BTW I am by no means a specialist on the field of registation, I'm a pianist who happens to have written some stuff for organ :)

I'm in and looking forward to this.

Very informative, looks like this will be fun.

Would it be okay if I participate? I can take some lessons in the registration and pedals from an instructor at my school, but I know very little in the field of composition for organ.

Matt - Sure give it a try. The most important thing about these competitions is doing the exercise. Winning is nice but not everything (something I had forgotten momentarily in thge last competition)

A collection of soundfonts is at Hammersound

The earlier mentioned Jeux14, Jeuxd'Orgues and Stefans Cathedral Pipe Organ soundfont are available here. Give it a try. Listen to some other samples as well; have fun :)

are we limited to using ONLY the first 4-8 bars of a jazz standard, or can we arrange the entire piece to fit these parameters?

Only first 4 - 8 bars. The contest is to see how well creatively and technically you handle borrowed motivic material

JUDGES -

I put October 15th as the deadline. Do you agree or should more time be given?

  composerorganist said:

JUDGES -

I put October 15th as the deadline. Do you agree or should more time be given?

Agreed. But, the October competition will have already started. But, that's ok.

Could you elaborate on pop standards? There are quite a few differing interpretations on that, as it could mean :

A- Classic pop from bands like The Beatles

B - The more jazz-like pop such as some works by Frank Sinatra and the like.

C - Popular music like Like A Rolling Stone

  composerorganist said:

JUDGES -

I put October 15th as the deadline. Do you agree or should more time be given?

i'ts ok

  MattZ2007 said:

Could you elaborate on pop standards? There are quite a few differing interpretations on that, as it could mean :

A- Classic pop from bands like The Beatles

B - The more jazz-like pop such as some works by Frank Sinatra and the like.

C - Popular music like Like A Rolling Stone

Good question. I wonder if "Unintended" by MUSE falls within the original parameters. If so, I am going to use that.

Can be A, B or C, BUT by standard something that has been around longer than 15 years.

So, I'll add that to the requirements

  composerorganist said:

...around...

my song is from 2000 :blush: pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaase?

I'll leave it up to the judges

I found this nice summary for composing for organ with additional repertoire:

Christo Bresnahan - Tips for Composing for Organ

I'm currently busy with some stuff for school. I'm afraid I cannot make a piece in time. I really regret this, because I think it's great to do a competition for organ.

S, I will try, but don't count on it... :(

i have a question about free time. I get the whole no meter thing, but does that also mean no constant pulse? Like how I'm going at this there is no defninate meter, but there is a definate pulse throughout the piece. I've never written anything like this before, so I want to make sure I'm doing it right.

The point of no meter is that its free. I guess free of a pulse as well. If you did write with a certain meter in mind and just removed the time signature and measure bars, that makes no sense...

I guess you should consider it as a lot of meter-changes, without signifying them... irregular...

good luck...

The problem is that on printmusic one cannot remove the time signature or barlines....

Before I forget, here's my entry. It's based on "Don't Get Around Much Anymore."

I know i've said this a few times already, but Printmusic does NOT allow me to remove the barlines or time signatures. I hope that this will not affect the judging process, for all values of notes, etc are the same, except within some sort of meter per line.

I Do Get Around Sometimes.pdf - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

i do get around sometimes.mp3 - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

Ok guys first entry - as I said I am not judging . So may we have a roll call of the judges?

Here.