Working As A Composer

Hi everybody, I write from Italy and I am the composer of a gothic-neoclassical duo, the Elfenwald (http://www.myspace.com/elfenwald01).

I like composing very much and I would be so happy to let musical composition become my work...I know it's very very difficult..it's also very difficult for a band or duo to reach the audience.

I studied piano for 10 years with a private-teacher, but I didn't attend the conservatory..since 2010 I started composing for my duo, and I discovered my composing-abilities..I'm not a genius, but I think I have enough abilities as a self-taught person. My dream is to let my duo be well-known and to work as soundtrack-composer. For the first thing I know that it's difficult and that we have to make a lot of promotion...what shall I do for the second question? Yes, surely I have to demonstrate my abilities and improve a lot (and, probably search for short films needing soundtracks), but which would be the way to became a professional composer?Anybody has self-experience to tell? Thank you so much and sorry ifor my imperfect English!!!

Hearing Broken Dreams I think you could benefit from more study. You have potential for cinema as the music is written definitely with an image in mind. My problem is Broken Dreams dies out too quickly and after about 20 secs I get tired of the timbres you chose - the setting is pretty well set as you use tried and true instruments - glockenspeil with a low flute and then some indistinct noise in background. Also you love ostinati, you have to get away from basing a piece on one ostinato or ostinati with little variation except a melody that hems close to the ostinato. Probably for this reasonHis Electro Blue Voice works much better as you have a riff and then a good improv over it. Sort of a ground with variations over it in the classical world. You also in this piece are a little more subtle changing the timbre - in fact you could have done more but for what it is - a sort of thrash punk electronica, I like it for about 1 minute and then it just gets a little tiring until toward the ending part it has some nice stuff --- the screaming gets a little dull. But hey, I get bored by Bolero!

Best way to improve more is to really delve deep into classical music if you want to know that style. This is involves listening to hundreds of years of music, understanding theory (if I say subdominant, mixture, Neapolitan sixth, periodic structure, sonata - would you know these terms?). You could also learn more about electronic music.

Finally, your music is hardly neo-classical. Rather it is heavily pop influenced by goth, punk, electronics - the classical influence is rather second hand (some of these pop trends were inspired by contemporary electronic classical music, some of the early 20th century modern stuff and Romanticism and with some people like Jethro Tull, medieval musics) So, I suggest more study and limit your promotion to getting experience writing for student films for now --- they are open to many styles.