What Does Your Catalog Look Like?

I have been wondering what other composers on YC consider to be their full body of work -- set in stone, with as little backtracking and revising as possible. I ask because after a year since I started my first serious work, I have only completed five pieces: two Sinfoniettas, a Viola Concerto, and two small series of songs/waltzes. I have other things in the works, but it feels like the whole process is progressing only very slowly.

How long have you been composing, and how many completed works do you have to show for it? I saw someone on here with 200+ opi.

About 25 pieces and I've been composing since 2012.  Hey, go me!  Go look at some famous big name historical composers and look at the full range of their work and divide that by their number of working years.  Then remember that they were famous full-time musicians and the best of the best and cut yourself some slack.  Five pieces in a year sounds great for a beginning.  Do that for 20 years and you'll have written a hundred pieces.  Do that for 60 years and you'll have written three hundred.  

I have 8 pieces for which I have assigned opus numbers and various other smaller works and arrangements. If you count completed movements of unfinished works as individual pieces maybe about 30. I've been writing music for about 20 years so I am not exactly prolific.

Thanks to both of you for your input! I'm curious, do you tend to have lots of projects you're working on all at once? I have a fairly one-track mind when it comes to writing music, and I almost always have to finish one thing before I move on to another. Maybe it would help clear my head to have several open projects, but I'm afraid I'd lose my mind trying to keep them all differentiated.

Thanks to both of you for your input! I'm curious, do you tend to have lots of projects you're working on all at once? I have a fairly one-track mind when it comes to writing music, and I almost always have to finish one thing before I move on to another. Maybe it would help clear my head to have several open projects, but I'm afraid I'd lose my mind trying to keep them all differentiated.

I am the exact opposite of you.  I have literally hundreds of pieces at various stages of progress; most are little more than a few scraps of melody or harmony but I have a decent number of projects that are fairly far along that have sat for years.   I actively work on no more than 3-4 pieces at once but frequently go back to older works and see if I can come up with anything new or incorporate something I may have written a long time ago into a current project.  Most of what I consider my better works though have had very long gestation periods.  My Requiem, for example, I first started in college 20 years ago and I'm now maybe half-way done.

I've been working on-and-off since 1993 (when I was aged 15), and have experienced about three major "outbursts": 1993-98 (everything handwritten, BTW), 2003-2005 and 2011-2014. I've also revised or reconstructed earlier works, so my current catalog sits at around 40 pieces with assigned Op. numbers. I tended to believe that most of them were either orchestral pieces or solo piano works, as I feel most at home in either environment - but I've realized that most of my output is actually chamber music.

My piano pieces include 5 Sonatas (most of them earlier pieces, excepting the single-movement Northanger Sonata Op. 25 and my Op. 37), as well as three smaller collections, the Romance and Variations Op. 4 and a couple minor works.

My complete orchestral output consists of 4 orchestral suites (including standouts Aurora Op. 12 and Adriana Op. 27), 4 symphonies (of which I regard the 2nd as the best, although I'm currently revising all of them), and 7 overtures & symphonic poems (best represented by Emma Op. 31 and El Cadejos Op. 38), as well as two concerto-like pieces for soloist and orchestra (Op. 34 and 35a), both of them under revision, and some fragments.

The chamber pieces are the most diverse. My favorite one is the String Serenade, Op. 11 - but I also have 2 string quartets, 2 piano trios, an additional trio for flute, clarinet and piano, a violin sonata, a collection for flute and strings, 2 smaller works for strings and a minor early work for piano and trumpet, plus solo works for cello and tuba and a few arrangements. These make up more than a third of my total output, actually.

I have also written a couple vocal pieces (a song cycle and Jabberwocky), but no choral or stage works so far (although some of my Suites could be easily transitioned into ballets).

As for your last question, that's a bit tough for me to answer. I have too many projects for my very limited available time, so despite having a few pieces under "revision", I can only commit to one at any given time. So I try as hard as I can to finish that particular one before moving on to the next - unless the "next" idea is so powerful that I can't push it back anymore. So I might fall on either Noah's or Bkho's camp, depending on the circumstances.

Good questions indeed...

My catalog (or works list) is comprised of music that is ready for performance and not every piece I have ever wrote. I have written about 200 pieces of music since 2004 when I started composing seriously. However majority of them are either embarrassingly bad, don't represent me anymore, or are not in any condition to be performed. 

My works list looks like this and you can see it is much smaller than what I have actually written. But if I needed music for a recital, they would come from this list. In my work list I also include what was performed as that is typical for CVs that are sent off to potential jobs. 

Orchestra

Interpretations on Folk Melodies

·      Reading Session with Texas Tech Symphony Orchestra December 2011

Symphony No. 1

·      Unperformed

Symphony No. 2 Ocean Symphony

·      Unperformed

Choir

Angus Dei – SSAA choir

·      Premiered April 2011, Senior Recital

Next to of course God, America I love thee – SATB choir

·      Unperformed

O Gracious Light – SSAATTBB choir

·      Premiered May 2015 Composers Choral Concert

Spring Rain – SSAA choir and piano 

·      Premiered March 2009, National Association of Composers USA Texas Chapter Conference

·      Performed April 2011, Senior Recital

Wind Ensemble and Band

From Home to the Festival and Back Again – Concert Band (Grade III)

·      Unperformed

Motif – Wind Ensemble (College Level Ensemble)

·      Unperformed

The Luminaries – Concert Band (Grade V)

·      Unperformed 

Larger Chamber Music

Hurried and Off Balance – Violin, Cello, and Piano or Tenor Saxophone, Trombone, and Piano

·      Unperformed

Thoreau Teasdale Cycle – SATB choir, Soprano and Bass Soloist, String Quartet, and

Percussion: Four Movements

·      Premiered March 28^th 2013

Instrumental Solo and Chamber Music

Agilitas – French Horn and Piano

·      Unperformed

Bad Night Out Suit – Flute and Piano; Three Movements

·      Premiered April 2011, Senior Recital

Entre Les Trous De La Memoire – Piano

·      Premiered March 2011, National Association of Composers USA Texas Chapter Conference

·      Performed April 2011, Senior Recital

Interpretations on Folk Melodies (Saxophone Concerto) – Alto Saxophone and Piano; Three Movements

·      Movement I premiered April 2011, Senior Recital

·      Movement II premiered April 2013, TTU Composers’ Forum Concert

·      Movement III premiered November 2013, TTU Composers’ Forum Concert

Patency – Flute and Piano

·      Premiered April 2012, Society of Composers Inc. Raider Chapter Concert

Quietude – Violin and Piano

·      Premiered April 2015, TTU Composers’ Forum Concert

Sonata No. 1 – Piano

·      Performed November 4^th 2015

String Quartet No. 1

·      Unperformed

Trombone in Grave – Bass Trombone

·      Premiered April 2015, Society of Composers Inc. Raider Chapter Concert

Vocal Solo

I Wake and Feel the Fell of Day, Not Death – Soprano and Piano

·      Premiered April 2011, Society of Composers Inc. Raider Chapter Concert

I’ve heard the Bells on Christmas Day – Baritone and Piano or Tenor and Piano

·      Recorded November 2014

Lenten Reminder and Prayer – Tenor and Organ

·      Premiered March 2014, Sunday Service St. Johns United Methodist Church, Lubbock Texas

Render Cycle – Soprano and Piano; Ten Movements

·      Partial premier April 2014 (two movements), TTU Composers’ Forum Concert

·      Full premier February 2015, Render: A Recital

The Edward Thomas Cycle – Soprano and Piano or Mezzo-Soprano and Piano; Five Movements

·      Premier April 2011 (first three movements), Senior Recital

·      Performed February 2015 (four movements), Render: A Recital

Electronic and Electro-Acoustic

From 95 Poems – Tenor and Pre-recorded Electronics; Three movements

·      Premiered February 2010, National Association of Composers USA Texas Chapter Conference

·      Performed April 2011, Senior Recital

·      Performed April 2011, New Music Exchange with Stephen F. Austin State University and Sam Houston State University

Telephone – French Horn and Pre-recorded Electronics

·      Premiered April 2011, Senior Recital

·      Performed April 2011, Student Convocation at Stephen F. Austin State University

Arrangements

Honor, Honor Unto the Dying Lamb – Baritone and Piano

·      Premiered Frebruary 2014, Sunday Service at St. John’s United Methodist Church, Lubbock Texas

I’ve Been Buked – Baritone and Piano

·      Premiered October 2013, Sunday Service at St. John’s United Methodist Church, Lubbock Texas

La Fille aux Cheveux de lin – Full Orchestra

·      Reading Session with Texas Tech Symphony Orchestra December 2011

Let all Mortal Flesh be Silent – Baritone and Organ

·      Premiered December 2013, Sunday Service at St. John’s United Methodist Church, Lubbock Texas

I'll post mine soon... I go back and forth especially since I still write R$B and jazz tunes. 2010 was my last big classical year!

I've written probably around 40 "pieces", but I was most prolific when I didn't really know the first thing about composing, so I just call my early pieces sketches. There are only 3 pieces I consider to be complete compositions, the Capriccio in C major, which I posted, an allegro in B flat major, and 2 Minuets for Keyboard. (All written after November 2015). I wrote a Keyboard Suite in C major, but there is no unity of style and it's very obvious I had little experience. I won't be assigning opus numbers until later this year when I have some sonatas and chamber pieces under my belt.

I've only been writing since my junior year in high school (2012), and I'd say that in total I've written or started around 25 compositions. I'm not sure exactly because I tend to write a lot of things that I either don't finish or don't like and then I forget them for a long time or forever (so far, I think?). Very little of what I've written is something I would consider 'final' beyond revision.

With that in mind, a list of my finished works would include:

12 piano pieces (two of which are based on the first and fourth YC theme challenges using luderart's and mk390's themes respectively)

2 soliloquies alla luderart for violin and cello respectively

1 piece for harp from the second YC theme challenge based on Dan's theme

1 iffy church hymn

All told, 16 compositions in roughly four years. I mean there's also my two failed and unfinished symphonies, my failed fandango for string quartet, my ongoing string sextet for the third YC theme challenge, and a few other chamber and solo piano works that are still in progress. Everyone seems to go at a pace that suits their abilities and composition habits. I don't think you should worry about trying to churn out music at a tightly regulated pace like a factory (that's what we have the music industry for) when you've got an entire lifetime to keep working and perfecting your music.

The number of pieces that I have composed after I got my current software (Sibelius 6), i.e in late 2011, a number which coincides with my opus number (since I had started numbering pieces from that time), currently stands at 267. However, before that I used to compose with another software. I have composed somewhere around 50 pieces with that software. There are also various other pieces from an even earlier time, maybe early 1990s, before I had a computer when I used to write by pen and paper, with the help of a keyboard. To be sure, the latter are very simple pieces, often with no instrument in mind (the most abstract you can get in composition). Even the ones of the pre-2011 period generally fall below the quality of the post-2011, i.e. the time when I started to use the new software; a more professional software that I believe succeeded to revive my compositional activity, giving it a new lease of life such that in a little less that 5 years I have composed 267 numbered pieces.

However, this big number should not perhaps be given a lot of significance because most of my pieces do not pass the 1 minute mark. And I agree with KJ's advice which I here quote because he put it in the best possible way:

"Everyone seems to go at a pace that suits their abilities and composition habits. I don't think you should worry about trying to churn out music at a tightly regulated pace like a factory ... when you've got an entire lifetime to keep working and perfecting your music."

It is not about composing regularly or about the number of pieces that one composes. The numbering, like the opus number just helps for organizational purposes as well as letting the audience know where in one's compositional output a given piece is situated. It also provides a way to distinguish a piece from the other pieces in one's output. However, what matters more than the number of pieces is that one's pieces be the outcome of inspiration. I am not an advocate for composing for the sake of composing. And I think that everyone's threshold of perfection differs. Some, perhaps like KJ, are more concerned with improving and perfecting older pieces. Other's like me, are more concerned with composing new pieces. Neither is right or wrong. It just depends on the composer's temperament and their approach to composition, what they compose for, what they seek out of composition, and what they intend to give/achieve through composition.

I do have a somewhat detailed list I try to keep updated, I attach the html file in this post.

realopusList.html