New Composer- Feedback please?

https://musescore.com/user/30353801/scores/6007769

Just something I've been working on, and I'd love some feedback. I really wan to be a composition major in college... any suggestions? 

Also I need a better title.

As an exercise in melody, it's pretty good. I can tell you have an ear for melodic development.

Harmonically, though, it's a bit scant, and the harmonies you do include don't really support your melody. That's not to say it was unbearable to listen to, because I found it rather pleasant; however, the piece seemed to twist and turn like an out-of-balance dancer: the melody went one way, the harmony another. For example, in measure 3 & 4, you harmonize with the subdominant (F minor) rather than the dominant (G major/minor), never allowing the work to enter into a cadence. Not that you have to have one, but the ear does need to hear the music come to a resolution at some point other than the beginning and end. As you listen to music by the greats, notice how their works seem to breathe: there's some carefully planned-out phrasing, some give-and-take, push-and-pull—whatever you want to call it. They've followed basic rules of harmony and voice leading. I highly recommend looking at their music to learn from them.

A great composer to begin analyzing with is Vivaldi. Many of his scores can be found for free online (www.imslp.org), and nothing is easier than finding the corresponding piece on YouTube or Spotify and following along in the score. This helps you "see" what the music is doing, and gives you a better feel for these harmonies when composing yourself!

There are some orchestration issues with your piece, as well. The biggest I see is all the instrument doubling. In the beginning stages, it's difficult to conceptualize what instruments will sound like when played together or separately. No worries, though! I think with more practice (and score analysis) you'll quickly figure all that out.

I didn't pursue music in college, so I can't speak to your second question.

All in all, great job! Keep it up, and thanks for sharing!

On 3/17/2020 at 10:29 PM, Tónskáld said:

As you listen to music by the greats, notice how their works seem to breathe: there's some carefully planned-out phrasing, some give-and-take, push-and-pull—whatever you want to call it.

I came here to see the post, and found this amazing advice with it. To have it put that way did resignify some of what I already thought I knew 🙂

As @Tónskáld already talked about harmony and form, I think I'll say my thoughts about the orchestration. It think this is executed too much as a bureaucratic task, as if you had to simply assign the lines you wrote to whatever instrument you have available, and not enough as a craft in itself. The way everything is doubled indicates that you didn't use each instrument because of it's specific timbristic character or because you think they will bring out the character of your ideas even better, but that you wrote a line, stuck it onto a group of instruments and moved forward.

Having an orchestra this size, orchestration becomes a matter of its own, and it can single handedly make an average piece amazing, or the oposite. For that reason, I would recommend writing for smaller groups. You would have much more control of what is going on, while having more contact with specific instruments, so that further down the line you can use them effectively.

As to being a composition major in college, I can perhaps help you with something. I'm going to the Royal Northern College of Music later this year for an undergraduate degree in comp, so whatever doubt you have about applying feel free to message me. That being said, the process in the US might be quite different when compared to the UK, but I'm sure they have their similarities too.

Same here. It's all been said. If you want to write orchestral compositions you have to study orchestration which really means studying scores and doing lots of listening, finding out how composers produced the nuances in their use of timbre, dynamics and harmony. You seem to write tonally (basically) so it would be worth looking at harmonic progressions, modulation particularly so you can change key as your melody suggests, with ease.

I doubt many here will agree but Beethoven is a great study source. For orchestration, his 3rd Symphony or possibly the 7th. His woodwind writing is exemplary (how he dovetails or stacks his woodwind instruments).

I'm ambiguous about college teaching people to compose. I suppose it depends on the teacher(s). I did about 18 months and ditched it. Composing to a mentor's demand or for the sheer exercise might be good for discipline; it might be good for academic form but you can't teach people creativity. It could force you down avenues where you don't want to go. On the plus side you'll be surrounded by musical people and probably have live performance opportunities....that's when you start to learn. I ended up mostly with one-to-one tuition (which was more about guidance and criticism than instruction). Good luck!  

As many comments have stated, you have a knack for melodic writing, and that is fantastic. As you have written for marching band instrumentation, I will comment from the standpoint that this is to be performed during a halftime show, however most of my suggestions should help you regardless of what type of ensemble you write for. All beginning composers all have difficulty with balance and blending. For example, the clarinet solo at m. 32 is lovely, however you have to remember that the clarinets will not be heard on the field especially with low brass accompaniment. You can either double the solo on other instrument(s), or score the melody for instruments that will project over the texture and across the field (e.g, brass, high woodwinds, pit percussion (xylophone, glockenspiel)). During that same clarinet solo, the marimba is doing some cool things. However, marimbas are rather quiet unless they're mic'd (which most high school marching bands don't bother with), so maybe write that marimba line out to something with more punch. Finally, keep in mind like adding triple forte for woodwinds and pianissimo to brass won't give you the desired effect you want in real life. Balancing the sections to bring out the line is more important and comes with time as you grow as a composer and orchestrator. 

Notation is another big thing that beginning composers struggle with. Being able to convey your music in the most effective way to players, is the name of the game. Composers do this by following a set of notational conventions that you learn over time and teaching yourself. I highly recommend the holy grail on all things notation, Behind Bars by Elaine Gould. Many college professors I met also use this book religiously, and the language used is friendly to beginners, too; if you are serious of pursuing composition in college, I'm sure that you will invest in such a valuable resource as this book, as well as other orchestration books. Anyways (I'm gonna ramble here), small things like using appropriate note value durations, adding that fermata to all instruments in m. 38, avoiding whole note slurs in m.18, etc. These little things are learned over time and from reading notational resources, like I mentioned.

[I won't comment on the harmonic choices as @Tónskáld has already mentioned many.]

I am currently a senior in high school looking to pursue music composition in college as well! I began writing things just like this, and it is amazing how much you can grow. As long as you keep educating yourself, doing score studies, etc., you will improve dramatically.  Just this year alone, my writing has increased 10-fold, and I won a composition competition for a youth orchestra, and my piece will be performed live at Orchestra Hall this May! And that is from being involved with the composing community (American Composers Forum, Reddit, YoungComposers, etc.) In conclusion, my advice on this front is to be as involved as possible, get your pieces played by live musicians, and to hone your craft.