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Hello everybody! I am very busy with my final exams and auditions, so that is the reason why I have not been online for a while. Anyway, I composed a new 'neoclassical' composition for string quartet. Each movement is based on the letters of one of my friends' name. I used the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G and Ut, Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti. The duration of each movement is pretty short, because I wanted to have the movements in balance. Some themes are namely pretty hard for me to compose more than two minutes. Enjoy and please comment! Sharing your opinion means a lot too! Maarten

Hello! For some workshops at the conservatorium, I needed to write a very simple piece based on world music. So I decided to write my third melodrama about the fairy tale Ali Baba and the forty thieves. I did not compose a piece about the whole fairy tale, because it needed to be a short piece. The composition ends with an open end. The number of instruments can change, so I decided to cluster the instruments as much as possible. Here is the Dutch text with translation: Ali Baba is mijn naam. Ik ben de rijkste man in heel Perzië. Hoe? Dat zal ik u eens vertellen. Op een dag reisde ik door de woestijn. Het zand brandde mijn huid en de zon verblindde me. Ik besloot met mijn kameel even te rusten in de schaduw van een rots. Totdat ik stemmen hoorde. [Spreek Arabische klanken] Ze zagen eruit als rovers. Ik volgde ze na. Ze liepen naar een rots. En ze riepen ,,Sesam open u!'' En de rots brak open. Toen de rovers binnen waren, verstopte ik me achter de rots. Ik wachtte tot alle veertig rovers weer buiten waren en in het donker sloop ik naar de magische rots toe. En bij de rots aangekomen riep ik de woorden ,,Sesam open u!'' De rots ging open en ik ging naar binnen. Binnen kon ik mijn ogen niet geloven. Bergen met goud, zilver en edelstenen. Ik ben steenrijk! Wahaha! Maar hoe krijg ik het mee naar huis? Ali Baba is my name. I am the richest man in whole Persia. How? I am going to tell you. Once upon a time, I traveled through the desert. The sand burned my skin and the sun dazzled my eyes. I decided to rest a while in the shadow of a rock. Until I heard voices. [Speak Arabic sounds] They looked like thieves. I followed them. They walked to a rock. And they called ,,Open sesame.'' And the rock broke open. When the thieves were inside, I hid myself behind a rock. I waited until all forty thieves were outside again and I sneaked to the magical rock in the dark. And arrived at the rock, I called the words ,,Open sesame!'' The rock opened and I entered. I could not believe my eyes inside. Mountains of gold, silver and jewels. I am rich! Wahaha! But how am I going to bring this all home?

Hello everybody, You may have already seen the two other topics about this quartet. One is about the sketch, which I had to make for the selection rounds of the composition competition. The other one was about how to create a climax and how to continue and finish the piece. Finally, I have finished the piece and to be honest I hate it. I have heard it so many times and it was terribly hard to finish the piece and include a climax. @Luis Hernández I hope that there are more vertical lines and there is a clear climax. The piece is about Europides' Medea. More information in the PDF attached to this post. The notes on page still have to be changed. There are a few themes and motives exposed in the beginning and during the piece I develop them in many ways. I have, for example, included a Fugato structure, where the theme is a based on a motive in the beginning. I am very sorry that the instruments sound so fake. . . If anybody knows a decent soundfont for saxophone (quartet), please let me know! Thanks for listening! Feedback and comments would be very nice! Maarten

Hello everybody, I have won a composition competition with my saxophone sketch, which I already posted on the forum, and I can now finish my piece. I really need your help / suggestions / feedback! I will share my worries about the music in points, so that you can answer and discuss these. Extra information: The piece must be around 5 minutes long. The other post with the sketch can be foudn here: http://www.youngcomposers.com/t34939/sketch-saxophone-quartet/ The music ''ends'' at m.88. From m.88 there are sketches: Mm.90 - 97: Possible climax? Do you think this could be a nice climax for the piece or not? What should be a good way to create a climax in such an already heavy piece? Mm.138 - 143: Very tonal fragment based on the main theme to bring some lightness, but also humour. Do you think this would be nice to have in the music or does it ruin the whole mood and atmosphere of the piece? Although I like how I develop the themes that I give in the ''exposition,'' I don't like the music. It sounds boring and too repetitive to me and I have doubts wether I have over-developed the themes or not. There is no clear climax either. The most important element of this piece is the sudden dynamic shifts. I have thought about adding a second movement, so that the music isn't boring anymore, but this can also break the flow of the music in the first movement. The sketch was very interesting and very finished, but I feel like the music that I composed after finishing the sketch is of lower quality than the quality of the sketch. What do you think about the composition? I am looking forward to your responses! Maarten

Hi everybody, I am writing a piece for a composition competition in Holland. The piece is to be written for a Dutch professional saxophone quartet. They firstly want to have a sketch of the piece that takes no longer than one minute. I called the piece Medea. Medea is a Greek witch in the story called Medea by Euripides. In class we were studying the Latin translation of the tragedy and in my opinion it is very impressive. In the part we have read Medea was furious with everybody she knows. In the Messiaen masterclass I learned a new composing method, which I wanted to apply. I used the third mode and tried to create harmony with a lot of dissonances, but also with rest points. This is my third Saxophone Quartet. Feedback would be very helpful! Maarten Saxophone Quartet Gr.pdf

TURN DOWN YOUR VOLUME Working on hooking my Roland LX-15e up to my computer to start recording! Be patient my friends! Also, any advice or thoughts are greatly appreciated!

First of all; best wishes for 2017! For my audition for pre-study at the conservatory with classical saxophone I played the Cinq Danses Exotiques by Jean Françaix. I fell in love with his music. On account of Françaix' music I composed 3 Melodies for Alto Saxophone and Piano, Opus 25 (Dutch: Drie Melodieën voor Altsaxofoon en Piano) today. Feedback and sharing your opinions would make me very happy! Kind regards, Maarten Bauer