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Dear composers, I have to write a harmonic analysis of Bach's BWV 4 (Christ lag in Todesbanden) - Versus 7 for my homework Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubWCRXefVTw I have knowledge of harmony and chord analysis with Roman numerals. How can I write a harmonic analysis? Could you please give me some tips? Thanks in advance, Duo

I have perfect pitch but I am the only person I know with it. Does anyone here have it to some degree? if so, does it help you with composition?

Hello! I am a 17 year old music student from Belgium. I recently wrote a concerto for double bass, and it turned out really well in my opinion. Now that it's finished I actually really want to write a new piece, but I can't find any themes. I was wondering, for those who don't really those "Aha! I've got a theme!"-moments at random, how do you find/look for a new theme? Where do you get your inspiration from? And how do you know if you didn't steal it from an other work? Thanks!

Hello, I'm gonna write Mt first piece starting today. I have written non classical music before (hymns, and CCM) but I want to write some classical music since I love tchaikovsky, cui, Shostakovich, etc. I don't know where to start. What do you recommend? Should I write an outline? That seemed natural. I'm gonna write it for solo piano since that is what I'm most comfortable/familiar with. I might add a second instrument though

It bothers me for a while now, and every time I ask someone he says he'll give it a listen later but it just never happens. You see now, except for the opening bassoon Stravinsky said that he didn't use any folk song in his Rite of Spring. I looked for the original song that drove the inspiration for the bassoon solo and eventually found it somewhere. Now here's my problem. I'm pretty sure it appears in the Augurs of Spring (6:16) and in the end of Round Dances of Spring (10:30). And here it is: Theme and variations on a folk song! The exact same one! But what's it's name? How can I find a recording of it? And why does nobody say anything about it???

Hey guys. A couple of weeks ago I was just listening to some music, and a piece came on that I really enjoyed, but I have come to lose the piece and its composer. I've tried everything to find it, but to no avail. It would be wonderful if anyone could help me out if they happened to know what piece I'm talking about. I CAN give a little information about the piece that I've been using to search for the piece: It had multiple movements. It had a male narrator and a female singer. The subject matter had something to do with either one of the World Wars, but the piece was not written in immediate response to the war. Its newer than that. The title may have contained something about a train, but of that I cannot be certain. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, it would be great if you could respond because I really liked the piece. Thanks, Charlie Carroll

This here particular piece is one that has been in development for around 7 months now. Initially the goal was to have it sound solemn, however this expanded to a quick uplift from what it once was. The backstory was slightly odd to say the least, and at the times I was writing, I didn't even realize I was changing the mood of the song. So, now I'm looking for feedback, name suggestions, etc. What can I do to improve this song, what do you all think as of yet, seeing that its not even half complete and what would be an appropriate title for it? I'm bad with titles.

This artist had a lot of effort creating a song to aid little children who suffer from illness and treated in a special hospital: Ron Nesher need as many views as he can to help these people, please watch the video and enjoy the song! It is in Hebrew by the way, but every profit from the views goes to aid these in need!

Hi, I'm new at this forum and at writing music. Had a go on a orchestral piece about pirates. Please feel free to listen and criticize. Any input is very valuable :) Cheers!

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 all, A friend of mine asked me to write a piano concerto for her - I was already planning one, but now I really began to set the first notes on paper. The early romantic composers' concerti (Schumann, Mendelssohn, Beethoven etc.) have had a huge influence on the piece until now. Sadly enough, I feel I am not able to continue and finish this concerto. It sounds too repetitive and it really bores me listening to it, but also composing. I have reached the capitulation of the first movement. Any ideas how I can recover my motivation of finishing it? I have attached the score and music. Note that this is a rough sketch. Feedback would be nice too! Maarten

What specifically do you do to plan out a development section in sonata form? Should the modulations and the order of the themes/fragments follow any sort of predesigned logic (other than 'mix them up')? The keys that should be used are mainly what's bothering me, mostly because my modulations tend to sound forced to me, especially in the development section.

Hello! I am Jo, and I am new in the forum. I am new to composing although I am already a pianist for a long time. May you please give me some tips on how to start such as articles and websites ? I plan to arrange old hymns and turn it to modern sounding ones. thank you! Joana

Hey, I just started composing a little while ago and was hoping to find some advice on a piece I'm working on. I would really appreciate advice on improving and developing the piece further. Thanks!!! Hopefully it's not too bad.

Hello all, I am currently in my final year of studying for my degree in Music Composition for Film and Media and I was hoping to get some advice on finding work as a composer. I am happy to work with any type of media but I find it difficult to believe that most composers just sit around and wait for directors to approach them with pieces of film requiring music. Are there any good websites to use where a composer can go and find work for himself? Should I be offering my services for free? Also are there any particularly effective ways of advertising oneself? Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time! Andrew

Hey Everyone:) TheBandGeek here. Two quick things. First off, I just released my first composition here (http://www.youngcomposers.com/music/listen/7662/dont-stop-believin-saxophone-quartet/). Second of all, I need all your amazing talents and brains to help me out. As a composer, I find it hard to arrange, although arranging contains a lot of the same elements as composition. See, I've got this school talent show coming up, and my friends and I were thinking of performing. Of course, they come to me to get the music:) So, I would basically need a pop medley of sorts. Comment below if you're available to help me out, and I'll give you more info, such as what songs to use and how it should be structured. Thank you so much guys. This is a lot to ask for, but it would be amazing if one of you amazing peeps could help me. Thanks!(For like the millionth time:P) -TheBandGeek P.S. Yes. I'm just that desperate that I went all the way up to the fonts bar and bolded this:P

Hi all, I am currently studying a music degree and i need to get different composers views on how they compose. My research project is about the compositional devices and techniques that different composers use in order to convey specific emotions and metaphors to the audience, all music should evoke some sort of emotion within the listener and my research project is dedicated to finding out how composers manage to do this. There are 4 questions to this questionnaire and if you could spare some time to share some of your knowledge I would greatly appreciate it and it would help my project immensely! These are the 4 questions: 1.Which elements of composition do you find are the most effective with regards to conveying emotion and feeling through your music? Instrumentation, tempo, key/mode, time signatures/time change, arrangement etc.? Please explain why you find these effective. 2.Do you find any of the above elements particularly effective when trying to convey a specific emotion such as anger, Love or sadness etc.? Why do you find these so effective? 3.How much interaction is there between yourself and the director of the film which you are composing for? Does the director offer much input regarding the music and why do you feel the director offers this input (if any)? 4.What compositional advice would you give anyone who was faced with the challenge of conveying thoughts and emotions through their music? If you can manage the time to help me out with my project by answering these questions you would be helping me out a great deal! Thanks for your time

Hi All! I'm trying to load an instrument on one of my tracks on logic pro 9.10, but it won't play on certain ones....is there some type of "channel" that I may need to change for it to play? It'll work on the first channel, but then the rest of the instruments are silent, unless I record using any kontakt sound library.....I'm having issues with those I've already recorded using my old sound library, and I'm trying to change it to Kontakt instruments.

These are some things that I like to keep in mind while composing. I would like to get feedback on them. What do you think of them? Do you think they are good to keep in mind? Do you think there are problems with them? Is there something else that you think is good to think about? (I know it's long. Sorry about that.) There are three parts: big picture points, "small picture" (for lack of a better term) points, and creativity points. The big picture points have mainly to do with structure. I think of a piece like a play with act I, act 2, and act 3. The first act introduces the material which I think of as the characters. The second act "goes on an adventure." The characters do things. There are conflicts (tension) and they get resolved (released tension). The whole of act 2 has to have one general conflict that is bigger than all of the others and is introduced at the beginning of act 2 and resolved at the end of act 2. When that main conflict gets resolved, the piece goes into act 3 which is the conclusion. It should be climatic and "euphoric." It wraps up the piece by summarizing the material (all of the characters come together). It ends by leaving a sense of the entire essence of the piece in the listeners ear. We can represent the characters in the music with motifs. And we can represent their actions with melodies. The essence of the characters (the motifs) are moved by melodies (the bodies of the character). The melodies can move the motifs around in different ways to make the characters to do different things. Every character has a personality. They can share their general personality with something like a motto, or an action that tries to express their general essence. This is done with themes. A theme would be a melody that moves the motifs in a way that best bring them out. (I use motif loosely here: it can be more than just a simple melodic or rhythmic pattern, but it could be any small recognizable idea.) The introduction to the piece can best introduce the material by simply stating the themes (show off the characters' personalities to get the listener familiar with them before they go adventuring in act 2). In act 2, the characters do many different things. But just because the characters do different things doesn't make them different characters. Fundamentally they are the same character. The melodies can do all kinds of things while still containing the fundamental motifs. Act 3 is kind of like act 1. All of the characters get together and express their essence with themes. The themes pick at the listener's previous experiences with the characters in act 2 and sum them up. One thing I like to do in the ending of a piece is to find a way to harmonize all of the characters and have the melodies play on top of each other without changing them so much that it strays too far from the theme (sometimes I just compose the themes in the first place to be counterpoint-compatible with each other). It really unites them and gives that "euphoric" effect if done well. I like to imagine the structure of a piece in two dimensions: horizontally being time and vertically being counterpoint (in a generic use of the term). The three acts are ordered horizontally. A majority of the time will (probably) be spent on act 2. Vertically is all the different parts that are happening at a given time in the piece. It would be more abstract then real counterpoint, because counterpoint has to do with melodies. The different parts can be anything, whether it serves a melodic purpose, a rhythmic purpose, a texture purpose, a harmonic purpose, etc.. When these parts are layered, the listener's ear should be guided to a certain level. The parts can be anywhere on the line from being in the background to being in the foreground. The foreground is what the listener pays attention to at any given time (leads, etc.). The background still influences the listener, but is not necessarily in the conscious attention of the listener. The foreground is where the action should take place (the characters interacting and the story being told). The background is where the setting is established. That would include emotion (guided by harmonic progressions), intensity or energy level (guided by rhythm), and general feel of the setting (texture, timbre, etc.). Now, background elements aren't necessarily characters. For example, harmony doesn't exist on it's own, it is just a property that comes from the relationship of different parts playing simultaneously. So you could create harmony with simple absolute bass notes and the setting would get the emotional feel. But you can also have motifs in the background elements. This gives the setting more personality. Not all motifs have to represent foreground characters. They can represent settings as well. On the other hand, characters themselves can give personality to a setting by going into the background. If you have several melodies playing, you can phase different ones in and out of focus. The ones that aren't in focus contribute to the setting. There are three small picture points. They have to do with the content that goes into the framework provided by the big picture points. They are harmony, balance, and simplicity. Harmony is simply keeping in mind the harmony that is going on at the moment. Pretty much a no-brainer, but I like to keep it in mind. Balance has two parts: unity and diversity. You can say something is balanced when it has unity and an interesting amount of diversity. Imagine a bare white plane. This is unity without diversity. Every part of it is the same: unity. Now if we add a little dot in one corner, we have something different. Now we have a little diversity but no unity. We don't have unity because something strange has interrupted the perfect white plane. To fix it, we have to add a counter to the little dot. Perhaps, on the opposite side. This cancels out the disruption in unity, and unity is restored. That's how you get both unity and diversity and thus balance. Balance can apply in many ways on many levels. Structurally there needs to be balance. You don't want too much or too little excitement near the start or the end of the piece because it will sound out of place. This happens in the details as well. Rhythm should feel even overall (unity) but with interesting things happening in the gaps (diversity). The last one is simplicity. Don't put anything in that doesn't adequately accomplish a meaningful task. It can also mean elegance. Try to do do things efficiently. Music theory really helps with this kind of thing. That way you don't scrape your brain out trying to find the sound that has the purpose you are looking for. All of the above is an intellectual framework that lacks actual creative content. I find that to get the actual content, you have to do the opposite: not think. Creativity seems to diminish when you try to intellectualize it but seems to come out when you let it speak for itself. It's as if it's a different person than your self and you have to be quiet and let it talk. Just think about when you dream. You are asleep and not thinking. Nothing makes sense, but it is extremely creative. I often wake up and write down my dreams so that I can possibly incorporate the dream content into some kind of project of mine. The project puts an orderly framework around the creative chaos. To get the creative juices flowing, I usually listen to lots of music. Especially music that I haven't heard before, and I really pay attention to it. This puts a lot of new ideas on your mind. But because it's new and you only heard it once, you can't remember the pieces as the were. So it's hard to remember it the right way but easy to remember the wrong way. Remembering it the wrong way gives you your own creative ideas that are the result of chaotically trying to synthesize the small chunks that your brain was able to catch. All you have to do at this point is listen to the noise in your head. If you can't hear anything, then try to recall something and try to get it flowing. Once you get it flowing, you can start jotting down ideas that come to you. Once your piece gets started, and structures start appearing, the creative process becomes even easier because you aren't totally building music out of silence. You are now building it off of real music. These are the main points that I like to think about when I am composing. Comments? Thanks if you read all of this. It's long, I know. Sorry. :P

Hello, I am newbie in this forum, I am Brazil. I need help in a composition, we publish what part of the forum? published in Composers' Headquarters and my post was deleted...

"Vocalise for Nine Voices" - music video Who I am: http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/4224/kotsi1bw.jpg My name is Kostika Çollaku and I'm an independent composer from Thessaloniki, Greece. I am 23 and I compose contemporary classical music. I think it's better to know me through my work so here is a link to my blog were you can listen all my compositions: http://kostikacollaku.blogspot.gr/ What I want to do: I want to shoot a music video to accompany my musical piece 'Vocalise for nine voices'. I want to shoot it in an abandoned factory in Thessaloniki, Greece, that looks like this: http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8445/iedit.jpg A couple things about the piece: Vocalise was composed from June to September of 2012, to be played on Thessaloniki's Concert Hall on 10th November 2012, amongst classic pieces, in the 25th anniversary concert of the “Mixed Choir of Thessaloniki”. The piece lasts 4min. and 12sec. This drawing of Matthieu Barrère summarizes for me everything the piece is about better than I could put it to words: the thing we call "Life", and it's two key reference points, "Birth" and "Death". http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/1890/birthdeathlifesimplifie.jpg Immediately after the concert I wanted to make a better recording of the piece but this time with nine voices instead of a full choir and a solo baritone, meaning one person per voice. So I gathered nine very talented opera singers from Thessaloniki and we started rehearsals. My goal was to make a good studio recording and a good video clip. On Sunday, December 23th we accomplished the first part, making a pretty good recording of the piece. You can listen to a sample above. The full piece will be available once we get the second part of the goal. This is where you come in! What I need: I need your support to fund the making of the video: money to rent serious, professional equipment like a good camera, rails, lights etc. The shooting is scheduled to take place on Saturday, January 19th, and the video will be ready by the first days of February... with your help. The piece and the video will be freely available on the internet and there will be no proceeds, although you do get some perks of course! The founds needed are a pretty modest sum for a project like this, I think, but we' re content to stick to the absolutely necessary. With Greece stuck in a continuing financial crisis, I think it means a lot to prove that good art can still happen, even under strenuous circumstances, when some see it as a luxury. I do believe realizing this little vision will be a creative stand against the doom and gloom surrounding us. Even more so if you become a part of it. Thank you for your time and your support. Please let me know if you have any questions. Kostika Çollaku Here is the link where you can help the project with a small contribution. http://www.indiegogo.com/vocalisemusicvideo/x/889366

Greetings fellow composers, I have a quick question regarding sonata-allegro form in a symphonic movement: Is it generally frowned upon for the second subject group to actually be in a slower metric tempo than the primary subject group? E.g. in 6/8 time: Primary subject group: dotted quarter = 120 Transitional phrase: rit. e dim. Secondary subject group: dotted quarter = 80 closing phrase: rall. to fermata || Development: dotted quarter = 120 (Same applies for the Exposition repeat) I've heard of Rachmaninoff being criticized for this practice. Is there any basis in it being frowned upon? It works organically in my symphony so far, but I sometimes worry that it will be criticized as an architectural weakness. Thanks for any input! Max

Hey....people. :veryunsure: Not sure if this is an appropriate question to ask, but I figured someone might be able to help. I'm trying to find a composing/orchestration teacher or class in my area (Dallas,TX). Is there any advice from ya'll on where (or how) to look? I've searched on the Interwebs but haven't found anything yet. :headwall: Also, as a starving composer, what do ya'll think would be best? A private teacher, a master class, an online course??? Thanks for your help. Chop :w00t:

Really need a moving piece for my leavers assembly. I have lyrics, anyone write music? Please help! Will make it worth your while :) Email 07rebeccalancashire@longdean.herts.sch.uk

Really need a moving piece for my leavers assembly. I have lyrics, anyone write music? Please help! Will make it worth your while :) Email 07rebeccalancashire@longdean.herts.sch.uk