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Hello everybody, Yesterday, my grandmother and I were talking about classical music. My grandmother told me that she want this piece to be played at her funeral, but she does not know the name of it, nor the composer. The only thing she has, is the video with pictures of gardens. The video is called ''Jardins pour rêver.'' She said the composer is French, but I am not sure. I cannot attach the file, because it is a PPS file and I do not know how to extract it without losing the audio. Therefore I have recorded it with my smartphone microphone. Please can you help me (and my grandmother) to find the name of the piece? She would be so thankful! Maarten

Hi all, In music class we had to compose a two minute Choral Speaking work for three voices and perform it. The following names of our classmates formed the text of the composition: Alex; Alisha; Cilia; Maarten; Simone. In the last measure ''Meneer Rouschop'' appears. This is our music teacher. . . The Dutch name for this composition is: Driestemmig Namenspreekkoor, which means that there are three voices (soprano, alto and bass) speaking names. Because there is no real pitch, when speaking, but there is a difference between low and high, we decided to write high pitches on the high F, normal pitches on the middle B and low pitches on the low E. Rythm and dynamics are the most important elements in this composition, since there is no real pitch. We tried to develop the three main themes that are introduced in the canon-like section. Feedback would be very nice! Maarten Bauer

Hello, thanks for the registration, and sorry for my English. I connected through facebook where I have given name with diacritic (accent on letter i). It seems it may be problem in some cases: some fonts does not support it or letter is lost somewhere. Can you please change my name in profile to have no accent? Thanks Vladimir Ladma, Czech Republic

How do you name your pieces? How do you decide what to name a composition of yours? Do you decide on a piece's name before you start composing it, after your start composing it, or after you finish composing it? Do you think the name you give a certain piece is important? In what does that importance consist? Does a piece's name influence how it is perceived? How? These questions apply especially to short pieces that may not have a clearly recognized form. They may be called by various different names like bagatelles, studies, etudes, etc. But they also apply to some extent to larger forms. But multi-movement works like "string quartet", "symphony", "piano trio" seem to usually be named either after the instruments they contain, or the number of instruments, or the form. But even if they employ the names of the instruments or the number of instruments in their construction, these names have come to have a connotation of form too. Thus I cannot write a short piece for string quartet and call it my "String Quartet No. 1" (or can I?). Tradition has it that a string quartet should follow a certain form and have several fully developed movements. But I can still compose a short piece For "string quartet". But that leaves the problem of naming it. I think a short piece FOR "string quartet" (i.e. for the same combinations of instruments the description of which has come to be used as the name for a certain type of multi-movement composition for it) thus suffers the "injustice" of having to be named while a full string quartet does not have to and can simply be called a "string quartet". But is it important to name a piece? Might one not even bother to name a piece? Does an unnamed piece suffer in any way? Does it even come to be neglected? Would a named piece direct greater attention to itself? To test the inherent theory in this last question, perhaps we can compare Beethoven's named piano sonatas like the "Pathetique", "Moonlight", "Waldstein", "Appassionata" and "Hammerklavier" and the attention they have received with other equally great nameless piano sonatas by Beethoven like Op. 110 & 111. Do the named sonatas enjoy greater success with performers and audiences? Or perhaps it is the other way round such that the sonatas that enjoy greater fame have come to be named? Should one follow a tradition of naming pieces? Or should one create one's own names? I have used some names to describe certain types of pieces (like "soliloquy" and "maxim"). I think I have done it in order to retain my freedom in composing and not to have to follow (or possibly be accused of ignoring) the traditions created by already given names.