Film Music Competition

Thanks, Mike!

Progress update - after two days, I've got almost two minutes of material, and from what I can tell it's well within the ensemble's capabilities. There are a good bit of accidentals later on, since I'm using secondary dominants, but nothing extreme and the tempo's slow at that point.

Well, I don't think accidentals are a problem unless they're unclear, or confusing. For highly chromatic sections(this is meant for everyone), reminder accidentals are very helpful for reading purposes and changing key signatures often is never a good idea.

My piece is being written without any key signature, due to the nature of my harmonic pallate and the (slightly) chromatic nature of film music. So accidentals are found nearly everywhere(some parts are in fminor, Emajor, etc.), but I'm keeping it easy to read.

So you must have tambourine, triangle, cowbell, and woodblock?

Hey everyone,

If you could pass this around, that would be great. It appears that I'm going to be away from the computer and the internet (sob) for a few weeks as I'm going to all over the country! I may get a chance to check mail and all of that whilst I'm away but I would recommend that if you have any serious queries, e-mail me NOW before Friday and I'll see what I can do. I think most of the serious problems have been dealt with in the thread and I take it most of you are writing at the mo.

Looking forward to seeing all the entries and good luck to everyone!

One quick question: can the flutes do 16th-note chromatic runs at quarter=140, from Eb above the staff down to Bb above the staff? And the same for the clarinets, except a concert major 6th lower? If only the flutes or only the clarinets, I can take one or the other out, but I'd much rather leave both in.

Also, I'm starting the piece in G minor, but I'll probably modulate to G major later on. Which key signature would you rather have? Most of the work will be in G minor.

Progress update: I broke a week-long writer's block this morning, and now I have 2:27 worth of score, and I have a very good idea of how the rest of the piece will work. That leaves me just enough time to finish! Of course, once I'm done with the playback copy, I'll need to create a score for actual musicians...

Johann, I'm not sure why you are asking this question... First of all, are you talking about a little run, or a constant motion, running 16ths? Either way sounds fine to me, as flutes and clarinets are very used to moving about wildly. Take a look at some Stravinsky. But, I don't understand why you would think this is hard. Maybe there's something I'm missing? But, if not, what you described is perfectly playable.

You are allowed to change key signature every now and then, you know! Me? Most of my piece is in some sort of F, but it will always move out of F then come back. But I'm leaving all key signatures blank, as I like to write without key signatues, so I can use a more chromatic harmonic language.

Good luck with the rest of your piece! I'm sure it'll be great.

I've never been a part of a high school orchestra or band, so I don't know what high school flautists and clarinetists are capable of. The musicians in my college band could certainly have played it, but I thought it safer just to ask. At any rate, I threw out that section and did something completely different (and far better), so it doesn't even matter!

As for the key signatures, I'm finding I don't need to modulate for this piece! There's a lot of possibilities and variety just in moving from major to minor and everywhere in between. This is probably the best thing I've ever written... in fact, though I came in thinking, "I'll just do my best and have an extra something for my resumé," now I'm beginning to realize I could very well win the competition - and that's very exciting, even just to be composing at this level.

...Actually, now I am modulating, but I saved it for a long time and it's a kind one. My track now runs 4:39 long after two straight days of inspiration! I'll be done with this for sure.

Finally I managed to get myself in front of a computer! Great to hear that everything is going well for everyone. As regards playability now, just write what you can and what you think is possible. Of course all the pieces will be judged on the orchestra's ability to play it, but if we can work around the harder sections, then that should give you some hope to leave these sections in if you understand what I mean!