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About double flats... It's just the chord Eb dim7 = Eb - Gb - Bbb - Dbb

Man, how did I miss this reply!!! What program did you use for the animated score playback? That's awesome!

Here's another update to this piece... Also looking for names... It's not often I begin writing a score without having a preset theme... Sort of just letting my mind do the work for me, then figure I'd name it later, but I'm open to suggestions in that regard as well! 😅 PLEASE be as detailed as you want! Let that music theory mind flow, and don't feel like you need to tiptoe! I'm full of humility 🙂 I can handle criticism

Hi Pabio @Fugax Contrapunctus, Sorry for your loss Pabio, I know this feeling very well. A friend of mine passed away last year after bravely fighting a terminal cancer for more than 2 years. I just visited him the day he passed away and ignorantly and naively thought he would recover soon, and was very shocked to receive the news the next morning. I’m so sad and regretted that even I finish the piece I dedicate to him, it couldn’t be finished when he’s still in this world, due to my own lack of creative power suffering from mistreatment in my workplace. On the music, your fugal and counterpoint writing skill is no doubt first class, there’s no denying of that. For me this music is expressive enough, maybe just like Vince it’s because it’s not played by a real harpsichordist/pianist. For my own fugal writing, I just treat each voice a voice to cry/cheer for themselves and when combined together the sadness/cheerfulness is enhanced, maybe this helps the music getting more emotional? I don’t know, since I just make trial and error in the fugal writing and don’t calculate at all 🤪. Thx for sharing! Henry

Wow I like this one very much too! I love the energy in both sections. The polyrhythm would be really challenging for the players but very effective and can be funny to play! I love your modulations like in b.43 and 55, really making the music go forward as required in this movement to contrast with the 1st movement. I’m not sure if the cello can play pizz. this fast in b.75, maybe @PCC can answer haha, but the interaction between violin and cello here is very good especially the high ranged cello. I also love your usage of pizz. throughout the movement. I really love the ending, each instrument is talking very well! The opening piano arpeggios can be a bit difficult to play with a wide range to leap and in a fast tempo, but it’s doable. Thx for your update! Henry

I really find nothing wrong in this passage! Maybe it!s because of the tuplets in the cello? Maybe I’ll just remove the chromatic notes in the cello to have it be homorhythmic with the violin. Haha yeah that’s a good one, or just include one section in the 4th movement to be in C minor, possibly quoting themes from 1st movement so that audience know the connection between the two movements and know there is a progressive tonality with reason haha. The polishing was finished so that I have energy to review here haha, I’m focusing on smaller pieces like little piano pieces (one posted here and YT) and a Violin Sonata commissioned by @expert21, since I’m suffering a relapse and post partum depression after finishing a huge project like the Sextet and need smaller works for relaxation nanda regaining creative energy. Henry

Hi @Luis Hernández, This one is very funny to listen to! Just notice a few things: the double flats in section G looks a bit scary to me haha, and there’s a parallel fifth in b.61 for the stretto. Nonetheless it’s craftily written and I like its light heartedness! I sep. like section E for a little spicier harmony. Thx for sharing! Henry

Yeah I once thought in this way, but thx to our baby Vince @Thatguy v2.0 (esp. with his preludes) I threw away this misconception and start to know that a shorter and simpler piece doesn’t mean it’s a worse piece! For my own personal experience, after I completed the Piano Sonata I felt all my negative thoughts were expressed through the Sonata, so I could leave all those positive thoughts to my Sextet, and finished it ferociously and feverishly! (Tho I’m sorta suffering some relapse now lol) Henry

I wrote this for fun and exercise. Thank you.

The melody is so good, and so is the ensemble. Do you think you woud like to develop this into a longer piece?

I like this a lot. It's very creative, daring, always interesting and with a few moments that are just.. beautiful. I agree with others that sometimes the writing is not I think ideal for what you are expressing. My 2c, from hobbyist to hobbyist, mainly would be: play more with sonorities, the four instruments don't all have to play the entire time, and silencing some would enhance some passages, and make the piece even more interesting. It's amazing what you manage to do not moving much if at all from b minor.

OK, here's the second movement, F major 2/4 Allegretto with a 4/4 G major mid section Scorrevole...The general form is ABA' - CD - ABA' and a short coda based on A. I wanted a contrast with the dramatic tone of the first movement, a bit lyrical with the initial arpeggios and the violin triplets and the cello theme in the mid section.

A great piece. At first it sounded more like an oncturnoe, but the fact that the left hand pattern repeats all the time (except occasionally), eventually turns it into an ostinato or something similar. It does seem to me that the piece is long enough to rest in that ostinato for so long. Although it works very well, except perhaps in more “intense” parts from measure 32 to 41.

Oh wow, @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu! I think you might be busy polishing the sextet hence the no suggestions. I'm sure there's lot to improve. For instance I don't love the connection between b. 34 and 35 but I can't figure out how to do it nicely! But in any case means a lot to hear your praise! Thank you thank you thank you! As per your question, this is embarrassing... So much time has passed since I wrote the first movement that somehow in my head it became f minor (f minor was the main key in development I guess), and so I wrote the last movement in f minor. Then I published this post yesterday and I look at the title and it says... c minor! So now I'm not sure what to do. I can't transpose c into f or f into c, everything would be too high or too low. So I was thinking to minimize damage: first movement transposed from c to d minor. Second movement is and stays in F major. Third is and stays in g minor. Fourth transposed to f to d minor. not ideal, but I can't think of anything better other than rewrite the first or the last movements!

@Henry Ng Tsz Kiu Thanks for taking time to comment! I really like your idea of just trying to write easier pieces. I struggle a lot with, "Is this even good?", if you know what I mean. I'm trying to be balanced regarding what I write, because on the one hand, I don't want to be too picky about every little thing I write, because then, it's easy to lose enthusiasm. But on the other hand, I really hate the idea of wasting anybody's time with something that's really just not worth listening to. Maybe one day, I'll figure it out 🤷‍♂️ Again, thanks for your comment!

Hello and welcome! id like to add my $0.02 in! the piece feels very imaginative, and the composing… well, without it being an insult (because it isn’t!) I can surely tell that you’re still learning. There’s nothing wrong with that by the way! That being said, I concur, if you have anyone who’s able to mentor you in music theory and composition, it would be beneficial for you! however the sound of the piece’s playback definitely sounds as you intended for it to, despite the actual notation. However, if I had to say anything about it negatively, I’d like to point out that there is such a thing as too much reverb 😅😅😅 When I began using MuseScore, I also had that problem, as a beginner composer. I was still planting my roots in composing with Musescore and in general, right around the time that Musescore 4.0 released, and MuseSounds was introduced. Muse Reverb sounds great when used correctly, however, too much as you have here, can create a “muddiness” in the sound, making it hard to pick up on articulations, intonation from the different parts, and it allows sounds to bleed between chords, which prevents the music from having distinct separations between each chord being played, making it a bit difficult to follow well. So I’d definitely look into improving the mixing/mastering of your playback. Keeping the reverb at its default position on the mixer is usually perfectly fine. The only time I’ve ever increased reverb was specifically for soloist parts, as it helps them to ring out a little more. However, I’ll rarely have that reverb dial turned to more than 50%. And your “Aux 1” channel next to the Master channel is the reverb gain control and pan control. Pan it to 0, and set the gain to ~+2.0, with each instrument’s reverb either at its default 15% position (most instruments are at 15 by default, but some are at 5%, such as Piano and percussion instruments. Those should also be left alone), or a maximum of ~25% but do so selectively. This will help your playback to be more legible in my opinion. It also helps to do this with headphones in, and to avoid adjusting individual instrument gain +/- at all, and solely rely on the panning function for volume control and balancing. (I.e. higher voices should alternate to max ~60% L or R pan, mid voices should alternate to ~25-40% L or R, and bass voices should stay relatively centered. It helps to spread the voices out a bit more so regardless of the gain, all will be heard easily!) that’s about all I got for ya.

Awesome work my friend. id love to see this fleshed out into a suite of some sort to touch on the dynamics question, the skill with delegating dynamics can be quite intimidating especially in pieces like this that demand expressiveness and have a very specific set of dynamic needs that may have to be followed strictly by an ensemble. typically what I do is I go to the voices of a given section that need to be heard over the rest of the group, or, need to stick out more than the rest of the group, and depending on the context of the section, I will never put their markings anywhere below mf. Every other voice, which would be low registers (bass, tuba, cont. bass., bass clar. Etc….) would be at a comfortable mp or p, and the 5ths and 3rds (maybe 7ths depending on your chord structure) would be at p or pp, as each degree of the chord is more than likely doubled, tripled, or quadrupled by other instruments and will naturally ring out loud enough to be heard, while also allowing the melodic line to stick out much further, as higher pitches are caught by the human ear much more clearly than lower or mid register pitches would be. however, I say all that without any contextual examples at this current moment. I’m typing this out on my phone during a little bit of my spare time so can’t get *too* in depth about it, but for a more simplistic answer, just start your playback, and allow your own expertise to tell you what instruments/tones/rhythms are the most important in each given section of the composition. For pieces of this mood, you’ll likely find yourself feeling the need to use decresc. And cresc. Markings very very frequently, and that’s okay! If a player were to read it, they’d be more than capable of performing with a ton of hairpins just fine. As a former trumpeter, I actually loved varied dynamics for more legato pieces, especially while I played as first trumpet, and there was a gorgeous, bold, ringing trumpet solo during a slow moving part of a piece where as the soloist, my part was written out to be in the spotlight. 😂 looooved those moments so much. Even had a piece that was for military remembrance that we played at my local all county clinic band concert. Suggested to the director that I felt that the piece almost NEEDED a trumpet solo in the beginning and boy oh boy, he loved that idea and so did the rest of the band. snare drum came in, playing a very simplistic but military-esc rudimentary line, then came to a halt, and in a silent auditorium, I played what almost sounded reminiscent of the “Taps” Bugle call, except it was just the main Melody of the piece heard throughout. I got a video of that somewhere… lol but there was hairpins from start to finish on that solo part we wrote out for me to play. Without any other instruments in that case, p < mf > pp on the soloist part can be heard all the way in the back of the room, with little effort. the players will know how to handle what you write. Dynamics aren’t a set dB level. They’re an “attitude” is what I like to say. Players will naturally adjust their dynamic volume according to the sound within the concert arch. In notation software they aren’t treated that way, but there are ways to manipulate the program to have playback do what you intend regardless of dynamic markings. Just gotta learn your program. EDIT: I found the recording! lol can’t add video media, so I just converted it to mp3. (Peep the little kid in the audience yelling “is that a trumpet?!” Right as soon as I got done playing 😂😂😂) also, not my best effort here, as we had been rehearsing 5 pieces of music non-stop over the course of 2 days, start to finish, just for that performance. Your boy was pretty pooped. ScreenRecording_03-21-2025 22-30-11_1.mp3

Hi and welcome, You have a very interesting, if not a unique style. This happens at times when individuals are not trained and rely on there own voice. I definitely would review the work with a mentor. I thoroughly enjoyed the work. Mark

It is an interesting and engaging piece. It certainly has an exotic tone because of the scales and so on. I think that, in a way, you can tell that you don't have a strong base because although in some phrases and moments the quartet is well articulated, in many parts it doesn't work as such. Either there are duplications of voices (in octaves) or there are several instruments that make a harmonic support without more. The essence of a quartet is that each instrument functions as a soloist. But that's fine.

Hello @Chemathmusician0510, This one is quite jazzy! For me, b.11-12 should be a step lower than b.9-10 to form a sequence and a 4 bar phrase. Then in the designated b.16 just a prolonged G would in G major chord will do! Thx for sharing! Henry

Hi @Syrel, It sounds really funny. I love that bassoon passage! And.. I wanna steal that cookie! Henry

Hi @Jqh73o, It sounds really dark in an already dark Eb minor and you add Dorian and Phrygian here, and it portray the mysterious and grotesque mood very well! I love how weird this sounds to be honest since it is very fitted to your title here. For the development, maybe using a calmer passage for a contrast? Maybe something in mixolydian? Or even just a normal major mode since major mode is a complete inversion of a Phrygian mode. Thx for sharing! Henry

Yo Peter! Yeah god knows why I wanted to modulate to Ab 10 years ago but gosh a past Henry is still a Henry so I retain it and yeah random pause is my characteristic isn’t it and the cross relation is lovely for me haha and the ending is probably my favourite passage and the more virtuosic variation makes the piece less boring haha! (Trying a Joycian Stream of Consciousness here …) Henry

Hi Mark @MJFOBOE, Thank you! Though I do not like early Schumann too much I absolutely love his late period piano works like The Ghost Variation and Waldsznen, simple and calm when he’s in a tumultuous mental state! Henry

Hey papa Jean @Krisp, As I have commented on YT but forget to do so here, I will repeat. This one is fascinating as well, though in a more absurd manner than your previous darker pieces. Thx for your reply I now know the hidden famous motive used haha! I really love that after 2:00 there is a very contrasting and calm ending, contrasting with the previous intensified mood, and then have it end like the Pathetique Symphony. Very well contrasted and colourful as always in your music. Thx very much for sharing! Henry