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Castlevania hell yeah

Hey @veps, For me I really love your Wind's Lament, as I actually place this piece as the 2nd place piece myself. But if you wanna put "A Lily" for your portfolio, maybe you can put a solo piano piece with your playing instead to show that you are capable of both composing and playing. I have never made any portfolio myself, but I know that my ( ) piece is once chosen as the exemplar by the Hong Kong's Examination Bureau so maybe that counts. Henry

Hi @mossy84, I think for the D minor prelude the most interesting part would be the modulation to F minor which kind of reminds the one in f minor. Henry

Thx! I dare say this is the funniest one out of the twelve preludes! Vince's piece is so great to awake my usually dormant rhythmic soul LoL. Henry

Lovely, ... a bit of Satie? Mark

I Love "quirky" ... very pleasant to listen to and a bit of fun! Sometimes less - is more. Do I hear a bit of Bernstein/Broadway here? Mark

Hi my comment is a bit different. The piece is entitled Oregon Trail ... Americana? Yes, however, the music has a central European flavor to it - in its construction and texture. Mark

Rust & Bones – Betflix TV Series soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/rust-bones-new-tv-series-1 Dick Boneman murder mystery party started with the presentation of the rules of the game and out of nowhere the presentation of the most complete collection of Holy Nails. More than 30 crucifixion nails in different state of corrosion and made from different metals were presented even though it is well known that only 3 nails were used to nail Jesus on the Holy Cross. Some were still solid, most were bent and some were so rusted that the smallest sneeze would blow off the dust out of the reliquary. However, they all had holy blood on them, which increases greatly the value of those nails. When DNA was first identified in the late 1860s by Swiss chemist Friedrich Miescher, pope Pius IX requested that the upper management of Boneman & Sacks sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to ensure that no DNA test would be made on those nails as well as any holy relics managed by Boneman & Sacks Relic Asset Management Inc. Then during the diner, Dick Boneman initiated the scandal by saying that the relic business model his family started a thousand years earlier was a total fraud. He announced that after the diner a report would be automatically sent to all the Medias in the world stating that DNA analysis proves that more than 95% of the relics in the world his family has been managing for the Christendom are not authentic or pure fabrication. Such an announcement would obviously have a catastrophic effect on Boneman & Sacks shares and since all the friends he invited to this party have so many shares in Boneman & Sacks, they would all be bankrupt shortly. Something sure, once everybody finished diner and went to bed no one could sleep until a series of horrific noises came from the chapel and had everyone really scarred. The only clue left was this skull on the floor of the chapel crypt. “This story is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.” Music & Production: Syrel Photography: Syrel

Hello there, I love the ambience this tracks has. The string choir mixed with mellow woods is just chef kiss. It creates a sense of mysterious.

I just realized that this is an older version. Here's the version I currently use: Anyway, I recently posted a "chorale" in d minor (which I have since renamed to a prelude), which I will repost here since the other one also has a mistake. This one should have a lot more interesting harmonies since it was composed specifically to experiment with them.

Solemn in character, but also beautifully emotional and sublime. Though there are a few spots where I feel a tiny little bit more harmonic variation could be added, on the front of the overall harmonic progressions in this chorale I have barely anything to add except a sound "bravo!". The same goes for your masterful use of apoggiaturas and expressive dissonance throughout the contrapuntal scaffolding. I wish I could get my ear and brain to cope with a certain set of very crunchy but delicious dissonances in my own compositions as you have in your own. Sadly, I have not reached a point with regards to my aesthetic preferences as applied to my own compositional process where I feel safe using such bold yet mesmerizing voice-leading devices. As already pointed out by Samuel_vangogh, there appear to be some instances of voice-leading errors, but nothing a little polishing cannot swiftly fix. I also tend to forget checking for these little technical nuisances when first publishing my work, as evidenced by the vast majority of my YouTube uploads, whose video files, unfortunately enough, cannot be replaced once published. It happens to me all the time. Thankfully, this forum's editing features allow me to revamp my works if needed afterwards in order to achieve more definitive results. As for the ending, again I feel Samuel has a point. In my humble opinion, the ending of such a harmonically lush chorale ought to include a climactic combination of apoggiaturas, suspensions and balanced-out dissonances in order to fully reward the listener's attention. For example, the absence of a dominant 7th in the final cadence felt like a bit of a letdown. Though strict and pure in its bare form, with or without 6/4 suspension, I missed that spark of tension in the closing cadence due to that. Adding a ritardando/rallentando so as to delay the ending (which. yet again, was also indicated in Samuel-vangogh's comment) would also contribute to furthering the authenticity of the style whilst keeping the audience holding their breath to the very final chord. Most of this paragraph is just nitpicking on my part anyway, so my advice therein really isn't that big of a deal. In summary, besides a few minor criticisms and overlooked intricacies, this chorale is gorgeous to listen to, truly.

This is great. I love the odd time signature and the jazz inflection with those Stravinskian chords. In a way it reminds me of the more avant-garde stuff done by classically trained "novelty ragtime" pianists like Zez Confrey. And a very fun and energetic performance by Henry!

Here I have 5 pieces I'm considering using for my college portfolio. Elias Valle | scorefolio For most of my colleges, I can only submit 2 or 3 pieces, what are your suggestions on which I should use? I'm for sure using the string quartet "A Lily" for every college

Hi Pabio @Fugax Contrapunctus, I like the less thick 3 part fugue texture here without going too thick sometimes. My favourite moment will definitely be b.61 when you go as far as to F# minor with a rare 2 voices texture in your works, as I think you sometimes go for too thick a texture in most of the passages but definitely not here. I think the most crucial thing is take care of your own body, as without a healthy body you can do nothing, either your study or your composition. It seems unhealthy for a guy like me, who have to sleep before 11 pm every night to avoid headache and dizziness, to deprive yourself of sleeping for so many days straight. Also I think you should focus on studying now prior to composing, since earning daily bread for the future is important for your future composing whether you will compose for a living in the future or not. Maybe you can also compose with less barinpower consuming form other than fugues. Thx for sharing! Henry

Having languished through an exasperating episode of "composer's block" for the better part of the summer, I have now finally realized to what extent my creative faculties seem to be correlated with sleep deprivation (one product of which is this latest fugue of mine). For the most part, I had tried to avoid said alterations to my regular sleep schedule since earlier this year, when a series of unfortunate events made me realize just how unhealthy not sleeping for half a week straight could be. However, this also meant that my long nocturnal composition sessions had to be put to an end if I was not to end up in an academic downward spiral capable of ruining my career expectancies. To be quite frankly honest, I do not know what to make of this as of yet. It appears as though I may have to reach a stable equilibrium of consciousness in order to be able to unleash my creativity without losing my mind to insufficient mental rest. Which, as with any personal golden mean, will certainly not be an easy task in the slightiest. Anyhow, here's the fugue. Enjoy! YouTube video link: Note: the audio file uses an A = 415 Hz 1/5 comma meantone soundfont, as opposed to the equal temperament used in the video. I thought it sounded cool and not that dissonant as in more distant keys, so I decided to include it for some variation.

Curiously I felt a few Bruckner moments, Bruckner carrying forward the chromatic harmony Wagner learned from Liszt. Wagner's harmonic style changed as a result of his sojourn with Liszt. It's noticeable after Die Walkure when he started on Tristan. The augmented 6th at the opening of Tristan - a harmony Liszt had already used in his B minor Sonata of 1853. Wagner seemed to abandon his triadic harmony after that. Der Oregon Trail seemed to embrace a chromaticism (even in the first two bars) which at once snared my interest. I look forward to more of your work.

Hey! You can't imagine how your message pleases me. Thank you for listening. You are right, these pieces recently written on poems by Stuart Merill are quite in the spirit of this crossroads of times in France. (you think of Chausson, I would also quote Lilly Boulanger, or even less known, Lucien Durosoir for some harmonic explorations). I believe that for me it is the texts that induce aesthetic choices: a dark clear world, dark forests, moonlight, haunting and mystery, a few young people who died in passing, in short, the emblematic ingredients of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the Beaudelairien spleen that enveloped all this... Thanks again!

WOW This is beautiful!!! Nicely written, love the rolled octaves in the right hand. Also very nicely sung. Since listening to Chausson's Poeme et de la mer I have a weak spot for french songs, especially when they're somewhere between late romantic, impressionistic, and modern. French is just such a great language for music, it really makes me want to learn it.

Fun piece! I really love the ending how you introduce the C Major chord. It definitely comes across as a, how should I say it, "carefree" piece. Fits the title. As a string player there was nothing that strikes me as extremely difficult, all those fifths are giving me a scare but it's just because I personally prefer not to play barres. I think the bigger issue would lie with the cello. They usually have more difficulty playing double stops, but I don't play cello so I'm not sure. Should be fine since it's mostly comfortable double stops like 6ths

Interestingly, I have never ventured much into Wagner's music, mainly because I don't have enough patience for operas haha. My name is actually derived from my favorite car. I know that my style is similar to Wagner's though, one of my favorite composers is Chausson who is said to have copied him sometimes. And yeah, the time limit for the competition was 6 minutes. I could have stretched the slower parts probably to make it more seamless, but to be honest I didn't have much time left. Very glad you like it though. I have to admit that I really love a full brass sound every now and then even though I have little idea how hard it is to play. Some of you might know me from the discord where I have been active every now and then in the last 2 years. I have a few other pieces on my youtube channel, I just didn't want to post them here all at once because that would make me seem like an attention seeker lol. They're also of considerably lesser quality. https://youtube.com/@amvalkyrie6496?si=diYCQnRvDlSLH7DT

Are you a Wagner lover? I think your name really gives you away LoL. And the mood and type of chromaticism you employ is quite Wagnerian with last minute alterations by half-step changing the nature of each chord at the last moment. I think this definitely has the vibe of a Wagner prelude - did you know he also wrote a symphony before he wrote any of his operas? I had a midi of it back in the day. What were the duration restrictions of the competition you entered this into? If the entries had to be less than 5 minutes then it's understandable that you jammed so much seemingly disparate material into such a short time. But for me where the music really loses continuity is in the measures coming up to rehearsal C where the accelerando seems to come from out of nowhere. But this is very lush and romantic music overall and quite enjoyable! I love the richness of the many string chords you employ. From my own personal taste I tend to stay away from such aggressive brass writing but that's just a personal pet peeve. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you both so much for the in-depth feedback! I should have joined this forum earlier lol. This piece is originally part of an album for piano I started. And there I purposely wanted the moods to vary a lot for the nature of what it depicts. I orchestrated it then for a competition where I sadly didn't get selected, but yeah, I have to admit that as an orchestral piece, there is too much change in moods to soon. It would really make more sense to make it a complete symphonic poem 10 - 20 minutes with the same themes, but I was under time constraint. It's hard to notice but I also reused part B in part D albeit very shortly and in a different key. I have to say that flow is what I have to work most on in the future. I quite enjoyed the experience of writing for an orchestra though, having done it only once before. There is so much opportunity in color out there... Anyway, thank you so much again for listening. I hope I can stick around here, provide feedback to others and share a piece every now and then. Looks like a great community!

Really easy to listen to. Here in the UK it would be classed as "light music" and is entirely successful at that - probably playable at sight for performers in that arena. It's the kind of music one might find backing an activities sequence in a documentary - light hearted, enough dissonance lift it out of the banal, a buoyant rhythm. Easy-going energy. Very little to say about it otherwise. One of those pieces that should be used in a multi-media context. Nice rendering. Shows how something lieft on the back-burner can be given new life!

Hi @AM-Valkyrie, Welcome to the forum! Like @Quinn has said this is a delicious party of tone colour. The details are all really well made like what Quinn has said. What I would comment on is the form and flow of the piece, as I feel like this is the main weakness. I think the mood varies too quickly with not enough development of each section. You have five different moods and tempi in less than 4 minutes and to me it's too much variety that will reduce the coherence of the piece. For the thematic materials I cannot discern their relations except section F when the opening material recapitulates. Each section is wonderful in their own rights with beautiful, unique and distinctive, but combined together it's not too coherent and reasonable for me, even if the piece is based on the poem. You are young and with your talent I'm sure you can write even better piece in the future. Congrats on this and thx for sharing your piece and joining us! Remember to review some pieces too if you feel interested! Henry

Hi @Evgeni, The music itself is interesting, but I think if the piece is actually played the effect will be much more blurring with those tone clusters and minor seconds in compact postion. I really think this is more an exercise for the sight reading skills than for the 10 fingers. The exercise is not difficult to play for the fingers, but it will be very difficult to read 10 staffs at once for a pianist. The low and high register are hard to read without the octave up/down signs, and especially when you are dividing each finger for each staff you can easily add those signs for easy reading. Thx for sharing Henry