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This is a binary fugue in three voices. Each of the five "subject complexs" explores a common harmonic formula: 1. Perfect cadence, I-V-I (mm. 1-2) 2. Falling thirds (mm. 3-4) 3. Imperfect cadence, I-IV-V (mm. 7-8) 4. Ascending seconds (mm. 16-19) 5. Circle of fifths (mm. 22-26)

Thanks everyone for listen and the kind words!!!! I really appreciate it! The orchestra is Cinematic Studio. It's very versatile and very very easy to work with. I have to touch my mod wheel much less than other libraries I've worked with. The choir is Audio Imperia, and the ethnic instruments is East West Ra. My reverb is Valhalla, very cheap and gives a great sound. Bjarke! It's good to see you here! Thanks!

Thanks for the info! Apparently MuseScore 4 does have ways of changing the individual velocity of each note! I will test it and see if I get the hang of it. MuseScore and Sibelius seem to lack a lot of options, though. Apparently Dorico is the software that mixes best DAW features with a notation software. I had the Reverb but it was really low. I increased it but, as you said, the piano does not sound realistic without putting care into each individual note. What I did originally was having 4 different staffs (so two right hands and two left hands) so I could have one with only the melody and extra notes I wanted to be louder and other one for the rest of the notes. Of course this was cumbersome and annoying, so from now on I might be better off changing individual velocities 😅 Thank you!

I enjoyed this so much. I listened to it 5 times in a row. As others commented before, I am also curious about which instruments you used. Thank you so much for sharing!

You can use MS Basic Soundfonts, Musesounds or Berlin Orchestral Piano, it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that you apply a reverb or delay effect to the piano track. You can do that in Musescore by downloading from MuseHub Reverb and Delay effects which were originally created for Audacity. Of course, Musesounds tracks already have an applied automatic reverb so you shouldn't have to apply another reverb to it. But another thing that the Musesounds Piano might lack is the ability to nuance the dynamics. Usually you should be able to bring out specific notes you want to bring out in high relief above other notes in the same hand on a piano, by going into the properties tab of a note and increasing its velocity. But that doesn't work with Musesounds pianos, only MS Basic Soundfonts (and that is how I prefer to do it). Using MS Basic Soundfonts it then becomes necessary to apply the audacity reverb effects to make it sound better (the piano sounds by themselves aren't that different from each other I think, but they can be really made to shine with proper application of reverb, panning, delay, and bringing out the most important notes through velocity values).

This sounds fantastic and very evocative. But I would almost say it sounds very Andalusian. Well, the whole Mediterranean is connected.

Thank you so much for your feedback, @PeterthePapercomPoser!! I also like the introduction very much. I am normally really bad at making up introduction but this melody just came to me immediately as soon as I wanted to have an introduction. Most of the times I avoid creating introduction at all but maybe I should for myself to have one like in this piece. That way it will slowly become easier. Thanks so much for the suggestion! As soon as you commented about the F minor theme being too dry I could only agree. So I though on ways to fix that. The problem is that the piano is playing counterpoint so I did not want to muddy that. I tried several things and ended up adding a really sparse accompaniment with french horns. I I need to learn how to harmonize complex piano lines like this one without muddling the result :S. Also, I need to find out if the current arrangement could be possible because I am not 100% sure whether the french horns can be played as soft as to have a piano being properly listened to. I also changed the piano and solo violin position in the score. About the dry piano, I also agree with that. I tried buying "Berlin Orchestral" pianos but there are some playback issues so I am using the original by MuseSounds. Eventually I hope I can find a better piano that is less dry! Thank you for the comment!

Hi You can do whatever you want in music. Another question is whether the result sounds coherent, or fluid, or etc.... By definition, an invention must have a baroque essence. From my point of view, an invention that sounds like classicism is something else.

Wow Adamich It's really awesome to see you on the forum I didn't knew you where here too. just to clearify I am focusmrbjarke from youtube and as you know I been following your amazing compositions for some years. It's really amazing to see you here and I hope we can see more of your here if that is what you want 🙂 Welcome back to the forum! All the best. Bjarke.

Hi Peter! Thank you so much for taking the time to listen so attentively. Actually while composing it, I also found measure 57 a bit troubling… I thought of doing a smoother resolution but I was absolutely out of brain juice. Maybe I will revise this composition sometime and smooth out the parts which stick out. I have a love hate relationship with the ending. I just felt after a long, heavy, overly romantic coda, a little humour was needed to sort of knock some sense into the pig headed passions invoked by the section which came before. I think it kinda works? 😂 Thanks for you suggestion regarding the balance issue… I have nightmares thinking about trying to bring out the melody using muse sounds. I tried almost everything. I will surely try using MS basic once. Again, thank you so much for your constructive thoughts!

Hello @Adamich and welcome back to the forum! My friend on this website @Bjarke mentioned you in a personal message and the next day I know here you are! What a wonderful piece and realistic mock-up! You use many unusual instruments in this rendition, care to inform us what they are? (and what libraries you used?) Also, I noticed that the choir is singing actual words - what language are they in? The piece is perfect for an amusement park as you intend - it's well themed toward depicting it's titular subject and it is upbeat, using percussion to create an energetic vibe. Great job and thanks for sharing!

Hi @ComposedBySam! Great to hear another one of your lucid compositions! Many parts of it remind me of an adventurous hero beginning their journey or quest in some RPG. Something that sometimes brings me out of this vibe is for example, in measure 57, your seemingly premature resolution of the harmony when it seems like a more extended resolution should have been forthcoming. The harmonic resolution makes the music seem like a harmonic exercise for a second there, but maybe that was your intention with making this piece sound absurd? I do think that was your intention since the piece ends in such an absurd and sudden way that it's almost funny. Great concept! Nit-picks: I think this was rendered with the Musesounds Piano, am I right? Something I notice in your rendition is that it is often difficult for it to sound like the melody is brought out. When I write for piano in Musescore, I solve this problem by using the MS Basic soundfont for piano because that allows me to change the velocities on specific notes and gives me much more control over the volume of specific notes in the score. That's how I can say, balance the different notes in a chord for one hand (if the melody is the top note and only that note should be brought out in high relief). This problem with balance is especially apparent with pedaled trills in the left hand which end up sounding ridiculously louder than anything else that's happening on top. You can change the velocities of specific notes if you select the note and go into the properties tab, but this only works with the MS Basic soundfont, not with the Musesounds Piano (but they both will still sound pretty good if you apply some reverb effects). Thanks for sharing!

Hi @JorgeDavid! I really like this orchestration! I like how you didn't just orchestrate the piano piece but instead chose to meld the piano and orchestra into a kind of short little piano concerto. I also loved the serene and simple introduction which really fit the character of the piece nicely. The introduction also seems well related to the main thematic material of the piece. My only gripe is that sometimes I feel like the orchestration is too light. For example, I felt like when the contrasting F minor development theme comes in, I would have expected it to be more padded by some background sustained tones. Nit-picks: In the score order, the solo instrument (in this case the piano and solo violin) goes on top of the string section, just under the percussion. Also, I feel like the piano was really dry in this rendition and could have used some more reverb and/or delay to really make it sparkle (imo). Thanks for sharing!

@Bjarke: Do you have an updated PDF score for the new version? I tried to follow along with the old score and noticed that there were so many changes that I couldn't keep up.

Thank you so much, @Luis Hernández! I am really glad you liked it! I agree., there is so much to learn about Orchestration. That is why I started studying the Adler's Orchestration book (it has many audios so, for people like me that can not often experience orchestral instruments' sounds in real, it does help a lot). Lots of pages and information so I guess I am in for a really long journey into Orchestration! Thanks for listening and commenting!

Hi guys! Long time no see. A solo work for piano, named 'Echoes in Absurdity' tries to express just that. The primary theme in minor speaks of the aftertaste of war and of the echoes of pain and suffering which yet linger. The contrasting major theme expresses acceptance, tenderness, consolation, and compassion and hopes for a bright future uninterrupted by calamities caused by ignorance and greed. The off-tonic feint at the end of the composition (in Db major) before the coda symbolizes the utopian dream built by the Dionysian ideal of universal love and empathy. The restatement of the primary theme in the coda is cut short by a D# instead of the expected F#, highlighting the uncertainty and absurdity of the situation. I hope that I had in some capacity succeeded in expressing the above intentions in my music.

Hi all, I used to come to this forum all the time. It really helped me grow with my compositions. I've met a lot of composers in IRL from this website. I'm really glad it's still around. Anyway, I wanted come back here and share a piece I wrote for an amusement park. I hope you enjoy! https://youtu.be/CQQofPp2IDo?si=BCQZJbE16Hb1_fhF

@Jqh73o Thank you very much for the feedback!

Awesome piano technique! 🙂 some suggestion for improvement perhaps could be sometimes when the melody is highlighted in the high register you could make jumps to double the melody in the bass. I think I have heard that technique somewhere before which I thought was pretty effective. at around 3:00 Perhaps an idea could be which I have seen composers like Liszt do where he starts energy sometimes with a trill but you could also do it the way you did where it will be transformed to a run across octaves (for example la campanella or i think he does this as well in libestrum) This could then be transformaed to a background element. An other way of doing this is perhaps keep what you do in the piece but then repeat it later again modulated perhaps a whole tone above which could create suspension and then add the run. I also think this piece could benefit from more modulation. The harmonies in of it self are interesting but they could add more depth through more modulation. I think that this piece may also be a bit too much minor harmonies and could beneficial with a contrasting section of a major section of course still following the same thematical ideas. I hope this is something you can use. I am really impressive with your composing ability which already feel mature. I think you have a very promising composing future ahead 🙂

I agree with what has been said that the piece sounds like a piano transcription for orchestra: If it was written for piano here are some thoughts on the piano figuration: the doubling of the voices is excessive for a piano, in most cases you don’t need to double the voices too much on a piano, it will sound too saturated; the textures are too unstable, with this I mean that there are no clear patterns and you go from one texture to another too quickly, sometimes on the same phrase and there are almost no breaks between the different textures; the textures themselves have almost no running fast voices, in the most complex piano works texturally (rachmaninoff sonata 2, night wind sonata, sonata minacciosa) there is almost always a fast voice like this in their most dense moments; the fanfare motif sounds very difficult and slightly unpianistic, I would state just in octaves with maybe one of the voices of the chord (ideally one that repeats) being played too; the lack of pedal and quality of the midi also chastises the recording severely, so I think in a real piano it would sound much better. After writing this, I think you meant this for orchestra. Structurally I like the way you develop the first themes (and as this is a sketch, I believe that you will also develop the g major theme) But in order to understand it correctly it took me some listenings. I think this problem could be easily solved by adding some resting moments before introducing new material (kind of like a medial caesura, but not in sonata form) Thanks for sharing Manuel

Hi! Thanks for listening. I definitely do not have any sort of practical system or toolkit I am pulling from with the quarter tones. They are just something that I love because I feel like only having 12 tones to use at a time is too limiting to the colors, emotions, and moods that I want to express through music. However, I like to use them in this way of just extending the harmony rather than being just sound effects or gimmicky. What I will say with this piece, though, is how much I clicked with using quarter tones to subvert expectations on romantic music. Just taking major / minor chords and flattening the 3rd down a quarter tone adds a complex emotional depth. A lot of the work was finding intentional ways to use a tone to build a chord that fit what I was trying to express in a certain section, which sometimes meant not using quarter tones at all / I would have to mess around to find what pitch worked. My favorite part of this piece is that page 11 true major chord climax. We spend 6.5 minutes never having a pure cadential major chord that it makes it feel so meaningful to arrive there. It helps re-contextualize such a cliche that is present across all of classical music. How many pieces have you heard end on a tutti major chord like that? But, when the entire work is fighting towards that one moment of a true 12-tone major chord, it makes it feel so fresh.

There's a lot of WTC Preludes that have little or no counterpoint at all, for example the No. 5 or No. 1. I don't think this is a problem as this is the idea of the Prelude. I tried to make something interesting with only a melodic line in the right hand and a very simple bass. I wouldn't say the Invention is in baroque style (not even the prelude). The Invention is in my opinion more close in style to classical period contrapuntal works. Also I wouldn't say the chords sound like Stravinsky, but I agree it sounds inconsistent and I'll probably remake that entire part of the invention.

Bravo, It sounds phenomenal and, although I believe that in orchestration one never reaches the top, it is all balanced.