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Thank you very much for the positive feedback. Yes, you’re right, the computer plays it too evenly and unexcitingly. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want too many agogic deviations here. It seems to me that much more attention should go to dynamic shading rather than agogics. As for the Tropak, that’s an interesting association! I hadn’t noticed the influence of that dance, but perhaps it’s easier to see from the outside. And it’s interesting that the music sounds Russian to you. Yes, I’m Russian, but this piece seemed fairly neutral to me. Just as, by the way, Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony seems relatively neutral to us here, while in Europe, they say, it’s perceived as very Russian.

Hello A fantastic piece, rich in colour and beautifully orchestrated. I find this sort of work for wind bands to be a rather distinctive genre, and by no means an easy one. In the area where I live (Spain, on the Mediterranean coast) there’s a very strong tradition of street bands (marching bands?). They play whilst marching the whole time and consist of dozens of clarinets, oboes, flutes, sometimes saxophones, and percussion—including timpani, which are constantly pushed along by two assistants. There are many bands here and they play at the local festivals. For example, in many villages and neighbourhoods, ‘Moors and Christians’ festivals are held (lasting 3–5 days), as this country was under Muslim rule for seven centuries (from 711 to 1492) and these festivals re-enact the final Christian victory. Anyway, it’s fascinating. And that’s why we have such a wonderful Muslim heritage in this country in every aspect (traditions, cuisine, the language). These bands parade with various groups throughout the day and play pasodobles, music that sounds ‘Arabic’, and so on… That’s why I’m so fond of this sort of band. Anyway, sorry for rambling, but I’d like to congratulate you on this music.

@AngelCityOutlaw Thank you very much for your contributions. Of course, I understand all the different viewpoints and situations. The thing is, even though I’m still at an intermediate level (I think) when it comes to orchestral composition, I almost always write directly for the orchestra. First comes the idea – which might be a melody, but is often something else – and I already picture which instruments will be used, and so on. But my current mentor on these matters remarked that in orchestration, if you have good voice leading, you’ve got a large part of it sorted. And in this regard, he recommends using a sketch – not a standard piano stave, nor a piano reduction. Rather, use two, three or four staves (depending on the size of the orchestra you’re using) to outline the ideas and structures. Of course, I think he’s right. But I find this method useful when you’re developing an orchestral work of a certain scale, length, structure, and so on… For something lasting just 3 minutes, I don’t see it as necessary. I also think, as you mention, that it’s not the same whether you have all the time in the world to compose and orchestrate, or whether you have to work whilst adapting to deadlines and other people. And of course, reading the biographies of the greats – Verdi and Wagner, for example – it’s clear they did make sketches on the piano… But they didn’t have the digital tools we have today, and it was their only way not only of structuring tremendously complex works, but also of creating their ‘demos’ to present and rehearse their works. Best regards.

1 Andantino / Trio 2 Andante 3 Vivace Scherzo 4 Vivace string quartet .mp3 String quartet nr 1 pastrol.mp3 String quartet pastrol Scherzo.mp3 String quartet No 1 Mov 4 pastarol.mp3 string quartet .pdf String quartet nr 1 pastrol.pdf String quartet pastrol Scherzo.pdf String quartet No 1 Mov 4 pastarol.pdf

Nocturne- E minor.mp3Nocturne- E minor.pdf Hello. Recently finished this piece and felt it was something interesting to share; What i feel makes this piece distinct is that its quite heavily harmonically driven, as in the melody doesn't stray far from the current harmonic background; I'm quite satisfied with the structure, as i feel it keeps the piece interesting and fresh all the way through; I'm still not sure if i should say this piece is in E minor, as its never really suggested until the very end. (also this piece used to have a subtitle in early stages, but as i was composing further on it didn't quite stick, so some ideas of what to call it would be nice) Thoughts and feedback are always welcome. Enjoy the music.

Piano sketches can be useful for beginners in composition because it keeps them focused on making sure the raw musical material is worth actually expanding into something big like an orchestra. However, once you are skilled enough in simply "composing", and your familiarity with the orchestra grows, you tend to outgrow the sketch and see its very limited utility. I actually sort of dislike the piano as an instrument, because it is really not very expressive and sterile, whereas the orchestra can play from whisper quiet to deafeningly loud and with a huge number of articulations that a piano simply cannot emulate. What can happen if you rely all the time on a piano sketch is that you will orchestrate the music in a very basic manner; no trills, horn rips, portamento, mordents or other ornamentation...because the piano is not really capable of it. Another issue is that in orchestration, tone colour is of paramount importance and basically why you would use an orchestra in the first place. A melody played on the oboe can have an entirely different character than it would played by the horns; the piano captures neither. Where this also manifests itself is in harmony. For example, in a piece I am presently working on, it begins with the horns playing a Gm add9, no5 chord at piano dynamics. This has a real warm, ethereal quality that the piano and sustain pedal couldn't capture. Thus, if I had reached for the piano instead of a horns patch in my DAW, I don't think I would've come up with the harmonic language the piece has. Another thing is that: I compose for film. Two films I did this year I had just a few weeks to compose the score before the premieres in a major city. So there were hundreds of people counting on me to be on time. I just don't have time to sketch things out in a piano and then try to translate it to an orchestra. Especially not in film, where the picture itself influences the structure and orchestration; makes way more sense to just go straight for the instruments you have in mind. You can also get some sample libraries these days which are quite playable or at least set up a couple of patches to play in tandem (like staccato + long) and "sketch" that way, with the instrument sounds right at your finger tips. In notation software, you could play your melody on your keyboard, and then just enter it straight away to the violins. Don't like how it is on the violins after all? Copy/Paste it to the flutes in a second. Piano sketches have their uses. Concert composers might still find use for it and beginners will value it, but modern technology has given us better alternatives, I find. It should also be noted that composers of old often didn't really use a "piano" sketch even if they worked at a piano. Following what @Sojar Voglar said, John Williams' sketches were always 3-stave reductions for winds, strings and brass. So even when he was writing at the piano, he was pretty much orchestrating it at the same time. He was always composing with the orchestra in mind.

Hi @Alexx ! I love the Prokofiev-like angularity of your melodies! The chromaticism is also a welcome feature and very entertaining! Very Russian of you! (You're Russian, right? Forgive me if I'm wrong.) As a critique, I think this sounds slightly artificial without any changes in tempo and at the tempo you have. I think a real pianist would usually play this slightly slower and it would be great if you tried to play and record this yourself. I think at a constant tempo it starts to sound somewhat resembling a Russian Tropak or the famous Russian music from the game "Tetris" (or a march). I think it would greatly enrich your music if you found ways to include tempo fluctuations. For me, I've occasionally written pieces where each measure there's a constant alteration between ritardandi and accelerandi. If you don't want to clutter up your score with those kind of indications you could just write "rubato" at the beginning with the tempo indication and hide the ritard's and accel's. That's of course for a very different kind of piece and doesn't really apply to this particular style you have here. Nonetheless, I think I'll leave my comments for any future piano pieces you may write. Thanks for sharing!

OK, I saw some profession stuff that you added in the stuff at the end is fine. You cannot do you wanna also maximize maybe your bass a bit. timpani in concert bass drum would work well especially leaving a roomy feel for some stuff, especially some climaxes when I mean by climmax , I’m talking about like some of the stuff that just stands louder than the rest you could add some other things like a concert bass drum or timp or a sizzle cymbal

As another bonus, this inhumanly fast rendering is what the capriccio sounds like in my head ~ Sonata per corno – 3. Capriccio (fast).mp3

Feel free to have a go at it if you feel like it. :)

Thanks Mark, much appreciated. And you're right, I guess that was the general direction I was headed in.

Peter asked me to write a little review, and I'm very happy to. :) For starters, I was ecstatic that Peter agreed to play even one of my movements for solo horn! At the time I was only able to offer a low payment, yet he thought the piece was interesting enough to learn, anyway. Then, after 18 years of not hearing any complete piece of mine performed, I got hungry for more, and when I got an extra paycheck, I gradually asked if Peter was interested in learning more movements I'd written for solo horn. He kept saying yes, and after he agreed to the fourth one, I decided to assemble them into a coherent four-movement sonata. Throughout the process, Peter was patient with my many requests for changes to his engraved score and for re-recording parts of movements that I thought weren't quite perfect yet. He spent many weeks practising for hours almost every day until we both were happy with the completed result, and I couldn't be more pleased with the finished recording. I added a tip to our agreed payment for his dedication to our project. I can highly recommend him to anyone interested in asking him for engraved scores or horn recordings. At some point I hope to be able to hire him for recording another horn solo sonata! :)

A lovely piano miniature in the style of Erik Satie. Mark

Yes, of course, you're right about inspiration. And certainly, a small change can suddenly open up an unsuspected dimension of new possibilities and you need to keep working till you get there, and after you get there... There's this seductive myth about the way Pushkin worked, but we won't get into that ;) About the appoggiaturas, I get it now. I didn't know it was old-fashioned to use grace notes. In fact I started using them very recently instead of triplets. Shows I'm perhaps living somewhat in a bubble and need to exchange more with others who compose - hence my starting to use various forums for the first time a few days ago. :) Thanks again for your comments.

Here’s Spotify for those who don’t have access to YouTube.

This is so lovely! Congratulations on the performance and the composition. The slow, out of body piano part suits the text well and the spread range of the soprano part should be very satisfying for the singer.

Thanks Mark? Interesting harmonies is exactly what I was aiming for!

I think simply waiting for inspiration isn’t the best idea. As Tchaikovsky said, inspiration is a guest who doesn’t like to visit the lazy. Of course, there are times when a flash of insight comes. But often you have to grab yourself by the scruff of the neck and drag yourself to work :) I also sometimes go through many different versions of the same theme or the same piece. At times I’m amazed at how much changes from altering just one note or one duration. A theme that once seemed unsuccessful can be transformed so much that you almost consider yourself a genius and simply enjoy the result. So I think one should keep working and working. As for the appoggiaturas, no, the issue isn’t that the notes are too long or too short. It’s just that the notation itself, purely graphically, looks somewhat old-fashioned on the page. That’s how it was usually written in Mozart’s time. Nowadays it’s more common to write regular notes. For example, you could write a reverse dotted rhythm there, or a triplet, depending on exactly how you want it to be played. An appoggiatura gives the performer some freedom, whereas if you write out the notes, they have to play it exactly. But of course, it’s up to the composer. Your notation is by no means bad or wrong. Just unfamiliar. =)

A lovely lush work with interesting harmonies .... reminds me of pieces by Samuel Barber. Mark

And here is the second adagio from the same album, 'Triptych"

Hi Alex, Thank you very much for your words about my piece. I'm glad it comes across well. I often labour for months over pieces and this was completed over a few days. I work every day on compositions and often wonder if it would not be better to do nothing until a rare moment comes when you're able to achieve complete concentration effortlessly. On the other hand, sometimes you chip away for hours and days and all of a sudden something gives and you're in the zone. So I guess it can work both ways, but I often think that the second approach is wasting time that could be spent differently. How is it with you? About the voice leading: removing some notes was just an afterthought, to be more "light", but it wasn't even played that way to be honest and I realised that it doesn't improve anything. About the appoggiaturas are you saying they are sometimes too long to be expressed as grace notes ? Thanks again for your comments, very much appreciate it!

Hi Julien, sorry for the late response! I want to thank you for the revision of my work, very appreciated and i will work on this little collection on the future. The idea of the seven pieces is from the idea of the woman's body. I've been inspired from the most common carateristic of it. I have a problem with repetition I know ahhaaha. I'll reply about your doubts: 1) the eight notes are meant to be played with the preferred hand, if you are skilled enough to trill while playing the voice you can do that. 3) not my favourite either. The idea was about a lulluby, so one simple melody with little changes in the armony, but not good as I thought it would become 4) I was in doubt about the repetiition section, now you convinced me to delete or change it entirely 5) I think there's some paralel, but not in my interest 6) the dissonance is very attuned on a real piano, in the MIDI is quite harsh to listen 7) this one piece (the little motif in particular) born from an impro which is recorded on my YT. The fragment remained in my head so long that I wanted to re-use it on this little piece. The single one bar which is blank is made for a cadenza ad lib. or a impro on the theme. I think I have to clarify it. The idea is to remember (like i remembered the fragment, which comes frome the past). I leave the interpretation with the other pieces of the collection to the listener :) Thanks again!

My composition. I would appreciate any feedback.

Hello. I’ve watched and listened to your work. It’s a very worthy composition. I like the thematic material, the harmonic language, and the form. It’s a complete and well-proportioned prelude. The only thing I don’t quite understand is why you use this notation with long appoggiaturas. It looks rather old-fashioned, as if it were still the 18th century :) I also have a question about the voice leading: why do you remove notes from the accompaniment when they are doubled by the melody? But these are all minor details. Best of luck, and may inspiration be with you! =)

Hello everyone! I'd be most grateful for any feeback on this piece. Thank you in advance! View-from-the-air.mp3 74PDF.pdf