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Nice! Looks like you have everything in order, good luck 🙂

Thanks for the comments! Your description of the first measure with espressivo definitely leans more towards my initial intent, and really the midi does no justice. I thought about going into detail to make it sound exactly how I want in the sound file but honestly this is music to be read in my studio so I don’t need to care how the midi sounds for the most part. My only worry with improvisation is that, since I know the person who will be playing it in studio, I know that they are definitely not trained to improvise in that style. I’m thinking of making a version after that’s more idealized to what I want and not tuned to fit the assignment requirements, so that’ll likely go in there In regards to fingerings: I am not a string player, and do not have access to a string instrument. I am, however, trying to think through what the fingerings would be and making sure all of them are at least possible. My Professor is a string player so he usually checks me when I write something impossible.

Hi! Overall the piece is lovely I just have a few notes about the trombone part, as a low brass player. Not the trombone 1 part, it's mostly fine and trombones can read treble clef. But the trombone 2 part is another matter entirely. So, The trombone as an instrument can technically play most of the notes you have listed on the page, but generally you just have them playing really low. If you intend the part to be a bass trombone, it's all fine and well, but it's important to note that normal tenor trombones, even with a trigger, can barely play that Low C, and cannot play the low B natural. But if you want them to be playing that low, possibly on a bass trombone, you then have them in tenor clef at 193 (Which by the way is not necessary, it's more annoying to have to switch to tenor quickly than to just stay in bass clef and read a few ledger lines, especially considering you go up to a high G. And also the trombone 1 part goes higher but is still in bass clef?????). While professional bass trombonists can hit that high, it's much more annoying than it would be on a tenor trombone. Looking at general scoring, it seems like you might want to have 2 trombone parts(or just label the staff trb 1, 2) and a bass trombone part, though I understand that with a lot of music notation software it then becomes a space concern of fitting it all on the page. ...I just now saw that this was due on the 10th. I wish you well with the competition! Keep these things in mind moving forward and I can see a lot of growth! P.S. The tuba part is great. All good on that front. Sincerely, A tubist

no.10_A Fire Within.pdf no.10_A Fire Within.mp3 Hello everyone! It has been a few weeks since my last contribution on the site and I am back to showcase one of my recent works. Over the last calendar year, I have been creating my first short-film called A Fire Within. When the film is complete, you follow the tragedy between two friends and see a main theme of betrayal. This work is the title theme and will both open and end the film. Set into a large binary form, this work is in E-minor and is one of my most emotional pieces. It is very personal to me, as the whole story mirrors a small part of my short life. I would enjoy hearing some comments or feedback, however, please know that I feel this work complete and I wish to share it to those I feel would appreciate this. If you would like to know more about the score, go to the "About" section on page 4! ________________ Program Note: A Fire Within is an original story written by Mason Kistler detailing betrayal between two friends. Featuring an original soundtrack, soundscape, voice cast and more, this story established itself as the first short-film made solely in the video game Railroader, which was released in December, 2023. Join the orchestra as they bring you in towards this cinematic universe and involve yourself in their soundscape. Feel the impact of the strings and the memories cast by the French Horns. Can you hear their emotions? [DO NOT REPLICATE]

This all sounds and looks very professional so pardon me but I will give some subjective thoughts on the piece: For the first part, I really like your use of the minor 6th scale degree. It is well used, but also its sound maybe looses some power towards the end. I also feel that maybe I would've wanted a bit more time before the strings come in loud, before it explodes so to speak. I personally love to exploit the perfect 4th that forms between the minor6th and minor9th, but that might not fit into here anywhere, just wanted to point it out :D. I love bar 81 and how that part develops. Love it. Nice use of seconds in horns and violas on page 16. On page 17 bar 150 and forward I am a bit sceptical about the flutes hitting those high notes, perhaps the oboes too. I feel they distract from the theme a little bit. The chords between page 17 and 18 are very nice, I like those a lot! It breaths a lot of colour to the lines. Page 19 works really well too, maybe there's some things about form I would look at over there (kinda feels like it jumps from one thing to another), but I think you do a very good effort of gluing those themes together. I would maybe just recheck it and try a couple different things, but your solution might just be completely fine. The Andante Cantabile feels rewarding. That whole Andante Cantabile part has a nice energy to it, gives you goosebumps. Very ballet-like! I don't know if I fully agree with the turn from the horns in bar 213 to the earlier waltz theme in bar 227. I would maybe hope for a bit more glue there, something a bit more elegant. Trumpets are nice though! Although once again I feel that the trumpets could've played for twice as long, the jump feels a bit rushed now to me. Ending in the larger sense is powerful, maybe I would think a little about form once again, like how have we earned this ending. Also the last bars I don't agree with :D, I feel like you bring us to the mountain top and then there's a different ending to the one I was anticipating and waiting for - this said, endings in my opinion are one of the most difficult parts of a piece. But you have built up well to the ending, really well, I was feeling goosebumps, but the hits left me feeling a bit betrayed. I hope this doesn't come off as mean! That is not my intention. I liked the piece a lot, these are just the things that jumped at me. You don't need to agree with these or do anything about these, most of these are not some general guidelines or greater truths but just how I felt myself. I am not opposed to you keeping the score musically as is (other have pointed out the technicalities). Great piece! Thank you for sharing, and do keep sharing! With great admiration from Finland, Pyry

Fun and very joyful! I have no specific nitpicks, all I would say is what my composing teacher(s) has (have) told me for as long as Ive been studying under them: After you have finished a score or a part, go through it and think with intention what things you intend and why. Try to make sure everything in some way has a meaning and that for example one idea leads to another properly. Make sure the "macro and micro" (as I like to call them) are both intentional: That means greater form things and also small individual things. But great piece! This is more of a general guideline than anything. I think mostly everything works here, perhaps I would've done some things differently for personal reasons, but that doesn't then concern you. Best regards from Finland, Pyry

Very cool! I have no idea how to read your PDF file, but cool! It is very exciting to listen to music with a philosophical or musicological point! The high frequency sounds make me shiver slightly, and I find myself adjusting the volume constantly, but this is most likely more because of my unfamiliarity with the genre and style. If I may ask, what do you mean by parallax? Best regards, Pyry from Finland.

Hi Chikotora! Cool piece, as a folk musician (albeit Finnish) I find this very exciting. It feels very natural and folklike, which is a great thing to get in a written trad style piece! It definitely feels like Klezmer! Regarding the start, if you mark it as espressivo or as really slow I think it'll work. The first bar could work if it was played slow and expressively - most players would understand that instruction and make it work. Alternatively, you can always tell the player to improvise and if you want to be more involved compositionally then give them a framework to improvise around! Folk music and improvisation go hand in hand. The pizzicato would then work well as a gentle introduction and it also makes the listener's ear go into a groove. Here is an example of what I imagine the improvised intro could sound like, of course in your case it is just one violin: (Youtube) - This is an actual Finnish folk tune (composed by an old guy forgot his name right now). The intro is quite short but you get the idea and the feel! In the score it is just labelled as "improvisation"! Alternatively you could do some lick (jazz term) based on the melody and then go into the pizzicato. Anyhow I think you can sort of have anything short before the pizzicato because the pizzicato grounds it so well. I think there might've been some very difficult fingerings there somewhere that I'd have to check but as a general rule I would advise always testing everything. But overall seemed very playable and intuitive. With kind regards from Finland, Pyry.

Based on overall how I felt that day. Associated poem: All thoughts welcome Horn trio on January 13th (ft. low brass and winds).mp3 Original poem on the platform where I share my poems Horn trio on January 13th (ft. low brass and winds).pdf

LoL I am not familiar with idioms at all and thought you guys are talking about Fifty Shades of Grey! Henry

Hi @Frank Normandy! Like you I use my iPad for composing and use Google Drive for backing up the files. I used to use USB too but now I have neither computers nor notebooks so I stop using it. I add dates and versions of each recordings/versions/drafts of each piece. I actually learn this from my bitch ex-boss. First under "Composition", then genre like "Piano Music" and "Chamber music", then each work, then each movement. I put all versions and edititons under the same folder. Only publish here and on YT. Henry

Hello everyone, Earlier today, I was syncing my audio to my tablet, and I realized there was a lot of music organization that I can do better. Thus, I want to start this discussion for us to share ideas regarding this topic. Basically, what I want answered (you can include other ideas I didn’t come up in my list): 1) What metadata (album, track number, title, etc.) scheme do you use for your final recordings? 2) What is your file-folder hierarchy? (E.g. all versions and editions of a composition in one folder, or one folder for each version/edition) 3) Where do you keep backups of your project files/folders? (E.g. Google Drive, USB flash drive, external hard drive) 4) This one is slightly off-topic, but how do you distribute or publish your music recordings for others to listen, buy, or otherwise know about? (E.g. Bandcamp, Patreon, physical CDs, YouTube [of course, but I wanted to include it anyway], official homepage, live performances) ——My take—— I’ll keep this relatively short as a jumping-off point: I add metadata with Audacity and cover all the default categories (Album Name, Genre, Comments, etc.), the details based on when I completed a certain edition of a composition or make a variant (e.g. violin and piano vs. string orchestra). My hierarchy I put the album folders on top, then add subfolders based on work and variants, also having an “actives” folder for music I’m currently working on. My backups I keep in Google Drive and a few external hard drives and flash drives. And lastly, I publish on YouTube (of course), but have hopes of making pretty-looking audio CDs and performing live on an occasional basis. Phew, I’m done! Now you explain your music organization workflows.

"3. If we decide to regulate AI music, how should we detect it?" This could probably be discussed further, there seems to be a myriad of options, and maybe more than one can work

Updated the mp3 with Henry's performance. If anyone's interested, he didn't listen to the mp3 render first 😄 Henry = 🔥

you rock And thanks everyone for listening! Exactly my take, friend 🙂

Hello hello! I've technically known about this forum for a while, but it's time to finally post! I'm hopefully going to start being more active around here to keep myself accountable and continue working on my composition skills To start this out, I wanted to share a piece I've been working on! It's still a WIP, (Basically the only thing in this file that is actively unfinished is the ending and I want to rework the start), but other than that it's a pretty complete piece. I wrote it for a solo-violin assignment in my composition studio, and because I got really mad at a choral concert I went to because they sang a piece called "Shalom" that had nothing to do with the language of origin or culture of origin. Anyway that's a rant for another bit. Here's the little klezmer!

good catch, fixed it :3

thank you so much 😄 honestly I just haven't really thought about breaking the scale, fair point

"Seraphim," is a CSound composition that utilizes the technology of, Kim Cascone's, instruments. The song begins with an atonal fugue in two voices. The atonal fugue develops to another fugue, in 8 voices. Complexity becomes no foreshadow in storytelling, as it is overtly complex from the start value. It's unnecessary pushing the boundaries of baroque music, peering through the universe in a serial kaleidoscope that has no mercy for mankind, the horrors it shares; think Lovecraft's, "Fungi of Yugguth." It'll make you want to vomit, it'll make you want to die, but all this is typical of seeing a Seraphim at the beach, so to speak. Behold the Seraphim, as you feast your ears on the deeper mystery of the universe. As she plays in the beach, she gazes down as the drops of water fall back to the ocean. Anyway, the amount of effort in going into this piece was unclocked. Judging by the pdf, you can see instrument 3 had the most work done. In this instrument, contains the information for the atonal fugue(s). I want to thank, Kim Cascone, for making his instruments available: Recontextualizing Ambient Music in Csound "Seraphim," is a reaction to the essay. When you place traditional music, ANY traditional song, on top of ambient music, you get a wonderful parallax effect. I think the reality of the song is that it achieves what artists of the Renaissance couldn't achieve, which is the parallax. I don't think the concept existed until, Physics, was discovered by Isaac Newton. The beginning set for the opening fugue is, [0,4,6,11]. My PC did not catch fire writing this song, though if I were to compose it on my phone, rendering it would be a nightmare. What I hope to achieve in, "Seraphim," is promoting my website, www.atonalfugue.net if you want to check it out; no feedback needed, you can just enjoy it!

@JP S., thank you! When my church sings it, we'll have "amen" replacing the 'oohs.' Oohs are really out of style, now. 👻 I'll definitely try that! The amen at the end could fit the tradition, very well. Could we discuss further what going away, or differing from tradition may result?

I think we are discussing more on the authorship when a composer is REALLY the one who composes the work themselves. As long as the AI doesn't interfere with the composing process it should be allowed, so AI programs like Cantai or Note Performer are no problem at all. Henry

Since this is a composition form, it is difficult to have to have live performances, I will ask this: What are your thoughts regarding Note Performer? @PeterthePapercomPoser @Aiwendil Here are mine: NP has it owns instruments that are used in playback in notation play back. Thus, this is similar to how VST library operates: each library is. They have they own instruments. It cannot replace DAW and those VST. When it comes to mock-ups, composers usually work with in daw. But they could use NP, too. The studio string orchestra that performed my piece was sent a midi mock up with score and parts. I.e. I am fine with a midi mock-up with score and parts (either from daw or using NP). But I am not fine with something like Suno. That is not mock up! I hope this helps

Right because by that reasoning .. if I were to use a VST plugin with AI assisted vibrato modeling or some such thing, it wouldn't be permissible to post.

Here's the thing, though: "AI", by itself, is pretty much meaningless. For decades, people have been using "AI" to refer to the programming controlling NPCs in video games, for instance. Sometimes, "AI" is used in a sense that covers any machine learning or neural network application. More recently, "AI" has caught on in the context of Large Language Models like ChatGPT that take a prompt as input and then use some minimization function over their corpus of training data to predict what the most likely response to that prompt would be. The broader class of software including LLMs and similar models that output images, sounds, etc., are called "generative AI". And because "AI" is such a hot topic now, anyone whose software product uses anything resembling a neural network is going to be sure to advertise it as "AI". In my opinion, it would be better to use more precise language and, when we mean LLMs, say "LLMs". But I suppose that ship has sailed. In any event, clearly what is under discussion here is whether music composed by a generative, LLM-like software should be permissible here - and as I've said, I don't think it should be, since this is a composition forum and there's no sense in posting a piece of music you didn't compose. But by the same token, if you composed the music, then of course you should be permitted to post it, regardless of whether you used tools that are advertised as "AI" to produce the audio mock-up of the music you composed.

I really enjoyed this! My only complaint is that in a few places, the mixing sounded off - the flute almost inaudible when playing pianissimo. But that's a minor nitpick. It's an excellent composition.