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Hello, This is pretty good for a second ever composition. Keep writing and experimenting with what sounds good to you. We live in an incredible age where music is so accessible and we can listen to the greatest (and probably some of the not so greats, to be fair) in the comfort of our own home within seconds and an arm's reach. Near the end, (around 4:39) what you played reminded me of this. Admittedly, it's on the violin, but perhaps it will give you some degree of inspiration? I have learned a lot from the composer of the Zelda sound tracks...You can see how a skilled composer takes these ideas that I think you are having fun with and it just really shines and becomes something incredible. Let me know, if this piece speaks to you or perhaps you have heard it already ;)

“Moreshka” is one of the musical illustrations to Max Dalin’s novel “The Bonfire and the Salamander”. It is a folk dance of the Coastland, one of the countries in the novel’s fantasy world. Imagine a southern port city at the beginning of the 20th century: its people, its life, and of course its music. What you will hear here is the music of the city’s lower classes, the kind that was played in the streets, in taverns, and on town squares. A dance of fishermen and sailors. In terms of melodic character, I deliberately tried to create something that sounds both familiar and national, yet at the same time neutral. Of course, you will hear echoes of Russian, Moldavian, Jewish, and Romanian melos. However, I avoided any overly obvious stylization. Imagine some folk festival where ordinary people are celebrating. And tell me, did it work? =)

Hi to all, Just wanted to post a recent performance of my work "Echoes Of Seikilos" for piano and soprano. The musicians did a great job with it I think; though it's a shame about the police siren in the background! The score pdf contains a description of my intent for this piece. Hope you enjoy listening. Any criticisms welcome. Seikilos Epitaph variations (for piano and soprano) #68.pdf

Hi Ori, I like your musical ideas in this piece, and enjoyed listening. Just have a few points about the score. On Pages 3 and 4 you have unnecessary page breaks that should be deleted to get a better layout. Otherwise it looks very odd having those super wide bars! You should also reduce the stave space parameter under page settings, until the string staves fall within the lower page boundary. It's a good idea to give dynamic targets for all your hairpins, rather than leaving them undefined. The only exception being where you have a cresc. hairpin immediately followed by a dim.

I tweaked it a little bit, there wasn't any bright idea for the E section, so I just made it a bit familiar with the previous section and making some thin connection to the segno. The tie-on top of the chords wasn't a tie, but a slur, after you mentioned that, those slur does looks like a tie, so I deleted those. Now the paper sheet looks clean and neat. About the scale, when creating this, I tried to play the Phrygian scale and change it a bit, and after searching on the internet, turns out it was a Phyrgian dominant scale. I'm still confused with the ending cadence variation, So I just moved one notes down to make it sounds like a finish. I think I have hit the limit of my current musical imagination. C1-1.mp3 C1-1.pdf

Thank you. That’s a very interesting take: a doll playing on winter nights. I love it :) Best regards, Alex

As of now, my best work! Hope you enjoy

5 days left to submit a piece, best of luck to everyone!

Hello, @Alexx! This miniature sounds lovely and I enjoyed it. Well composed, and I feel some nice musical stories in this piece. To me, it captures a doll, but not a lifeless one — rather, a doll that is playing at night — the outside of the house is winter. I think why it evokes such stories is because this piece has a lot of popping movements: it gives me the feeling of "moving". However, I certainly feel a kind of cold vibe. Thanks for sharing! Best, Lithl.

Thank you very much for your positive feedback.

Throughout my experience as a student and as a self-taught musician in various areas of music, one thing has become very clear to me. There are two types of educators, of teachers: those who theorize endlessly (and have never composed anything) and those who are actual composers. I don’t mean to say that just because someone is a composer, they’ll automatically be a good teacher. This year, I’ve been fortunate enough to have a teacher of orchestration. He’s also a composer by profession. And he doesn’t follow or directly recommend any book, treatise, or anything of the sort.... He says—and he’s right—that the real learning comes from the scores themselves. The most valuable thing I’m learning is how to find solutions to the things I want to orchestrate, rather than formulas for instrument combinations, etc. And I want to give an example that has caught my attention recently. I was listening to Otello by G. Verdi. And I noticed that, no matter what’s happening in the score—which is a lot and quite complex—there’s a pedal in the low register of the organ with three notes in a cluster: C, C-sharp, and D. This pedal lasts six and a half minutes!! And you can hear it in the background, especially with headphones and, I imagine, in a live performance. Why did Verdi write this? Why doesn’t it clash horribly with the rest of the music? These are the questions I’ve learned to answer. What do you think of this musical device?

Yup, they are 陸王心學 instead of Zhu XI's 理學. And I really love them! I didn't go through them one by one, but I did read some Chinese philosophy books so I can basically grasp their thoughts. And their thoughts are essential in this piece of music. Thank you! I love that section too, it's definitely the climax of the 1st movement! I'm not that knowledgeable about Chinese music either so I don't know why I write like this, but in case the product is good it's good haha. But the Chinese spirit is true, I write this piece totally because I'm inspired by Chinese philosophy. Yeah again I don't know how I wrote that! Thank you! Thank you! Henry

I've already listened to this piece of yours, but I didn't give you feedback. Now, it's time to do so! My first impression was, "Tasty, this is a great composition." Really great, man — you've composed a great one! Around 12:35 was a so shining and beautiful section throughout listening to the whole piece. I don't know why, but I felt some kind of Chinese music spirit in that section. (Sorry, I'm not knowledgeable about Chinese music, but, you know.) Also, I loved how 40:00 was unique. I liked it. Nice, man, hats off to you, Henry! Oh! I know Lu Jiuyuan! He eventually influenced Wang Yangming, right? And... I know Zhu Xi, Zhou Dunyi, Xunzi, Zou Yan, and Song Yingxing, haha. I knew about them through learning history. Best, Lithl.

Me. I've never written a single love song in my life. That is because no one wants to receive my noisy music 😅 But maybe someday? If I get a "beautiful musical spirit". Honestly, watching someone play is better for me. One reason is that I can glimpse their individual spirit a bit. On the Internet, it is difficult to get their character, so it helps me to understand not only their music but also themselves even better. Another reason is... "I CAN'T READ SHEET MUSIC!", haha. It's very personal since most of you guys can read it. As for this piece of yours and the video itself, I have already commented on your video, as you know. Have a wonderful day, grant. Oh, also, glad to know you love Bill Evans. I really love him too. He definitely has — hard to explain — unique and lovely, gentle, harmonic textures, touch, and tone, really great. I love him... He is one of the few musicians whose music, even when I hear clipping in his album, I not only don't care, but I couldn't care because I am totally indulged. Have you ever listened to the album "Living Time"? That is different from his main musical spirit, but it is also an amazing one. I talked too much, sorry, haha. Best, Lithl.

Hello, Since you are looking for feedback on the images your piece evokes I will share some thoughts. measure 1 - it feels very playful for me. measure 17 - I get this very specific feeling of a sense of wonder and hardship measure 25 - this part feels especially dance like measure 36 - it gets a bit goofy here measure 52 - it ends on a playful note for me. The piece is very nice, it doesn't feel too lifeless to me.

I've written many love songs over the years for specific individuals. This is...really just another love the song. The opening notes are supposed to represent how my heart stopped and fluttered when I saw her and hopefully my feelings for her will now be immortalized on the internet. I noticed that people don't seem to post too many love songs on this forum...but which one of us have not written a love song at some point in our lives? I wrote this one earlier this year and got around to recording it last weekend. Trying some new formats. I notice that a lot of people here don't tend to post live pieces. Do people like having the sheet music, vs watching someone play? Let me know....Recorded on a Bechstein Grand. I might try to add the sheets in so you can see my hands playing and the sheet music, if people feel this is a nicer format

Hi @MinGry , thanks for clarifying the intention. Of course, with that in mind, many of my comments become irrelevant :-), but it was a fun and interesting exercise anyway. And yes, I agree that if it gets played, that's finally an excellent achievement, I agree! Take care, Julien

@mazeth Thanks a lot for taking the time to play through the pieces and write such an extensive review! Did want to clarify something regarding the simplicity of the accompaniment. That was quite intentional across the collection. After working on more formally structured sonatinas, I enjoy writing something more simple in between. It's especially fun to think pieces like this might actually get played by someone which is exciting! To address measure 6 of the first piece I am actually curious about what people think about this. From the perspective of harmony you are absolutely right it should be an F# instead of Gb. What made me write Gb is just creating visual stepwise motion between the lines. I am not sure if my logic is justified in that haha! To address the measure 10 G natural. I tried to play around with minor melodic scale which is why I decided to go with G natural. While using a Major V to have a stronger pull back to i. I am not sure how classical this is of course, just trying to explain the thought process! Thanks again for the comment!

Thanks, Mark! I’m glad the piece came across as friendly and charming. Thank you for listening. =)

Thank you very much! =)

A "witty" "charming" work with a nice friendly "glow"! Mark

A lovely song. A very passionate composition that suits this style of romantic song perfectly.

My dear friend, thank you so much for your kind words and, above all, for your wonderful support. I truly enjoyed it immensely. There is nothing more beautiful than hearing your compositions performed by such fine musicians and seeing them appreciated so much. Once again, thank you both from the bottom of our hearts.🙏🙏🙏

Since today is the deadline and I've already submitted, I'll share it here for y'all's thoughts on its final version. The competition is blurred for privacy. If you can, give me realistic criticisms on both audio and PDF, and things that a judge could mark me off for. Also write some positives, things that a judge would consider and like. Here are the final files: Homage to a Longing Memory.mp3 Homage to a Longing Memory (edited).pdf

Hi @MinGry I put myself behind the piano and tried jamming a bit on it. Here are my first impressions: Piece 1: - mm. 1-23: - The melody material is interesting. - I found the accompaniment too simplistic: the chords are too obvious and they lack some "colours". What I did while jamming was to create a pedal, by keeping the A at the bass (along with the chords you use, E, Dm, Am), and adding some colours on the way, e.g.: Dm6... I would also make it more "lively" by replacing the half-notes at the bass by continuing the eigth progression. I always found that creating a good accompaniment - one which is interesting and that "promotes" the melody - was the hardest part, so don't dispair, you're not alone. - mm. 24-28, I liked the transition: simple and short, with an interesting third voice. - mm. 29+, good to fall back on the melody, but I felt it was a bit too early to repeat the exact same pattern: I would recommend to add a bit of variation (either in the rhythm, the accompaniment or the melody itself) - m6: I believe F sharp would be more correct than G flat (as you're temporarily in the A scale) - m10: last note of the treble, I felt G sharp would be more appropriate than G? Piece 2: - overall, pleasant simple piece, with an agreeable melody --> I feel it had less potential than in the first piece, it didn't inspire me as much. - the accompaniment is also very simplistic, which makes it an excellent piece for beginners. - the end of the score doesn't correspond to the music Piece 3: - again an interesting melody. - the bass is more elaborate, but would deserve some more colours. Typically, when you play a chord e.g.: m. 11, try not to start with the same note as in the melody, and try as well to not always start by the fundamental of the chord (F is this case, which you could have replaced by an A - also part of the F chord. In m. 12, the bass could start with a B flat, making your chord a C7, ideal to then reach your chord F in m.13 - also an interesting chromatic progression at the bass) - in m8, you introduce some dissonances (C and C sharp), that may well suit a jazz piece, but I felt it didn't fit very well with the overall athmosphere of the piece. I tried a C9 - starting with a D and descending, I felt it fit better. Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed discovering your work, and playing around melodies of pieces 1 and 3! Take care, Julien