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Hello @Gwendolyn Przyjazna! I am always interested in pieces featuring „exotic scales“ and modes and so I was excited to find out how your „progressive rock instrumental“ would sound like. Since you didn’t provide a score I could concentrate on listening: My impression is, that the harmonies sound very smooth together – not as dissonantly as in some of @PeterthePapercomPoser’s Persichetti excercises, for example „Persichetti Exercise 2 - 56 for Clarinet Duo“. Thus, producing a dreamy, melancholic sound where especially the transition section from 01:52 to 02:26 reminded me indeed at Kate Bush! I must admit that I had to lookup what the Lydian Augmented and the Spanish Phrygian scales are all about. And so I found the reason why they are gentler or even more similar each other than I expected in the pair Lydian/Phrygian: The Lydian Augmented scale is more „darker“ than the traditional bright Lydian mode (which sounds paradoxical at first glance), while the Spanish Phrygian scale sounds much more „brighter“ than the original Phrygian one due to its major third. You added the tag „counterpoint“ to the piece so that I was curious how a counterpuntual rock instrumental would sound like. But to be honest, I get the impression that for most of the piece, you only had one voice with a melody, while the other instruments accompanied in chords or long notes, so I have to admit that I didn't really understand what you meant by “counterpoint”. Thank you for sharing, I very enjoyed it!

Why? What did I miss?

Hello @MichaelJohn! Congratulations for your first jazz quintet. It is amazing when you achieve such a piece after studying jazz theory for only three weeks! Since you didn’t provide a score I could concentrate on listening. I really enjoyed the relaxed piano improvisation and the swinging rhythm. So, if you did not mention, I would thought that composing jazz is your bread-and-butter profession for a long while. With a classical (and even more counterpuntual) background, writing jazz music is a huge challenge for me, since my compositions are more „head driven“ and improvising is an art I have never learnt (yet). But that doesn’t matter since one could compose fantastic jazz music „on paper“ without the ability to improvise, the best example is Nikolai Kapustin who wrote outstanding jazz music especially for the piano while using classical or baroque forms or techniques, for example its 24 preludes and fugues or its sonatas in jazz style. So thank you for sharing, you have inspired me to take a closer look at jazz theory again in the near future.

Thanks for the comment! I used an Alto kalimba for this, thats the reason i composed in F minor actually because i saw the image of the range of the chromatic alto kalimba and its from F to F. I would post the score surely but its full of parallel octaves and fifths so i decided not to 😬 and also most of the violin parts are probrably unplayable with jumps larger than a 10th!

Hello @MK_Piano! Yes, that’s really a good swinging big band piece which immediately reminds at Glenn Miller’s „Chattanooga Choo Choo“. Good old steam trains seem to have inspired many composers and musicians because of their „sound“ which comprises „rhythmic“ elements (the start of the locomotive, increasing and decreasing speed, the rattling noise when driving over the track joints) and melodic elements (the puffing of steam, the whistling of the locomotive, or the squeaking of the wheels when braking) which animate to be imitated musically. Who would write a piece inspired by the noises a nowadays train produces? Another good example of a piece dedicated to a steam locomotive is Arthur Honnegger's “Pacific 231”, which is not a jazz piece, but rather a dramatic symphonic work. I liked it very much and I must say that the repetitive character mentioned by @PeterthePapercomPoser didn’t bother me, especially taken into account the purpose of the piece as soundtrack for a movie where it does not appear in its entirety but is cut into parts to underpin the individual scenes. Or whenever it would be played in a bar as the background music, the most visitors would not even notice it.

Hello @L.S Barros! I think this is a wonderful concerto! I don't think you suck at Baroque music at all! I found the whole thing quite easy listening and unique and enjoyable! Did you write this for the 17-key variety of Kalimba? Seems like a very restricted range to write for, but you seem to have pulled it off! Btw, do you have a score? You would probably get more reviews if you also posted the score. Thanks for sharing!

Ello! This is was more of a joke than anything. So please don't take it seriously. And its one of the few times i compose baroque music because i absolutely SUCK at writing baroque music. I hope you guys like it!

Hi to all! Have been trying to compose a piece for theorbo, and am finding it really hard! Mainly because of the 8 unfretted strings, that can't be tuned to accidentals. That seems to limit me to the 7 modes of C major; or something bitonal or atonal. Anyhow, I've posted two versions below. The first is what I wanted to write, and the second has been bent out of shape to eliminate accidentals on the lower strings. Am thinking I may have to throw the whole thing out, and start again!

Thanks Vince, I just hope it's playable! I can only play it myself at a very slow tempo. Most of the recapitulation came to me just as I was falling asleep one night, which is when I always seem to have my best ideas!

Oh I see. Sorry for this. Your username sure is "generic" though and that could have led me to even more "trouble".

Yeah, I admit that this particular exercise ended up being a little bland and unmusical. Thanks! I feel like these exercises have expanded my mind about my use of dissonance. I've already composed a piece that I feel has benefited from them, although ironically the piece is completely diatonic to A major, which was a totally unintended side-effect - but the way I approached it and composed it was heavily influenced by the chapter on quartal constructions. Thanks for your review!

Wow this is great! And you're getting a performance? Very happy for you, you should update this with the audio once you get it! I've made edits to my music posts too, and I think it's easiest to add the revised audio to your original post, or just remove the old one and replace with the new. That way when people click on your music they're greeted with the version you want them to hear 🙂 Great stuff, looking forward to hearing more from you

Dude these are hard to keep up with lol... but I guess I've been busy and haven't been on here as much... sorry! Listening... Ok cool! I'm almost finished with a counterpoint in two voice piano type of piece, so this is right up my alley. The language is different, but the upper part kinda looks familiar lol. I really wonder if it would have sounded better having the intervals closer together, but with them far apart it was like an eerie bi-tonal carnival ride to me or something 😄Were you mainly thinking of the consonance of intervals? It was dissonant but smooth. I know it was just an exercise and you had a prompt, but what about texture change? I'd love to hear staccato bass or something, even if just a segue in the middle. Cool piece! Have any of these exercises given you grander ideas for the themes you've used? What do you feel you've gained so far in these compositional studies? Hopefully your next major work has even more craftsmanship from your work. Well done!

Some badges must me earned. Some are given freely, but there is one badge that rules them all. Legend holds that a mysterious "better than thatguy" badge is given only to a chosen few. You must search through the members profiles and sift through their badges to gain further knowledge. I wish you well in your quest.

Hi @MrBelegro! Welcome to the forum! For the Outstanding Orchestrator badge, you may look into pieces below which are awarded the badge for your reference: For the "Better than Thatguy" badge, actually it's named so because one of our moderator's username is @Thatguy v2.0, so you may check out his works to see if you are better than him or not lol! Henry

Hello @Tunndy! You have picked the perhaps most covered or orchestrated rock/pop song ever, the iconic Bohemian Rhapsody, which I consider to be a huge challenge. Everyone who hears the piece knows it and has its own expectations in the sense of „does it sound like the original“. I had the chance two years ago to attend a live performance of an orchestra and choir, and I was impressed how realistic that was performed - very close to Queen’s original sound. But that's also the problem when everyone is sensitized to noticing every little “mistake” or deviation from the original: you're faced with the challenge of bringing your own personal touch or interpretation to it. And that's exactly what you've done very well. The longer I listen to your orchestration, the more I notice some beautiful interpretations that really make it “your” piece. I particularly liked the ending, from bar 103 onwards! However, I could imagine that this personal interpretation could go even further. Therefore, as an inspiration, I have linked a YouTube video of David Bennet who reinterprets Bohemian Rhapsody in different modes or scales, which I find very fascinating. Thank you for sharing, I very enjoyed it!

MP3 Play / pause bossfight! 0:02 0:59 volume > next menu bossfight! > next https://youtu.be/oi3X_M6f1sY?si=VLEYgUQipR2Am9Jb https://youtu.be/yKmtb77eou0?si=omMex4e4pj1Ch0RQ https://youtu.be/sdeCKvrSPuI?si=SrtSRmd9kRyO_jTb https://youtu.be/s6qCM2V2G3k?si=sRLZN5yOcbanKvFO https://youtu.be/1kbGRgSRjhw?si=LhQXi-FI2Xjv9dKK https://youtu.be/YC0BnJhBc1o?si=0tBAEsHwqaq6Y-D2 https://youtu.be/Dl6zlUSsltc?si=EayWKoF_7x-Pob-K

Outstanding orchestrator and Better than thatguy (in this case I've outbeaten Julius Fucik and Leo Chernetsky and that was my goal) for "March Hare" march

Thanks for your enthusiasm! Do you have a specific piece you want a specific badge awarded to?

I'm surprised no one wrote anything here YET, so: I'm a history buff, theory buff and orchestration buff I got performed just once... Am a period composer (of late 19th century and early 20th century dances) Brass aficionado and woodwind aficionado Dance music impresario for that matter Amorous romanticist Programmatic composer I don't know if 1930's cartoon music counts for "film buff" or "film music enthusiast" but I am a buff of that And I almost composed the soundtrack to a pastiche of that but that thing was cancelled so I'm not even a debatable "film composer"

A high tension piece that wants to resolve but ultimately fails in doing so. We almost get there at 0:20. It makes me wonder if you don't really want to go into teaching, or if you have anxiety over the prospect! Overall, I'd say one of your more interesting castings. Honestly, I was surprised that you resolved this at the end.

For my 14th casting Jewelz asked the Muzoracle "Should I go into teaching?" (Muzoracle is a storytelling/fortune telling/divination tool similar to the Tarot card deck, but with cards with musical concepts and 12-sided Musician's dice and Solfege dice. Perhaps it may be thought of as a special musical Oracle card deck.) My interpretation of the cards and dice are displayed below. Since the casting was in the key of A (because the black musician's die landed on A), it pertained to the Third Eye Chakra which is associated with woodwinds. Then, two more woodwinds cards were dealt so I picked the following three woodwinds to include in the piece: Flute, Clarinet, and Bassoon (Jewelz played Clarinet). Then there was a card in the suit of voices in the 3rd position so I included an Alto in the piece. And finally in the 4th position we dealt a triad of brass card so I used three trumpets. If you'd like to find out more about Muzoracle and how castings are interpreted go here: https://muzoracle.net/ This short musical representation of Jewelz Casting is about ~1:30 minutes long. I created the following melodic/harmonic underdrawing guided by the cards and the dice. I started the main melody with Flute and Clarinet on Bb and a rising chromatic line suggested by the dice. This was accompanied by an Alto voice singing B octaves and finally with three trumpets playing D major triads. If you've gotten this far thanks for reading! And I hope you enjoy listening to this short chamber work I wrote to represent Jewelz casting. Comments, critiques, suggestions, and observations are of course, always welcome. Thanks for listening!

Excellent pacing and nice job keeping the momentum Excellent transition to a heavy section. And nice keychange Excellent orchestration with the brass. Also, good job with the technique and articulation use within the strings. Other than that, there are some engraving problems, but those could possibly be artifacts of composition, which I am also admittedly, prone to habit. Anyways, though I’m being a little late to this excellent job and you prove that you could definitely orchestrate. The structure and waltz fits perfectly.

I love this piece. A very nice trio. If I was ever a chamber music teacher, I would recommend this to a woodwind trio who have the skills and instruments and means to do so. Anyways, this seems not too hard to be a collegiate level work, but a simple pedagogical piece of music. The school I go to does not have any chamber, music, ensembles or classes other than a few student lead performances throughout the year. It would definitely be perfect for one of those occasions and this would be a lovely applicator for practicing and or teaching staccato and different tonguing techniques.