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BRILLIANT!!! 🤣

Hi Marius, Thanks for your message! Your experiment certainly contrasts the different kinds of thirds that are possible! When I say that I was trying to approximate just thirds by bringing down the major third by 1/6th of a tone - I had apparently miscalculated that interval thinking that it would be 16.66 cents flat which would be close to the justly tuned major 3rd at 14 cents flatter than the 12 tet version. I understand now why I actually preferred using syntonic commas before when I first started experimenting with microtones since the syntonic comma is about 21 cents. There is an interval called the "harmonic 7th" which is the 7th that occurs naturally in the harmonic series and sounds especially good in barbershop quartets but doesn't have the strong impetus to resolve like a regular dominant 7th does. It's about 31 cents lower than the 12 tet 7th. But because of that can be more easily approximated with a 1/6 flat sign (which I haven't thought of yet to actually do - I always approximated the harmonic 7th with a 1/4 tone flat). I think you use something close to this 7th in measure 4? Thanks for your clarifying message! Peter

Hey Peter, I did a little resolution building with a make-shift notation for the microtonality. I wanted to see if there exists something like a '36-tet dominant chord', something that sounds even more dominant than the normal 12-tet. I didn't find anything at all, but I still think both resolutions sound kinda cool. For the first one I tried resolving with smaller intervals, for the second I used bigger ones. I think you're right about the supermajor chords - I'm not really a fan either. About that E-1/6-flat that was made to sound like a perfect third (just intonated third): I didn't perceive it as such, and I think I know why. A perfect third is a little less than 14 cents lower than 12-tet (according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy's_intense_diatonic_scale), and the third of the dominant only 12. So by lowering that E by 33 cents, you overcompensated, and ended up further away from the perfect third (5 or 9 cents further, but flat instead of sharp). Kind regards, Marius

Dear young composers, This is an enhanced score version of the famous and brutally silent masterpiece “4 Minutes and 33 Seconds” by the (should have stayed graphic artist but unfortunately became) music composer John Cage. Should you know the original score you can see that the score has been minimized to only two bars at 1.758 BPM in order to reduce the environment footprint of the score should you want to print it. Moreover, the performance is thus silent since no-one hear the pages turning anymore. Since the audience usually takes an important part in this music, it has its own part in this version. Initially I thought it would have been Wonderfull to set the key to F-Flat all the way but since most audiences are reluctant to read such a difficult key setting I decide instead to have it in C-Flat for the first bar and then create a sparkling modulation at the second bar and go F-Sharp. When you will listen to it if you still can listen to music you will see the difference. To all of you score writing lovers I wish you a Wonderfull reading and listening. In DAW We Trust

Hey @Marius_! Thanks for your review! That's okay! Let me try and address all of your suggestions. I think basically what you're suggesting here is to make those leading tones super-major. I think I've done that before - the problem with that is that the interval between the leading tone and it's target tone of resolution is shortened and the resolution becomes less satisfying. What my intent was with the E 1/6th flat is to bring the major third of the chord down to be closer to a justly tuned major 3rd. Thanks again!

Hey Peter, This is definitely among the more accessible and coherent-sounding microtonal music I've heard; well done! I probably wouldn't call it poly-microtonal since 12tet is a subset of 36-tet. But then again, is anything poly-microtonal, if you can just define a new tonal system that has all the notes used? I am wondering if it would be possible to create satisfying harmonic movement in this system. I think the major appeal of 12tet music is that you can make really convincing resolutions (like IV-V7-I). Microtonal music / experimental music often lacks those tension releases, in my opinion. Of course if that is your intention, you do you :). For example how would it sound if you changed the E-1/3-flat the 2nd violins keep landing on to a E-1/3-sharp, or even E-2/3-sharp, to emphasize that it's a leading tone? Same goes for b.9-10, 2nd vlns. I would try it myself, but my notation program doesn't really allow microtonal playback and I don't have the patience to manually tune each note in playback lol btw I especially like bar 11-12 with the microtonal echo of the melody, that's really spooky! And the way the 2nd vlns approach that B-1/3-flat on bar 11 is quite sweet. P.S. I'm not really sure but maybe I got 1/3's mixed up with 2/3's - I'm not at all familiar with 36-tet notation

Hey music maestros! Just wanted to send a shameless plug for an album I've posted on You Tube. It's a Planet Suite for the modern age. Was going to call it "The Exoplanet Suite"; but that name's already taken apparently! Likes and subscribes would be very much appreciated, as they really help me with the dreaded You Tube algorithm! I think all the tracks have been posted here before; but I've remastered them with vibrant new stereo mixes. Hopefully they work together as a suite? (N.B. The first track has been rewritten according to Peter's advice about staccato strings.) Alex

The Shadows where the Mewlips dwell Are dark and wet as ink, And slow and softly rings their bell, As in the slime you sink. You sink into the slime, who dare To knock upon their door, While down the grinning gargoyles stare And noisome waters pour. Beside the rotting river-strand The drooping willows weep, And gloomily the gorcrows stand Croaking in their sleep. Over the Merlock Mountains a long and weary way, In a mouldy valley where the trees are grey, By a dark pool's borders without wind or tide, Moonless and sunless, the Mewlips hide. The cellars where the Mewlips sit Are deep and dank and cold With single sickly candle lit; And there they count their gold. Their walls are wet, their ceilings drip; Their feet upon the floor Go softly with a squish-flap-flip, As they sidle to the door. They peep out slyly; through a crack Their feeling fingers creep, And when they've finished, in a sack Your bones they take to keep. Beyond the Merlock Mountains, a long and lonely road, Through the spider-shadows and the marsh of Tode, And through the wood of hanging trees and gallows-weed, You go to find the Mewlips - and the Mewlips feed.

The harmony is definitely confusing, it gives the piece a very different, interesting feel. I'm not sure if its supposed to be peaceful, ominous or romantic. Or perhaps all 3? Sure, this could work in a video game, maybe in a somewhat serene, but darker scene. You know what would be fun? If you converted this to normal harmony, so we can get a side by side comparison. My guess is that this would be very romantic.

This is a song, Tolkien setting, I wrote in 1993 at the age of 24, and recently arranged as a tone poem for string orchestra. It is so dissonant that the music scares the composer! Eb Minor might be considered a weird key to begin with, but even I have trouble telling what key it is in! Not atonal, post-mahlerian perhaps, but it is about swamp monsters that eat you, so... The Mewlips-Tone Poem for String Orchestra Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Various Instruments | Noteflight The poem is posted in the Noteflight comments, so you can follow the music with the words, if you can stand to listen to it; again, it scares me!

One more thing orchestral I can post, an opera overture from 1995. If I enter any of the opera, probably extract a suite or something if I don't feel like working myself to death! Overture to the Opera Hypochondria Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Various Instruments | Noteflight

Three Roads Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Various Instruments | Noteflight I consider it a sort of Tolkien setting, because he liked this Child Ballad, and quoted this fragment of it in an essay.

I have a kind of personal "program" for the first and second movements, that I came up with long after the quartet was written! The first movement is a conversation between me and Dmitri Shostakovich, with Beethoven and Brahms politely listening, and Antonin Dvorak keeps bursting in the door drunk, whistling his latest theme! The second movement, Courante and Fugue, is even funnier: the Courante sounds to me like the barrel organ is out of tune at the carnival, and the fugue sounds as if Beethoven, whilst sketching out a fugal section in his late quartets, was even drunker than usual...

Although microtonal, this piece was intended to be a little more palatable harmonically. I use 1/6th and 1/3rd tones so I guess technically it's 36 tet. The microtonal adjustments were only applied to the underlying harmony rather than the melodic voices so it could also be considered poly-microtonal (12 tet and 36 tet together). But I consider the microtonality in this to be really "lite", but let me know what you think! I also kinda was thinking of this as a VGM track rather than a concert-piece although I guess it didn't really end up that way. I'd appreciate any of your suggestions, comments, critiques or just observations. Thanks for listening!

My word… It begins with a pathetique-esque anguish, falls into nihilism—“nihilistically scherzando” (loving brilliant!)—the adagio-like contemplation tries to tame the nihilism—Honestly? I absolutely love the emotional direction in this. Some people may say that the jazzy section sounds a bit off in a neoclassical sounding sonata, but for me—it has enough juice and meaning to stand as something intentional and felt—even if not “idiomatic” in the general sense. What stood out for me is the development section. It was gorgeous and well directed. Also, incredible job playing this yourself! That deserves a round of applause for its own sake.

I like your "Holy Spirit" but I think the explanatory note at the beginning is a bit too much. You ask about professional looking scores? To look professional, assume professionalism on the part of your musicians. You might write easy parts that can be put together without a lot of rehearsal time, but any choir should understand a simple "stagger breaths throughout" without further explanation on your part. The conductor/director can explain what that means if any choir members are very new to singing. I'm not sure about the direction to take this piece out of time like Gregorian chant. The accompaniment is very metrical, except for the first few bars, and as such will impose a strict rhythm on the singers. Did you just mean for that instruction to apply to the first few bars? If so, then indicate where strict tempo resumes. If you meant for the whole piece to be a bit loose-y goose-y then a direction for "rubato" here and there may better achieve what you are looking for while keeping accompanist, conductor, and choir together. Cheers! Sounds nice!

The 1080 resolution is still not enough for me to be able to see your score clearly with my middle aged eyeballs. I'd recommend making your videos with fewer bars visible at once so the notes and text are bigger for people viewing on a laptop screen instead of a large desktop monitor if you want them to use the videos as a promotional tool to encourage purchase of your sheet music. Certainly sounds nice, but I'm too blind to see it to give more detailed feedback! You can also post a pdf of the score and a sound file for people to use here to review your work. 🙂

...and our local orchestra, Northern Neck Orchestra, and a local pianist could probably handle it, so there's that...

Yeah; I'm doin' it, and probably would have a greater effect as a piano concerto. As a guitar concerto, would either have to be a very small string orchestra, or guitar amplified!

Only said it offhand, but I am always torturing myself and inadvertently coming up with a pretty major project! Within ten minutes, I am THERE with my piano concerto idea! Concerto in E Minor for Piano and Chamber Orchestra! Lot of work, but the music is there already. Arrange guitar part for piano, wind doubling, and I can already think of what to do with the two horns and trumpet. Add tympani...

Thanks!

Really, I COULD turn this into a piano concerto, with single winds, two horns and trumpet without too much strain, but not now!

Thinking if performed, should be 3 1st, 3 2nd, 2 Vla, 2 vc, 1 db, so guitar could be heard better, but I would be open to full string orchestra, and guitar amplified!

For your consideration, a little chamber concerto I wrote in 1998, and almost forgot I had written until I found it in a closet in 2016! Concerto In E Minor For Guitar And String Orchestra-1 Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Various Instruments | Noteflight Concerto In E Minor For Guitar And String Orchestra-2 Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Various Instruments | Noteflight Concerto In E Minor For Guitar And String Orchestra-3 Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Various Instruments | Noteflight