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Hello, this is my composition for orchestra, "Polos nevados" one of my favorites. I hope you like it, im more a of a "feel" composer, not a rule follower so if you notice something rare in this piece, it's probably that. yes it has classical styled parts, but it's by no means trying to be a piece that follows the rules of classical music. im glad i found about this very active forum, my channel is very small and the music i upload don't get much attention or feedback. orchestral work, polos nevados by andres pozos

Hi Mark. This piece has a programmatic quality that I enjoy. Like some of your other works, it feels quite militaristic due to percussion (especially the drum rolls). I imagine an epic battle; or perhaps a series of skirmishes. Maybe it could benefit from some vibraphone, to fill out the music where the texture is sparse? I went to a vibraphone and clarinet concert last week, where the vibraphonist played a series of glissandi, with one stick rising up the keys, and the other simultaneously descending. Quite an effective technique that I'd never heard before. Anyway, just a suggestion. Alex

Thank you so much for the warm words! I came across the original melody by chance on You Tube, and immediately fell in love with it. So I decided I had to use it for this project.

Thank you very much Mark, I really appreciate your opinion.

Thanks!

Vortex - Volatir (found in an SMW rom hack):

What an interesting composition. Writing a solo piece for a single-line instrument is a kind of marker of compositional mastery. There’s nowhere to hide here: not behind harmony, not behind any effects in the texture or counterpoint. Pure melody and form. It turned out to be a captivating piece. And the performance, of course. It’s a pleasure to hear music played on a live instrument by a live performer. It was played very convincingly and delicately. Simply bravo. By the way, I didn’t know that Peter is a horn player. For some reason I thought you were a theorist. Your username pushed me to that conclusion. =)

I am a German living in America, so which to choose? Italian is the international language of music and already used for so many components of a score, so I figured I might as well use it consistently. :) Thank you for your compliments! <3

@PeterthePapercomPoser @Maharani Wow congrats on the collaboration! I like both versions, but the reverb version really adds a layer of lushness to the sound, it's great. :) Seems like a lot of effort went into the recording and practicing, so well done there Peter. The handwritten score is clear and I'm envious of your nice handwriting lol. The language is interesting, what was the thought process behind it? ❤️ Well done you two, it's always great to hear live recordings here, and this was a fine example of what collaboration can achieve

Hi, I really enjoyed the opening theme with its "jazzy" feel and motion. However, I was not as engaged with the second part of the piece starting at measure 34. Personally, I would have like some more variations (playfulness) on the opening theme. I didn't feel this mid-section change enhanced the work. Mark

I'm writing a musical song, about a witch. The lyrics are still in development, and I have since transposed the music down a lot from this recording, as it's way too high to sing. But I just can't figure out how to orchestrate it. At the end, before it cuts off, there will be a massive choir + orchestra section which I could be fine with orchestrating, it's just the rest of the song sounds so nice just with piano, so I don't know how to orchestrate it, and for what ensemble/orchestra. Any suggestions appreciated.Nasty Little Woman.mp3

Hi @Aw Ke Shen ! I actually did this before when I was young, as I always press the middle pedal of an upright to practice so everything is muted. I did this to strengthen my fingerings though. Your learning approach as you describe would be mainly aural and theoretical, but there are also some people who learn by auditory or manual method, so it really depends. My recent learning approach would be to play the piece as close as the original tempo with all details. By forcing myself to so many things happening I actually learn faster than just grabbing details first, probably because I’m an N person (intuitive) in MBTI instead of an S person (sensory), so I need to grab the big picture before going into details first. Henry

Suite for mezzo-soprano and string quartet, “Forlorn Images”. The original title, "Неприкаянные образы" (“Neprikayannye obrazy”), cannot be translated into English exactly. The Russian word "неприкаянный" (neprikayanny) has no single equivalent in English. It describes someone or something that has no place to belong, no refuge, and no peace. It is a person or a spirit drifting without purpose, restless, a little lost and lonely, not accepted anywhere. The word is often linked to the old verb "каяться" (to repent), and it carries a faint religious shade: something left unreconciled, with no rest or shelter. English words such as “forlorn”, “restless”, “drifting” or “homeless” each capture only part of this. So “Forlorn Images” is only an approximation. Think of images, figures and visions that wander without finding their place. The 5th movement, "Звездочёт" (Zvezdochet), is an old, slightly fairy-tale word for an astronomer or astrologer. Literally it means “one who counts the stars”. It belongs to the world of medieval wizards, court sages and folk tales, where a person watches the sky and reads fate in it. The nearest English word is “Stargazer”, though it can also suggest a daydreamer. “Astrologer” is closer to the mystical side. Please read it as an old sage who observes the stars and seeks meaning in them. Music by A. Khomenko, lyrics by V. Osadchenko. In five movements. Silence Reflection Desire The Master (attacca) The Stargazer Part1 Part 2 Part 3 Parts 4-5

Hello everyone, I’d like to share Rafa’s March, a piece I wrote in memory of my dog, Rafael, whom we called Rafa. The music reflects the moments when we walked every day at the river, he was just wild chasing kangaroos and every sound he could hear. I composed it using the piano and StaffPad. I’m still learning about composition and orchestration, and I’d appreciate your feedback about balance, timbre and anything you would like to say to help me to improve in this journey. I’ve attached the audio and PDF score. Thank you for listening! Polo Perilton Rafas March.mp3 Rafas March.pdf

Would it be a good approach to first learn a piano piece with the keyboard volume switched off or turned very low, or by using the soft pedal on the piano right from the beginning, before gradually moving on to fuller-sounding practice and musical refinement? I have sometimes done this in the past and have been experimenting with it a little more recently. The idea is to first familiarise oneself with all the notes, rhythms, general techniques and physical movements without overloading the ears with sound, helping to minimise cumulative auditory fatigue over extended practice sessions. Slow practice can also be incorporated at this initial stage. Working out the unwritten dynamics, phrasing and articulation can likewise begin during the learning process, through listening to and imagining the piece, or be explored further once one is familiar with the notes and rhythms and moves on to the piano. I am curious whether this quieter approach to the initial stages of learning, followed by progressively fuller-sounding practice, might be beneficial before eventually refining the musical interpretation. Does anyone else practise this way, and what has your experience been? Feel free to share : ) ...

Do all 10 now because lunch is over!

Another musical quote from "Beyond the Occult" by Colin Wilson features a discussion of hypnosis, split-brain theory and Mozart: If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading! Now go out into the world and do at least 10 impossible things before lunch! LoL

Dragon Quest I - Symphonic Suite - People:

Yep, Caplin’s book is definitely the gold standard for phrase syntax, but it’s also a massive academic text. My goal with the article/website was to provide quick reference guides(and other stuff) that are a bit more digestible!

Just by reading Caplin's Classical Form will be ok? Henry

Hey, I'm not offended I'm not very good at multiple instruments.

Good evening=) I’ve watched and listened to your Quartet. It seems to me that this is a very raw piece that needs serious revision. There are a great many purely technical issues. Even in computer playback, your texture doesn’t sound good, and with live players it will sound even worse. Your voices often cross and double each other. For example, in the “Pastorale”, right at the beginning, the cello and viola play the same notes, but the cello sustains quarter notes while the viola plays eighths. As a result, both will sound poor, and the accompaniment will get muddy. What’s more, your voices aren’t independent. You double many of the moves (literally in the second measure the cello, the viola, and the first violin, which has the melody, all play the same descending B–A together, and in the fourth you for some reason double the melody in the bass). This sounds extremely inexperienced. Avoid this. If you do double something (for example, if you need it for some effect), double everything, and do it consciously. If you don’t double, then don’t do it anywhere. Avoid moving all the voices in the same direction, especially in four or more parts. You’re working in a style close to the classical one, and such moments really grate on the ear here. In fact, they sound bad almost everywhere, and here especially so. Why you changed the type of texture in the 5th measure is completely unclear. There is neither the end of a section nor some especially important part of the theme there. It isn’t needed there either structurally or in terms of meaning. It’s as if you tugged the listener by the sleeve, they got ready to hear something important, and you didn’t say anything. The listener was disappointed :) You are trying to fill the entire vertical space from the bass to the very top, and there is no good reason for it. There is a good rule: the lower the register, the wider the intervals. Narrow intervals in the small octave and below sound unclear. They can be used there only with a clear and evident purpose. In your piece they often just sit there for the sake of being there. That will sound bad too. More notes doesn’t mean a richer sound. Four voices are quite enough in a quartet. They will then sound very clean, expressive, and beautiful. And if you want a rich sound, it is achieved by making the texture more polyphonic, not by mechanically adding notes. I hope you’re not offended by my remarks. All of this can be easily fixed, and it will come with practice :) I wish you luck and inspiration. Alex

Whenever composers and theory teachers talk about crafting a balanced melody, they always go to period form. Yes, it is talked about excessively, and many composers, especially in the Romantic era ignore it for more asymmetrical or looser structures, but it is one of the best ways to start when one is learning initially, and it was used by the masters, e.g. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. The structure of a period can be pared down to this: question and answer, or the antedecent and the consequent. The antecedent, ideally four bars. introduces the main melodic motif in bars 1-2, and introduces a contrasting idea in the next two, leading to an inconclusive cadence, usually half or imperfect authentic. The consequent, the same length as the antecedent restates the opening idea, either identically or with a slight variation to suit the preceding or succeding ideas and harmonies. The contrasting idea follows the same contour as its mirror in the antedecent, however it leads to a strong, usually perfect authentic cadence. Depending on how it is constructed, the period has two main types. The parallel and the contrasting. In the parallel, the consequent begins in the same vein as the antedecent. Think of the opening of Mozart's K. 331 sonata. In a contrasting period, the consequent begins with new melodic material, but retains the harmonic hierarchy of an inconclusive cadence followed by a conclusive one. If you want to read more like this, check out my website! And if you have requests or feedback, feel free to put them in the Google form on the site! Website: https://sites.google.com/view/beneath-the-score

Hello. I listened to your Nocturne. The piece is very interesting in its musical language, and it is well constructed in terms of form. However, it seems to me that this music belongs to the category of works that look clearer and more understandable on paper than they sound. Both in the accompaniment and in the melodic line you use very wide leaps and cover a very large range. For this reason, without the score it’s not always possible to tell where the accompaniment is and where the main figure is. The pulsation in groups of nine also feels somewhat intrusive. But that is probably more a problem of computer playback. A live pianist would most likely play more softly, and that pulsation wouldn’t draw so much attention. In any case, it’s good, interesting music.

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.