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Quite the mighty show this is it was definitely a journey to listen to…~ that I usually do all of my critique in a transcript sort of like a judge tape this piece is definitely too long for me to do that. so to avoid this becoming a giant paragraph where it would take days to read I would just say my thoughts and observations here from memory definitely what a monumental piece. This was it sounded like the creation of life too, and definitely amazing with the pacing those little Interlude and instrument features kind of made the thing feel fresh and also variations within the common theme of just diatonic dissonance throughout. I don’t know Spanish or anything so you could correct me, but on the orchestration in the instrumentation, you wanted hand bells to be used. The thing about that is usually you’ll have multiple people play them in this case you’re treating it like it’s own mallet instrument which in this case they could be mounted on something. though that this is told to be for a virtual ensemble, it would be quite the piece for a existing orchestra to play in real life Monumental work for you keep going

“Parallel fifths are allowed as long as there is a reason. There are moments when, to give a different timbre and texture and make a difference, it’s enough to truly justify it. Nothing is forbidden; otherwise, our horizons would never expand.”

Nothing wrong about parallel fifths, just write them, if you mean to. Do not write them in pure counterpoint, unless you mean to.

Well, Henry, I'm not Chinese! I still like the verse, no matter what its provenance is.

LoL I have to say, you misunderstand Laozi for the original stanza. Our competition in a way matches what Laozi said because Laozi just said you can do your things but without fierce competition, which is the same here, that’s exactly what “為而不爭 “【Act without striving】means. For my self advertisement if you love Tao you can check out my String Sextet. I think the music reflects some aspects of it haha!

The Way and Its Power - Dao De Jing II. 81. Here is where I was taking off from. I have known this verse for decades, and love it!

lol where do you quote this from? Tao Te Ching has only 81 stanzas…

Very nice production! I wonder, is this song based on a Celtic legend?

Competition? Like the Rock band Boston; almost a one-man band? People living in competition? Peace of Mind. Write your music, be Tao. No need for competition. Composition; well, you have to do something... True words are not fine-sounding, Fine-sounding words are not true. The good man does not prove by argument; He who proves by argument is not good. True wisdom is different than much learning; Much learning means little wisdom! Lo, the Sage has no need to hoard: When he has given up his last scrap for the benefit of others, He has more than he had before! When he has sacrificed all he has for the help of others, His hoard is that much better than before! For Nature's way is to sharpen without cutting, And the Sage's way is to act without striving. I am not into competitions! 🤣 Pardon my mangled Tao Te Ching-83.

@Henry Ng Tsz Kiu I thoroughly enjoyed the performance! 🙂

Updated with @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu's performance... thanks Henry! I think so!

HI everyone, I keep hearing that orchestras will ask for performance fee before they performance a new piece. Is this true?

No V for you sir Thanks for checking it out Peter! 😁

It is not a few bucks, though. The full version is about 50 dollars yearly.

Thanks for your comments. I honestly don't know why I wrote this with the flute part on top. I suddenly was worried that all my other concerti were written this way as well, but I checked, and all the others were written correctly. So who knows? I consider myself a Classical Revivalist mostly, though I can and do write in other styles occasionally. As such, it has always been extremely important for me to be as authentic as possible, and I'm very glad that comes to the fore. I have my own personal style within Classicism, but my stuff is always going to smack a little of Mozart, Haydn, and early Beethoven (the latter of which I'm particularly attempting to emulate lately, with varying degrees of success). I was shooting for 1800 to 1810 as the specific pinpoint for much of this work, so it might not have seemed that groundbreaking during that later time frame, especially considering what Beethoven was doing, though I realize the 2nd movement especially sounds a bit earlier. As for scrolling score videos, Google an application called Bandicam. Shell out a few bucks for the full version, or your music might get covered with watermarks...it's not that expensive if I recall rightly. It's pretty easy to use.

I WILL listen to the whole thing, but some notes on the first movement, reactions...someone brought up that the solo instrument should be not on top but on top of the first violins: sometimes, depending on the type of manuscript paper you have, or the notation software you are using, the high first violin notes can get "tied up" with the lower soloist notes! I myself don't care about that particular convention, unless I had a concerto performed or published. I would consider myself a Neoclassical composer, but I could never be this authentic! I'll throw in a semi-atonal couple measures, just for fun. This is truly in style, and would have certainly made waves in late Eighteenth Century Vienna! In fact, it might have been seen as a groundbreaking flute concerto. Your counterpoint is very nice, but you keep things simple and direct. Wish I knew how to do a scrolling-score video on YouTube! I am absolutely helpless at anything like that: the only thing I can do well on a computer is finding practically anything (decent) on the internet. Keep up the good work!

Wow! I drop this here and look away for a moment (or several weeks), and y'all bless me with an embarrassment of riches in your comments! I'm so sorry I'm just now getting around to replying, but I've been a bit unwell. I suffer from Bipolar Disorder Type 2, which causes dramatic mood swings fairly frequently (I also have ADHD, but that's another story), and over the last couple of months I've been having a lot more bad days than good...some days I have trouble even getting out of bed, which is a pretty serious depression. I saw my physician recently, and he adjusted my medications, so I'm hoping to feel better more often soon. Today happens to be an exceptionally good day by recent standards, thank God. Thank you very kindly to all who listened and commented. I'm going to try to reply to various points and specific questions in these posts in the order they came below. I appreciate your complimenting the orchestration. I've never studied orchestration formally, I just put down what I hear in my head pretty much. Are you an oboist? Just guessing from your user name. I should probably post my oboe concerto and see what you (and others) think. Ah yes! That secondary theme is one of my favourite moments in the whole movement too...and you mentioning it gave you a similar feeling to Beethoven makes my heart flutter! 🙂 Oh my God! 😞 I had no idea! I suppose I've never actually looked at a score for a concerto. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Thanks! I'd love that too. There is a chamber orchestra in Wichita that performed my 9th Symphony a couple of years ago, I've thought of showing the score to their director to see what he thinks of it, and if he'd like to program. It of course calls for a first-rate flautist, but maybe he's got one in his back pocket. I'm going to take your suggestion and leave this piece just as is. Was it Beethoven who retorted, "it wasn't written for you" when someone complained that his work was unplayable? Everything is unplayable until some intrepid soul plays it. So, you liked my Polonaise eh! I'm very gratified. It still brings up the hairs on the back of my neck, especially the ending. I've written a number of Polonaise insertions in various movements of my work, but this is the first time, I'm pretty sure, that I made a whole movement out of one. It's so grand and expansive. I did some research online to see how the dance was actually done, and it's wonderful! I read somewhere that in Europe, and especially in Russia (and Poland I'm sure), the Polonaise was the first dance played, to give everyone the opportunity to show off their fabulous clothes. And yes, it was me who wrote that my favourite National Anthem is that of Poland, which amazingly enough is a Mazurka. I've written a stand-alone Mazurka as well, for strings, as part of my Sundry Dances collection. By all means, give your vision of blending the US and Polish National Anthems a try. They share the same metre, which is part of the puzzle solved already. Thank you! What inspired the piece? Nothing in particular. I was driving to my friend's house one day, and I came up with the idea for the opening theme out of thin air. it happens a lot like that to me. When I got home, I plugged it into Finale, and in a few hours, I had the orchestra introduction finished. I'm almost ashamed to say that I've never read an orchestration book. I taught myself orchestration, basically by writing down what I hear in my head...if I don't hear something in my head, but Finale playback sounds like something is missing, it's trial and error to find it out, but most of the time I hear things more or less fully formed in my head. I'm more like Mozart and less like Beethoven that way, though these days I'm trying to emulate early Beethoven more. Someone else here recommended Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov's book, which I have been told is excellent. Hector Berlioz also wrote a "Treatise on Instrumentation" that I gather may even go even further afield, being that he was an extremely experimental composer for his time. Good luck! I didn't used to be a big fan of concerti either. It took me a long time to finally write a whole one (my Horn Concerto in E-flat of 2014). There are so many really great concerti that for a long time i just didn't feel like I had anything in particular to add to the pile. But my feelings have changed, and now I have several other concerti planned, though not started yet. I really want to write concerti for piano, violin, and 'cello. Thanks for your compliments and comments on all three of the movements. I'm so glad this piece made you feel "right at home!" And thanks for sharing this piece with your friends! By all means, if you'd like, subscribe to my YouTube page...I have literally hundreds of scrolling-score videos of almost all of my music that I consider worth sharing there. I can always use more subscribers. 🙂 I use an application call Bandicam. It's pretty easy to use. I recommend paying a few bucks to buy the full version of the software, or you'll have watermarks all over your music. Just set the area of the screen containing your score (in scrolling mode, preferably, if available on your notation software...I use Finale, for now anyway), hit F12 to start recording, then hit play in your notation software, and voila! When the piece is done, hit F12 again, and recording stops. The output is an MP4 file, uploadable to YouTube, and a WAV file. Hope that helps. Dear God, it's 4:17AM Central Daylight Time and I'm just now wrapping this up. Thanks again all of your for you kindness and generosity of spirit! All best!

Dear friends, hello! I'm Zhang Wenhao, a singer from China. This time, I'd like to share with you a mysterious, magical and ethereal Western Celtic music piece. The name of this song is "The Tree Spirit Dancing Alone Under The Moon". This song tells the story of a tree that keeps dancing under the moon to achieve its goal. During this process, it is utilized by humans, but after a long period of time, a turning point comes. I hope through this song, we can express an attitude towards life: On the way to achieving our goals, we will encounter many hardships and face various uncertainties. But please still persistently strive towards our goals, and one day a turning point will come. 亲爱的朋友们，你们好，我是来自中国的创作歌手张文灏。这次来跟大家分享的是一首神秘、魔幻、空灵的西欧凯尔特音乐作品，名字叫《月下独舞的树灵》。 这首歌讲的是一棵树不停地在月下起舞来完成目标，在这个过程中被人类利用，但经过漫长的岁月后又迎来转机的故事。希望通过这首歌，来表达人生的一种态度：我们在完成目标的路上，会经历很多磨难，会充满各种各样的变数，但请依然坚持不懈地努力朝着目标前进，终有一天会迎来转机。 歌词如下/The lyrics are as follows： 《月下独舞的树灵》/《The Tree Spirit Dancing Alone Under The Moon》 作曲/Composed by：张文灏 Zhang Wenhao 作词/Lyrics by：张文灏 Zhang Wenhao 这片荒土 曾经有两族 一朝 人类入侵 树族战败 仅存的古树 夜夜都会舞起来 以此复活战死被伐的同伴 她心里依然回荡着树族的召唤 “快起舞吧 我们就要活过来” 她心里微弱的希望从未熄灭般 像神庙丛生的灯心草的微光 “树长了生枝开叶了 他们要回来了” 她高兴地叫 奋力地跳 身姿随风轻摆荡 光秃的树桩泛着 幽绿色的 树族光环 在草侍和花仆簇拥下生长 她纯净的心猜不透 人类有多肮脏 树桩夜夜长 又被砍倒 从未有树活过来 不知真相的古树 被做成了 收费景观 她起舞只是人类谋利手段 她心里依然回荡着树族的召唤 “快起舞吧 我们就要活过来” 她心里微弱的希望从未熄灭般 像神庙丛生的灯心草的微光 漫长的岁月后 她已是枯藤苍苍 叶落中她 仿佛等来久违的同伴 鸢尾花的吟唱 伴随着奇异果香 在枯萎的夜中她停止了舞蹈

It helped me too now!

Beast of a piece, let me know what you all think!

Hi Lisa! Piotr is our admin here and welcome to our forum! Henry