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Stunning stuff from what I hear! Some people seem to complain a little bit about it not going anywhere, but I think I can see the very slow development of it from my perspective at least, and I don't got any comment on the actual composition. Generally, the composition is great I just have some small nitpicks on the engraving that I think would go a long way in making the score look more professional/ be more readable to others. All of this is easily fixable, like changing how the instruments are displayed on each system. From movements 2-3 there's a small line connection thing that joins like instruments, but that aspect isn't consistent in the first movement where like instruments aren't connected to each other. Consistency in that, in my opinion, would help in making sure the score looks like one full composition. I would also note some collisions. There are places throughout the score where the slur comes fully in contact with the notehead or articulation, and this leads to less clarity in the engraving. Dynamics are also not aligned consistently. There was a spot (forgot the timestamp) where the middle dynamic was positioned far down from the hairpins which might result in less clarity for musicians reading this piece. Dynamics are also on occasion closer to the part below it or so close to its part that. In fact, there's a lot of compactness in the score and not a lot of room for conductors or performers to write down notes or see things quickly with clarity. I think a potential fix here is to increase vertical space between parts and decrease vertical space between some systems where there is a large blank space (nothing crazy though to make sure each system is still separate. If possible, I would also add a system divider.) You could also scale staff space down by some small amount to make for more space, but don't go crazy otherwise it might be so minimized it's not legible at a distance. If you would like, I have a full engraving book pdf called "Behind The Bars" that I could send you just to look through. I think doing this would help in getting your, quite frankly, amazing work get played live or be published professionally. Again, amazing composition, and I'm looking forward to hearing more from you!

My dear Henry, I am truly touched by your beautiful words and by this lovely gesture! ❤️ It is such a joy and an honour to have the opportunity to share your music with others. There is something profoundly moving about this particular piece, something that touches both of us so deeply. Perhaps it is because it carries within it a glimpse of Schubert’s world — that delicate mixture of tenderness, longing, nostalgia and quiet melancholy that speaks directly to the heart. It feels as though a little fragment of that beautiful Schubertian universe has found its way into your music. And I think this is something we both feel and cherish so deeply. The more I explored your composition, the more little details and emotions I discovered within it. I believe that when we truly connect with a piece of music, we can sometimes reveal things that perhaps even surprise its own creator. But all this beauty comes from you and your wonderful musical imagination! Thank you, dear friend, not only for your beautiful music but also for your kindness, generosity and friendship. I feel very fortunate to have met you through music. Sending you my warmest wishes and a big hug! ❤️

Hi all, I'm overjoyed to share a recording of this plece played by my dear friend @Vasilis Michael ! He completely captures the calmness and serenity of the piece with many details, and he plays the piece better than I do, and he understands the piece more than I do, and he excavated something from the piece I don't. What an honor to have such a great friend playing this great recording of my piece!! Thank you Vasilis! Henry

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.