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By the issue of 'passing quavers,' I meant the following. Take a look at the attached example. As you can see, the G quaver connects two consonant intervals, while it forms a seventh with the upper voice, which is a dissonant interval. Technically this is not incorrect, but musically it's very disadvantageous — since we're dealing with two‑voice counterpoint, the musical texture is very 'thin,' and this dissonant friction becomes quite audible. The same problem occurs with the other G as well. Regarding the A marked with the exclamation mark: the harmony is too 'empty' this way. If you put the subject into the bass and try to harmonize it on piano, it's obvious that an F-major (first-inversion) chord should be implied there. I think most of these issues (including the ones I mentioned earlier) can be corrected fairly easily.

Oh boy! parallel octaves! I didn't check these on fractions of a beat. BAD. {A,D} inverted to {D,A} on 3rd beat is bad indeed. 'Passing quavers': They are not essential by definition. Especially useless when they make an interval of a P4th! I guess I found it gave stamina and authority to the sequence in the motive. (NB, your picture above is not of mine). So I looked at the "frequent dissonant clashes with the passing quavers" in my exercise. I found one p4th (me24, to be corrected!), one p5th (me6, bad?), and 2 8ves (me9, 21, dissonant?). Is there more? Conclusion: I was so carried away and happy with my experience and creative process for that piece (developing the 'horizontal mirror' of the motive, what you call 'inversion' and that PC calls 'contrary motion'), that I didn't pay attention (deficit!) to all those defects and even neglected to check! That happens when I spend too much time on something, I just lose perspective. I'm definitely not a MATURE COMPOSER yet, lol. Also I knew the modulatory episodes were almost absent. I have to develop good episodes even when the tempo is fast and am afraid to lose momentum. Thanks for your feedback.

There are some problematic parallels, such as the G–A octaves in m. 6 (this corresponds to m. 7 in your score — the notation software misnumbered the measures because the initial upbeat should not be counted as a full measure), or the E–F♯ parallels in m. 9 [m. 10 in the score], and so on. Also, you can’t reuse the countermelody that you introduce just after the lower voice’s entry simply by transposing it, because it is not written in invertible counterpoint. For example, the fifth on the fourth beat of m. 4 [m. 5] becomes a fourth when the two voices are inverted. You can see the result of this in m. 7 [m. 8], where an A–D fourth appears. The interval of a fourth is always treated as a dissonance in traditional two‑part counterpoint. A passing fourth may sometimes be tolerated in the instrumental style, though. You may also want to revise some of the crotchets in the countermelody to avoid frequent dissonant clashes with the passing quavers of the theme (see the example below).

This was just an exercise from Applied Counterpoint book by Prof. Percy Goetschius. I made the inventory of octaves and there are 30! lol. Here are the details. too many 8ves 1st beat, Primary accent 5 in V or V7 = me6,9,12,15,18,24,27,30.These are good according to Goetschius. 4 in IV =me13, 16,25(?) 3rd beat, secondary accent 8 in I = me19, 25, 31 3 in I = me5, 8, 26 NOT GOOD 2nd beat, ternary accent 8 in I = me17 6 in IV = me7, 28 BAD 4th beat, ternary accent 8 in I = me11, 14 2 in I = me12, 15, 18 BAD because foreign to the chord. 2 in vii = me30 other unaccented fraction locations: me10: G is either doubled leading tone or doubled chord 7th. me22: F is doubled chord 7th According to Goetschius, these can be tolerated in fast tempo and at unaccented fractions. Is this fast enough? Any other mistakes I could learn from? Thanks.

I don't think this theme was meant to be treated as the usual antecedent/consequent imitation at the octave, like in Bach’s two-part Inventions. The subject comes from a harpsichord suite by Sheeles (not by Händel); the ascending F–G–A–B is actually a codetta leading to the real answer a fifth above. As for your solution, it keeps hitting the octave far too often — you should avoid that, as it’s too harsh for two‑part counterpoint (and there are a few voice‑leading mistakes as well). The modulations to related keys could be prepared more effectively, for example by using simple sequences built from fragments of the theme. Introducing the inversion was a good idea; it adds a bit of variety.

A four-part fugue exercise composed on a given subject, with no particular instrumentation in mind. Developing the subject contrapuntally wasn’t difficult, but after a while it became rather monotonous. The labels A1, A2, B1, etc. indicate the various fragments on which the episodes are built. (The slurs are only meant to highlight motifs for my own reference.)

@TristanTheTristan Thanks for the welcome! and thank you for taking the time of your day to check out my music! I really appreciate any feedback and looking forward to hear what you got say more! It's already been very interesting composing for multiple instruments my primary background is piano. I especially am blown away how much you can get away with modifying the motifs cause it feels like the instruments themselves can ground a motif pretty well.

Hi there, @MinGry, welcome to the Forum! This is a decent piece of music, for a start, although, I do realize there a lot of compositional errors too. Bars 1-2: One of my favourite parts. It kind of has a nice, catholic tone to it. I would say, this quiet opening really fits my style. Appreciate that, though stop writing tempo numberic markings, and start using muiscal terms more. (eg. Allegro; Fast, or Largo; Slow, etc.) Bars 2-4: This is where thngs start to get messy. (not done yet, gonna come back later)

I don't know. Due to its repetitive and diatonic nature it sounds like a copy of Phillip Glass (first two movements) and Carl Jenkins (third movement) to me. And the violin part is relatively ineffective, it's just a slightly exposed solo of concert master above the orchestra. It lacks certain ammount of longlasting interest. This is the type of music I'd listen to at home as a background but I'd not be really looking forward to hear such one at live concerts.

This is a good motif, supported by interesting harmony! This would work well as a jazz piece. All you'd have to do is change up the harmony, and add some drums. But the rhythms and theme can remain the same!

Hi Everyone!, Acceptance is the first multi instrument character piece I have written. It is part of a broader concept: a Cycle of Death, in which I explore the theme of mortality across three pieces: Denial, Acceptance, and Rest. Using the Dies Irae as a harmonic backbone. In this piece, each instrument has a distinct role: The piano represents the truth of death that must be accepted. The flute embodies the human conversation with oneself: longing, hoping, and ultimately accepting. The violin and cello symbolize the path toward acceptance, guiding the listener through the journey. It was very fun composing this! Especially love bars:29-36 and 53-60 Let me know what you guys think! Hope you enjoy it! YouTube link Acceptance.mp3

The 12/16 at the end? NEAR the end, I mean, m. 35

I hope you all enjoy this new work. All comments/feedback welcome. Thank you

Dear Mark, The motivation/intent to for creating this piece was because composing keeps me going. There is a lot in my heart and mind which I would like to convey to other people.

Dear Mark, Thank you for your comprehensive and kind words. Yes, I do give some time for each segment to blossom. Though, I am always aware of trying to keep the attention of the audience and inject a sense of unpredictability - a change in direction. It is a fine balance. Yes, to my regret, there is quite a lot of distortion in this recording. That is my error. I very much enjoyed your analogy of looking at a long piece as a journey through a beautiful English garden. It has been three years since I returned home to England. Although I was born and raised in South-London where beautiful English gardens are not exactly readily found.

I come to you with yet another piece prompted by an exercise from Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony" - Chapter 2: Scale Materials. This time the prompt was "11. Extend the following polymodal and polytonal passage." I chose to change the instrumentation to Bass Clarinet and Sopranino Clarinet as I thought that increasing the distance between the voices would preserve their individuality. I also heard the bottom voice as being more in C dorian rather than in G aeolian. But for the end of the piece I defaulted to a kind of linear cadence rather than ending each voice on its individual tonic. Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think!

I have another musical quote from Gary Lachman's "Beyond the Robot: The Life and Work of Colin Wilson". And if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading!

Hello, this is my first time writing for choir. I am being commissioned by a local middle school to arrange Umbrella. I have just the bridge and a final chorus to add, but I wanted feedback. My background is percussion so I don't want to accidentally make anything to jumpy or impossible. Please be specific in critiques, I'd appreciate it! Thank you!

Piano. Fortepiano, musically. Or gravecembalo col piano e forte.

Just a little theme I wrote for my girlfriend! Thank you for listening!

Comment: Rhythm: you have many unaccented dissonances (4th beat), before consonances at bars (1st beat). According to my books, the cadential effect of this breaks the flow. But as part of a repeated design, it creates a shift to the left in the rhythm. Another element that creates a shifting effect is the (10) suspensions on 2nd beat. Interesting that when you heard my v1 for the 1st time, you were caught by the Bb in me1, on 3rd beat, and questioning about the key being Db (major) or bb (minor). Because in your compo you’ve put more ‘accent’ on the 3rd and 4th beats and opted for a more minor & dissonant approach. This is highlighted in your final cadence. In contrast, my compo has a ‘dancing’ rythmic pattern (quarter notes on almost all 2nd beats). In me10, the last Cb you put (? for sake of symmetry with the ongoing sequence and the following one?) makes a 1st parallel aug4th with the next (accented) interval. I find that a plain C sounds better with the upper voice and the new key (f?).

Just came back to this piece... Appreciatable. I took an inspiration from one of the rhythms.