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Hello @A Ko and welcome to the forum! It's so fun that you snuck in some themes from other composers' works! At around 4:10 it sounds like you're quoting Mahler - Symphony 4 or 5 perhaps? It's amazing that your first finished composition is this long and for orchestra - congrats! Incorporating other composers' melodies in your own works smoothly and seamlessly is quite a difficult endeavor and it gives the listeners a fun little Easter egg hunt to go on - very clever idea to involve the listener in the listening process in yet another additional way! Thanks for sharing!

It has that sound, but I don’t know how to describe it. I think that B flat is contributing to it. it has been nostalgic fairytale Disney sound. I heard it another music.

Made this account just so I could upload this and remind y'all never to end in minor : ) Also accidental Shostakovich in bar 3.

Hi! I'm new as well. I really like your piece - it has wonderful harmonic turns, it feels very well thought out. I especially like the really smooth key changes, and the part after b.24. The melodies are less recognisable, but I think it kinda suits the style. I think the playability is something you could work on (if you ever want a real orchestra to play it). First of all I'd try to change the key: probably to Eb and D instead of Db and C. You'll run into range issues doing that, but no-one likes playing with 5 flats. Whereas 3 flats is really nice for the winds and two sharps are nice for strings. Furthermore you might want to keep in mind that ppl need to breathe.. I'm mostly talking about the last note in the horns - I think it's possible, but it is a veeeery long note and also playing that pianissimo will only make it worse - you risk the sound getting quite shakey bc they'll be out of breath, and that will be very audible because no-one else is playing. Also the accel. from b.30 onward will be difficult to keep consistent. When performed it won't be as gradual as when done by a computer. Idem for other long gradual tempo changes. But for a professional orchestra these things would be entirely possible. And musically it's really good. I should say I don't have much experience reading scores or conducting so I don't know if this would be balanced at all - although I think so. My favourite moment is b.55 - really nice melody there! Kind regards Marius P.S.: Gershwin was really obvious. I think I heard some Sibelius 2 (mvt. 4) with that syncopated background and rising melody, but I'm not really sure. I didn't catch the third quote.

Hi everyone! This is my first piece for full symphony orchestra, first post, (and my first "completed" composition: a lot of firsts), and I'm definitely still learning how to orchestrate better, create nicer textures, and pace my compositions/develop melodies (all for fun, I just like listening to music and playing a little bit haha, so I don't have any formal composition background). This piece was inspired by various Romantic composers (with quotes from my 3 favorite symphonies--one is really obvious but I'm interested to see if others will recognize the snippets I tried to include) and includes two central themes. I'm open to all the advice I can get! Thanks for your time! PS. my score is really chaotic and I still need to clean up all the accidentals and stuff.

The orchestration is simple, yet effective. I like the sparseness of it all, and would not add in any percussion/keyboard instruments as suggested above. However, the instrumentation is a little odd, but it works for me. You should definitely remove those ppppp dynamics. For strings, I would recommend doing it all con sordino.

"Lion Heart," was written to describe the 12 Day War that is happening. I came up with my own system of modulating serialism: Home | Music Set Modulator The modulations work very well, giving the atonal music a sense of perspective and direction. The twelve day war opens with a trumpet fanfare, in response the upper woodwinds copy what the trumpets had said. After the initial statement, the music modulates to another tonal center. While the set modulates, it is not a direct transposition. Modulation is dynamic. The whole song is very percussive, like a machine gun bursts in some areas, bombs dropping in other areas, intermittent with lyrical rational between the instruments. Just when you think the twelve day war is over, a final percussive drive is offered. The form is closer to rondo, though the piece is sectioned symmetrically with an adagio section in the middle, according to the piano score. Much changes were made in the wind ensemble arrangement, which I will have a score soon. LionHeart.mid

Ah, ok. Thank you for the correction. I will be able to listen for that now. I did sense some changes but it seemed like an alternation between i and V and without a score, I couldn't be sure. Thanks for your reply!

Hi all .... This is one one of my earliest endeavors in composing. It has gone through many tweaks over the years ... and more recently with my mentor. It is a Brass Quartet - a procession ... ancient warriors marching down the main thorough fare ... up front the able bodied .... followed by the wounded .... and finally, a show of strength/victory. It's not a complicated work at all .... yet it did open the door for further composing. Mark

Thank you for listening and giving feedback. I do agree with the meandering nature of the piece. The more I listen to it, the more I wonder where it’s going. Changing up the tempo could possible help with that as well. Also, it does change keys. It goes E minor, D major, G minor, D minor, G Major, then back to E minor.

Many thanks for the kind words. The dynamics were designed mainly for the MIDI rendition from MuseScore. Would have to adjust them for a real orchestra. Anything below ppp is a bit silly and meaningless for real musicians! Also think I should've used n instead of ppppp and pppppp: so will go back and change that. Probably should've pushed up the master fader too, as my mp3's are both very quiet. I was aware of Colin Matthews' version; but have avoided listening to it, as I wanted to come up with my own ideas.

Thanks Vince! I did think about adding a piano; but that seems like cheating! I made the wider orchestration first, and then my composition tutor suggested I use a smaller chamber orchestra instrumentation instead. That's partly because contrabassoon is apparently not a standard part of the line-up, even in a larger orchestra.

Thought I'd join in as well!

Henry, I apologize for taking so long to reply to another great piece of yours. After many repeated listenings, this is clearly a programmatic piece in my opinion. There is anguish, anxiety and a false sense of repose. The juxtaposition between light and heavy themes, minor and major works effectively to convey the message of your piece. I have a few reservations about the random pauses that come after the blues. I feel they interrupt the flow at times, and as for the blues itself I think the f double sharp in the theme would sound better if it were changed to a g sharp. Those are just my thoughts tho; the climax and the aftermath of it is quite well done. I am glad you were able to find peace and transcendence in your sextet.

An Incredible orchestral landscape. I think you captured the loneliness of the piece quite well; the pedal effects are achieved naturally by the sustaining quality of the winds and strings. Just keep in mind, those triple and quadruple pianos may be hard to project, if you get a real ensemble to play your piece. It’s interesting to hear how differently you’ve approached this prelude as compared to another recent orchestration: Of course, I also hear similarities but I do really prefer your choice of instruments. There seems to be more drama and depth of feeling.

Oh hey I like the contrabassoon idea, it's so rich in the lower register. Perhaps the easiest and right solution. Would it be so weird to have the piano with the orchestration? You mentioned harp, percussion, bells, etc., maybe the piano (or synth?) could be used as an accent/effect instrument in the ensemble. It could play the low notes of the final bass dyad in question, but just a random thought. Orchestration is really cool, and it helps I love Debussy haha. Nice work!

Thanks Mark. I could perhaps use more contrabassoon for bass resonance. Not sure double-bass would work. Its timbre is a bit too harsh, and doesn't really suit the material IMHO. I did have thoughts about adding some percussion. Perhaps a mark tree, sleigh bells or triangle to sprinkle some Christmassy magic? Maybe that would sound too cheesy though?

Thanks for the nice words! As for the quick moves thing—it’s just that I’m not skilled enough yet. But you’re being so kind to me!

Interesting. I put your piece through and got much better results. Can you try again? I'm also happy to share a link to the full transcription if you want.

Hiii! @PeterthePapercomPoser Thank you for your feedback!! This piece also represents a character in a history, which I I represent as the tritone interval. In the first part of the piece, each bar starts with a tritone over the bass of the chord, so it seems that it uses that weird scale

Hi @Samuel_vangogh! You made this art? It looks great! The music is wonderful too! The delaying of the resolution to the tonic through repeated ii - V's is to me a very cool feature. The ending is quite unusual as well and despite not ending on the tonic, it still sounds finished. Also, something I noticed is that (at least in the beginning) the piece seems to be in the Acoustic mode (or Lydian b7 or Mixolydian #4). But there's plenty of chromaticism as well. The simplicity but exploration of non-harmonic tones is also a bit Satie-like. Thanks for sharing! P.S.: would you post a link to your artwork, if possible as a high resolution image? That would be really great! Thanks in advance!

Hey @Fugax Contrapunctus! Great idea! I really like how the canon starts on the dominant, making the F minor tonality only a later emergent property of the harmony arising from the counterpoint. I think the Musesounds strings are a bit difficult to deal with to get them to sound as intended. I wonder why you changed the articulation to staccato as each new voice enters when it wasn't staccato in the Cello? It would make the entry of each voice more obvious I think if they entered on a fully held quarter note. The beginning and ending of the canon, I think are the best parts. But the middle could really have used some space/rests in the line to imo to give the ear an occasional break from the barrage of constant melodic material that demands to be digested by the ears. Thanks for sharing!

A minimalistic version I made Enjoy! Counterpoint Harmony Challange.mp3