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Hi @Nico_ and welcome to the forum! I think this is a pretty nice Baroque-styled invention! I don't see/hear anything about it that resembles VGM or SNES music? But it does make me question your intent with this music. To me it is very clearly pre-classical music rather than music meant as a background to a video game level or media music. I think the piece is coming along quite nicely in those terms! Keep going and thanks for sharing!

Hello @Isen Lark and welcome to the forum! Your video has a high production value both visually and aurally! The music is very emotional, although sometimes it strays close to cliche when the bass notes in each measure always move down by step as in the famous Lament bass. Like Henry said, it would enrich the music if you modulated, or possibly if you used more inversions or unusual harmonies with foreign bass notes. Like, I like to sometimes have a chord with a bass note underneath that's not the root, 3rd nor 5th or the chord but something more unusual like the 7th, 9th or 11th. That kind of approach to harmony can really bring some unusual sonorities into your music! Thanks for sharing this enjoyable piece!

Hey @UncleRed99! I know I've heard and reviewed this piece before, but being only a casual listener from the sidelines, I can't tell what differences or improvements you might have made. Nor can I tell if the improvements actually improve my listening experience or possibly, if they detract from it. I feel like delving deeply into the score and searching for the differences would be an endeavor that would require quite a bit more effort on my part (seeing as how I'd have to compare it to the original or however many previous versions of this piece you've made before this). It's the law of diminishing returns in music. In addition, I thought I'd share a pertinent parable about art in general that I think might be applicable or at least hopefully helpful to you: (from the book "Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking") I find that this parable really helps me in my approach to composition and work ethic in general. I try to apply any lessons I learn to new pieces and to churn out a greater quantity of work with the confidence that the things I learn from previous works will manifest themselves in future works. I also recognize that trying to perfect old pieces with endless reworks would not be conducive to improving. In terms of time management, I believe my time is spent much more wisely writing new pieces. I don't know if any of that hits home for you or not. But I thought I'd at least share my own reflections on the subject and hope that that could be helpful for you in some way. If you disagree with my work ethic or with the parable, that's fine too. Thanks for sharing!

The Journey.pdf I know this isn't a masterpiece, but I'm confident the improvement that's been made is a far cry from where it started. 🙂 (Disregard the random C/D Quarter Note in the Chimes near the end. Must've been a typo that got overlooked.) 27071794.mp3

Thanks Mark. May give that a try.

Hi Alex .... I know getting the full resonance of a piano in an orchestration is a real challenge. I have to say that I do miss the warm lower voices. The upper woodwinds in the beginning (for me) need some warmth underneath (maybe from the lower strings). Mark

Thanks Peter and Mark! Just hope I can get it performed somehow. I'm working on Dvorak's Five Bagatelles for my next orchestration (which is proving a bit of a nightmare!)

Thanks for the comments! Yeah, the retransition from D minor to A minor is one of the spots I was concerned about. I had originally written it with a B flat 7 instead of an F7 in the second ending. So, the A7 resolving by deceptive cadence to a B flat, which then gets reinterpreted as a Neapolitan chord to lead to the dominant in A minor. But the modulation sounded too quick and unconvincing to me, so I tried to the F7 (functioning as a German sixth) instead, but I worry that the logic of the A7 -> F7 is weak. I've listened to it a bunch and go back and forth on whether I think it works. I may try tinkering with it. Thanks for the suggestions!

VARIATION TROIS (3), is fully scored. very "tutti" variation, lots of moving parts. On the beginning bars, I contrasted the woodwinds from the previous variation with strings only.

Well done ..... a lovely well balanced serene orchestration. Mark

Thank you so much, my dear friend. I truly appreciate your attention and your appreciation. This sonata is really like a personal thank-you letter to my beloved composer, Mozart. You will certainly find many elements from his sonatas, as you said, and I tried to stay as true to his style as possible. I have a special fondness for the Andante — I believe it’s the most inspired of all the movements, with passages that even I can hardly believe I managed to write, and it feels like the part that carries something of myself.

Hey @Aiwendil! Very nice and idiosyncratic rag! It does sound exactly like a haunted castle. I know that sometimes the titles of rags don't really have any distinguishing similarity to the actual music. But not so with this piece - I could even imagine it being played on the castle's church organ! Never thought that a rag would work well on a church organ. I think it would make it more creepy and characteristic. Regarding any awkward moments, perhaps you thought that measure 60 is too abrupt? To me it sounds find to go from C major back to A minor. For me, the middle section starting at measure 85 is perhaps too long and the retransition back to the main theme is a bit haphazard. Originally in the 1st ending to that section you end on a D minor chord, but the 2nd ending suddenly injects a F7 chord in place of the D minor (and directly after an A7). Perhaps you could make the 2nd ending include two measures instead of just one and replace the C# in the A chord with a C natural to more clearly prepare the listener to the retransition to A minor and recontextualizing that A chord as a pre-dominant (in essence with the same function as the D minor would have had in its place if the destination was A). That's my take on that. Btw - great intro and great conclusion! Definitely a strong piece here. Thanks for sharing!

Hey @Alex Weidmann! Very nice orchestration! About the rubato fermatas: in my experience, the use of the various different fermatas available in Musescore 4 have had sporadic effects upon the actual tempo at any given time. If you want to guarantee any specific tempo contractions or elongations I think the best way to do that would be with hidden additional tempo markings each beat. That would just be my own personal approach to that. I love this piece. Just fyi I compared your orchestration to this recording I found on YT: Ravel Prelude in A minor I think you did a wonderful job distributing the melody and accompaniment to different instruments and making the somewhat large instrumental forces sound like a chamber ensemble. Great job and thanks for sharing!

Hey @UncleRed99! Nice Brass Quintet! Definitely an ensemble I should write something for in the future considering I played Trumpet and French Horn. I think my favorite measures in this piece are 16 and 44 because in those measures you abandon the chordal approach to the music where it sounds like the music is just an elaborate but slow (I mean a slow harmonic rhythm) chord progression. Overall measures 12 - 16 and 40 - 44 are the most awesome to me, with a unique approach to melody, rhythm and scoring (I especially like how you create a natural delay effect where the 2nd Trumpet imitates the 1st at a delay of a 16th note. Where there's room for improvement is something I already touched on above: the harmonic rhythm seems like it's usually one or two chords per measure. You don't necessarily need more chords or anything, just varying the harmonic rhythm to different note values could be enough. And you could also have built some kind of accompanimental ostinato to kind of set down a cool groove underneath the melody to create a banger. I also feel like there isn't really a long leading song-like melody that really sticks in my head that I remember easily after listening to this. I've listened to this piece a few times while writing this review and somehow I still feel this way about it. Perhaps there are what you might consider melodies but they're just not unified enough or self-similar enough to really stick in my head? Or maybe I just have fringe expectations about this? Or perhaps they're interspersed too much with passages that are dominated by too many long notes and chords that don't seem to create a melodic impression for the listener? That's my impression. Thanks for sharing!

Quality dramatic writing. I like the sudden fast thirds in the third movement, really captivating. Some of the more technical passages especially the first movement sound more like Hummel or Clementi at times. Maybe I'm just cynical but you have quite a few passages that are directly modeled from parts of Mozart's sonatas. They are not out of place but it's quite obvious, I'd imagine, to anyone familiar with his sonatas. I like the places where your originality shines the most, I'd point out the harmony progressions and transitions I like.

BTW, Hopkins is my favorite poet, I love Tolkien though his poetry is light verse, and hate Tolstoy! For those who have listened to my Trio for Violin, Clarinet, and Guitar, the opening theme of the first movement is based on the first Hopkins fragment!

Bright Star, Would I Were Stedfast As Thou Art Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Voice and Piano/Keyboard | Noteflight Three Fragments By Gerard Manley Hopkins-1 Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Voice and Piano/Keyboard | Noteflight Three Fragments By Gerard Manley Hopkins-2 Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Voice and Piano/Keyboard | Noteflight Three Fragments By Gerard Manley Hopkins-3 Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Voice and Piano/Keyboard | Noteflight Princess Mee Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Voice and Piano/Keyboard | Noteflight Fastitocalon-Tolkien setting Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Voice and Piano/Keyboard | Noteflight Cat-Tolkien setting Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Voice and Piano/Keyboard | Noteflight Just some "bits and pieces" I haven't posted yet, though I may have posted Cat somewhere I think. Next entering project is Three Part Songs to Poems by G.M. Hopkins, though to semi-quote the first sentence of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, "Things are topsy-turvy in my household right now!" 🤯

More than 200 views in less than 24 hours? THANK YOU very much!😃

Why though. It feels very natural to me that ends to A. last 2 chords is V7 and I. The chromatic voice probably confused you because it happens a bit unexpectedly. In general, all the voices — and especially the melody — lead to the tonic. You are the first guy who thought it like this and I don't know why 😊 “In any case, I really appreciate your opinion and thank you for your attention.”

Another ragtime piece from me. This one I'd really love to hear any thoughts on; I'm not really sure about a few passages and transitions and I'm trying to decide whether to revise it. Are there moments that sound awkward (in a bad way) to you?

I mean the very end of Albumblatt 3. I've listened to it a few times now, and every time, that final A flat chord feels like a dominant to me; my ear wants it to resolve to a D flat.

Thank so much for replying back with score. That is truly helpful when it comes feedback. Let me start with positive(s): 1. I love the delicate, simple theme and how it is phrase. It flows rather nicely from measure to the next. Well done. 2. The under laying harmonic language is well done, too. No issue there. Now let us move to areas of improvement: 1. I notice you only have horn in f playing 3 notes! Horns can never do this! There are monophonic instrument. You will need 3 players reading that part then mark it a3. But that is not standard. Your score resembles a small size orchestra. So only one with one player. 🙂 2. This brings me to where can the foreground be placed. Best place: the strings. There are loudest in this group. You can 1st carry the melody. a 3. Background: Use the strings (marked at pizz.) at a mp and match bass left hand of piano sketch. Viola, cello, Bass. 4. Doubling parts: Add Basson to double bass part in part in strings. Second violin can double the first. the upper woods can provide harmonic support with horn player. 🙂