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Hi there. Let's go to the point right away. Firstly, Nice waltz! I really enjoyed listening. There seems to be a problem too, by the start. It is definitely not Presto. The Bpm is more like 112 (I use a metronome). Presto is kind of like 180 Bpm. If you want a Presto, I would recommend writing something like the following: Presto (c. 112). Secondly, I could definetely hear Chopin here! The ideas at bar 18 and 38 is also very good. Thirdly, cantabile part seems nice. The immediate transition to G Major and back to A minor is extremely nice. Although in a Major Key beginning, it still keeps a melancholic atmosphere. The bars 49-56 area's texture is favorable. Bar 62 is played wrong. You forgot to play the (appogiatura) B natural. Fourthly, From Vivace, there is a Key signature change, which I like. Again the tempo is played wrong. Bar 93 does not make sense Lastly, from maestoso, I really like the texture. Bar 116 is one of my favourite bars in this composition! Then, it is go to the start up to the Coda mark. The coda is not long enough, though. Could be longer. In conclusion, You have great composition ideas, but you still need more practice. Overall, I would rate this piece of music a 8.5 out of 10. Have a nice day! -TristanTheTristan

I could only say, Good job!

Hello everyone! I composed a waltz for piano during the weekend. I wanted it to be "easy" to play so I composed it with an accompaniment that does not need jumps or the use of the pedal. It is still hard to play for me, so, while I practice, I leave it here with my initial live performance until I can play it better (it would sound awful with midi). My main concerns is always with the form, as I am not sure how do transition best between sections, when to repeat things or let them go, etc. So any feedback about that is more than welcome. The piece is in the form ABCBA. A is the main theme in A minor, which is repeated at the end. It is a frantic and agitated theme (and needs to be played rubato). B is a modulatory section and needs to be played without rubato and with the melody "singing". It is based on a long chromatic descending bass line so it is highly chromatic and there might be many compositional mistakes in this section. While it is the easiest section, I have troubles played it beautifully. You can listen to the only time I played it as well as I wanted in 2:01 from the audio. C is a simple lyrical theme in A major. The audio is really bad, it is based on different recordings so the quality of the sound changes a little. When I practice everything and have a finalized score and audio rendition I will update it! Hope you like it and any feedback is more than welcome! Thank you!

Good guess Peter! It was inspired by Vivaldi's famous A minor violin concerto (RV356). I've even lifted a fragment of one phrase from it. In that work, he frequently reinforces the violin solo line with the entire violin section: so you have an alternation of texture. I haven't yet decided which phrases will be played solo: so I've left the whole part on the 1st violin section for now. (That was an additional clue this was based on Vivaldi!) The concerto RV356 crams three movements into c.6 minutes: so I'm hoping to do the same thing with my piece. The chord symbols can be used to create an arpeggiation in the low strings, along with all sorts of interesting preset textures using Sunuscore's Orchestral Elements. So that was my main reason for using them. (I've tested this out now, and it works quite well.) It also allows the harmonies to be quickly and easily changed. Theres a You Tube video all about it here, along with a score video of the Vivaldi:

Hello @Loctobers! This is certainly quite interesting! After having listened to the original piece here I think I better understand how you made this orchestration and how the original piece was generated. It has a trance-like quality to it with the heavy delay effect. Your orchestration adds quite a lot of original content to the piece! Very well done! I wish you had provided a score for a more detailed review. Well done and thanks for sharing!

Hey @Alex Weidmann! I think I personally wouldn't use the chord sequence function in Musescore (if I was composing on the computer) because it would prevent me from trying to imagine what kind of stuff I could use to fill the sonic spaces of the music. Also, later, when I would want to add more parts to the piece I would probably have become accustomed to the harmony and I'd become inflexible to use different harmonic/accompanimental ideas. In general though, the reason why I prefer nowadays to write my music on paper is because I found that being able to immediately hear what I'm composing was not conducive to composing. Like in creative writing - it's like the difference between the brainstorming or quick-writing mindset and the editing and proofreading mindset. In the brainstorming or quick-writing mindset you just throw out all ideas no matter how bizarre or impractical - the goal is to just keep writing and keep the pencil moving. In the editing and proofreading mindset you weed out all the little mistakes, grammar, punctuation, spelling etc. If I compose music on the computer the two mindsets interfere with each other too much. When I'm using Musescore I'm almost always already in the editing/proofreading mindset. It's because hearing my music immediately puts me in that editing/proofreading mindset before I even have a chance to complete my musical thoughts as they were meant to be conceived. It's distracting for me. But this has turned into a rant. I can't tell what piece this was inspired by - maybe something by Vivaldi or Bach? Some of the melodic ideas are interesting! The reason why I guessed Vivaldi or Bach is because of the Baroque-like sequences you employ in some parts. But where's the soloist? Thanks for sharing!

Hello @Celloliver and welcome to the forum! This is a modest little piece! I do have to admit that often, with the double stops and two cellos playing together it can sometimes get a bit muddy. But you do often have the melody in the highest range of the cello which is a beautiful expressive tessitura for the cello. I like the main melody and I can definitely follow the melodic line throughout the duration of the piece so it seems to me like you're not a total beginner to writing music! Great job and thanks for sharing!

Hello @dhslamas! Glad to see that your really old pieces still make it to completion! I don't usually like pieces for a solo instrument because it's easy for them to degenerate into exercise-y shows of skill over actual musical content. But this is very interesting rhythmically, harmonically and melodically! The performance of course brings much to the table - did you play this yourself? Great job to whoever played it! It would be really interesting to try and orchestrate this little etude in a Stavinsky-style! What competition was this written for? Well done and thanks for sharing!

Hello @erionmahony and welcome to the forum! I really like this dark and mournful piece! You use plenty of dissonant crunchy chords left deliberately unresolved, and non-harmonic tones such as suspensions in the melody that are really heart wrenching! I really like the change of key. I am wondering though if you didn't intend to use a Contrabass section to play along with the choir rather than a solo Contrabass. In fact, it would make more sense for the whole string orchestra to be present in this piece and to slowly bring each section of the string orchestra in one by one to create a sense of building. That's what I would do. Great job and thanks for sharing!

Hey @Markus Boyd! What a brooding introduction in A minor! The transition to the main theme in A major seems a bit wonky though. The chord four bars before the Allegro begins (I can't see the bar number in the video) is a German 6th of V (a C, E, G, A#). In the classical style, this chord should resolve to V 6/4 or II, tonicizing the V - E major. Maybe you could draw out the transition into some kind of longer macro-tonal scheme to arrive at A major more smoothly? It really seems sudden and tacked on right now. Especially since that high E in the Flute goes to D# before resolving back to an E on the downbeat of the Allegro .. it definitely sounds like it wants to resolve to V. But I really like the style of this classical symphony so far! It's not quite Mozartean nor Haydnesque .. it's all your own with an idiosyncratic use of space in the orchestration that neither of the aforementioned composers practiced! I especially like the Cello and Viola line in bars 52 - 55. Another bar that bothers me is 99. Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems like the chord there is a suspended 7th chord? D, Fx, A, C is how I see it spelled which makes a D suspended dominant 7th chord. I am not sure how I would resolve this chord. Perhaps I expect the chromatic motion in the Bassoon to go from D#, to D down to C#? But overall this is coming along quite nicely! I'm looking forward to hearing the development section next! Great job and thanks for sharing!

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That’s an interesting method for sure, with modulation!! lol I also have a music theory workbook en route right now because I need to touch up on my education. I did drop out in 2018 so it’s been a minute. Most of my work just comes from whatever my ear decided it to be. Mostly just improvised and unplanned from the start which I know isn’t the *best* way to go about it. Definitely missing out on some cool musical techniques by doing it that way, I’m sure. i appreciate your perspective on it though! I will most likely experiment with this piece as I have done with my others and post periodic updates on what I’ve discovered in the process. Of course feedback is always a welcomed action. Or maybe I could provide insight just based on the results. Who knows! thanks Peter

Thank you so much for your comment. Every bit of feedback means a lot to me, because after the passing of my beloved teacher—the one who introduced me to classical music and supported me in my first steps as a composer—I don’t really have anyone to discuss these things with. I already noticed a funny fact: people seemed to enjoy the second part more than the final one, even though I originally thought of it as the weakest. The last part, on the other hand, which I had high hopes for, turned out to have plenty of problems—the scale of it was simply more than I could handle. I also agree that I didn’t really follow the rules of orchestration or voice leading. Only after finishing this piece did I start to realize that when you compose, you have to keep in mind not only the listener, but also the performer. You can’t write the parts in a way that makes them want to curse you for the rest of their life. As for Donizetti—it doesn’t matter that his style is so different. He was a true master, which means there’s always something valuable to learn from him. Thank you again for your suggestion.

Thank you! I'm going to fix those unplayable chords, but this is like salon music; light! I'm also going to enter anything I write, choral pieces found in boxes, but I think you guys want pretty clean threads, I might be used to more random forums. I'll try to watch that! This Ukrainian young man thing, that is my main focus this fall, not music, and thank you for making me feel welcome here!

I mean, to me you have enough material to work with already. Are you trying to get out of it to go back to the first theme? It sounds like it's headed there to me. Maybe try and think about getting back to the octave textures. One way would be weaving them in in some creative way to what you have at the end. I would keep the drive going too. This piece is really cool, btw! It had my attention immediately, and the driving nature of it is really fun and engaging. Although not similar at all, the style of this reminds me of something I wrote. Take a listen sometime; something I did with repeated textures or whatever might give you an idea. Keep us updated, sounds great so far 🙂

This is the first I've ever heard of this practice, but by all means, your education is probably more recent than mine! LoL Are you referring to the Eb Neapolitan chord in meas. 33? I actually thought that chord brought the "more hopeful" feeling you were trying to target in the A minor section. The way I approach modulation is also a bit unorthodox. I don't usually target a specific key to modulate to - I just let the music modulate wherever it feels like it should. There was one time that I modulated to a completely random key by rolling a 12-sided musician's die. LoL I thought it actually worked out quite well. I don't think your modulation is that un-smooth in this case - after all, A minor and D minor are closely related keys, being right next to each other on the circle of fifths, it shouldn't be difficult to get to one from the other. But I think, perhaps the harmonic rhythm and the timing of the modulation was a bit too predictable? That's my hunch. But don't feel compelled to change it just based on my hunch - if you want to experiment with it, perhaps doubling the harmonic rhythm of the chords of the modulation would inject some excitement into it? Those are my thoughts.

I love the work you do with the subtitles, thanks for making your music more accessible to us non-French speakers. The music is hauntingly beautiful, you're a wonderful craftsman and performer. I usually just listen to your music for enjoyment rather than critique, and even though I don't always comment, I'm always a listener. Thanks for sharing this!

Hey there! Those were just some things that stood out to me, I'm just some rando on the internet haha. The beauty of being the composer is you get the choice of taking other's thoughts how you please, it's ultimately your music 🙂 Cheers buddy

As others have said, when I compose, I think and feel mostly about the technical aspects of music. Also, I rarely experience the "correct" feelings when listening to other people's music. I might get happy and feeling relaxed when I hear music that was supposed to be sad for example (like minor is not sad for me, but I understand the idea), and anxious and maybe irritated when I hear music that is supposed to be glorious and happy, and annoyed when a theme is repeated too much - or similar. So I can't really write music to fit a certain mood, I just write what I like at the moment. Maybe when it's finished I can sort of relate it to a certain feeling. Also, I sort of think that your inner, unconscious feelings come out in the music, even if you don't think about it. I recently tried composing from a written template - like a small "poem" about someone going on a journey, and it actually sort of worked as a blueprint. But still, as soon as I get into the various parts, I just think of music theory and how to get from A to B, how to make a contrast, or should I use horn or flutes now or similar.

I wish to have more free time to help me develop more ideas. My time is very limited unfortunately. I would love to dedicate time to write another piano sonata . Maybe slowly slowly so I have to adapt to this regardless of the limited time

You're Welcome!

Thank you so much for your words and your attention my dear friend. Really appreciated it 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏