All Activity

I realize I'm quite late to the party on this piece, but I wrote up a running log of my thoughts as I listened to this. Henry, this is the best piece I've come across on this forum. First of all, kudos to you for taking on a piece like Mahler's Eighth for formal inspiration - I've attempted such a thing myself and have nothing to show for it. The first movement's unification of pentatonic and chromatic harmony is quite unusual in sound, it strikes me as being somewhat similar to Dvorak's "Wagnerian" period - around the time of his third string quartet's composition. Anyway, there are many striking aspects to this movement; one thing I can't help but notice is your use of recurring textures. Even when motivic material itself may not recur necessarily, the settings that those motives were heard in are recast and developed in increasingly colourful ways so the whole thing hangs together anyway. The pizzicato passage at about 8:00 is one such example. That said, I would be curious to see the result of potentially stripping back just some of the figuration around the end of the first movement - I wonder if it might help clarify the polyphony in the final triple fugue. It is very beautiful as written though! Okay, second mvoement: This introduction is suitably mysterious, and at the Agitato the music takes on a nicely turbulent affect. The counterpoint here is quite rich, and I almost wonder if perhaps a little more time could've been taken before the lines came into full effect. I wonder, have you listened to the 0th and 2nd string quartets by Arnold Schoenberg? You may find some interesting common ground with him. As you noted, the passage beginning at 23:38 is extremely special, I can hear the intensity of the feeling behind it quite clearly. You communicate your thoughts very well in this piece - it is perfectly followable from beginning to end and never wastes a moment. One final thought, have you considered orchestrating this? I think some of my little things about the density of the texture could be greatly improved with a little more breathing room in the ensemble. Not to mention it would bring out many of the fabulous colours of the piece in even more vivid detail. In short, thank you, Henry, for sharing this with us. This is a wonderful work that deserves to be performed. I would like to also thank you for all of the feedback you have offered on my music over the last few years - you've been a real voice of encouragement. (P.S. I see you also cited David Goza as an important influence in your initial post, his videos have been massively helpful to me as well!)

Hi @Crescent Roulade! Just a personal preference but I will put it in Db major for a calmer atmosphere. One thing to consider is that, if you really want to use flute as the solo instrument, the G major one contains notes lower than the middle C and won't be playable by the flute (not even an alto flute with the F#3). Henry

I’m struggling to upload files, since it won’t accept video files or the converted audio I made using my iPhone. If you have any suggestions, I would appreciate them

Yeah, definitely include a key/legend of the extended techniques you use in the piece as is common for pieces that use extended techniques. I personally have never tried to play microtones nor multiphonics on Clarinet so I would definitely need an explanation on how to achieve the necessary sounds.

That's covered by the "Musicologist" badge. Google: "Musicology is the scholarly study of music, exploring its history, cultural contexts, theory, and social impact, encompassing all musical traditions from classical to popular music, beyond just performance. It uses various methods, including analysis, history, and anthropology, to understand how music functions in life, its development over time, and its relationship with psychology, sociology, and other fields. Traditionally divided into historical, systematic, and ethnomusicology, modern musicology is broad and interdisciplinary, focusing on meaning, practices, and the "web of culture" surrounding music."

@TristanTheTristan I can help you

I don't know how to download and input these files here.

Award to someone who has written multiple long essays on a piece of music by someone else.

How would this be related to music? Seems like an award for anybody who might write an essay about any topic. But there are already existing awards for "Musicologist" or "Ardent Reviewer" or "Theory Buff" or "Musical Debator" or "Programmatic Composer" or "Musical Advisor" and those awards have specific musical cases in which they apply.

Correct! Let us say YC hosted a formal competition, entries have to meet the core requirements before proceeding further. If They fail to meet that, they won't proceed. Formal competitions usually require a score with a audio file. Last time I check, Suno does not cut it. It would be rejected. As I have said multiple times, no one in the industry uses Suno.

Hello! I was working on a movement and I wanted to go for a lake-theme so I was wondering whether C or G Major sounded better for this. I also provided scores for each major key.

Thank you so much for the thoughtful feedback.

Heyo! This came to me when I was on a pilgrimage back to my Catholic college immediately when I saw the Marian Grotto. Could you please let me know especially if the piano part could use any work, or if you think there’s a musically fitting way to reduce the range of the song? I just used my headphones to record, so if you have any free recording tips I’d appreciate them too. Thanks in advance. The first video is of the whole arrangement, and the second has strings backing the melody so you can hear what it’s meant to sound like especially in the low range.

Suggestion: Essay Writer

I especially love the meditative prelude. The section beginning at mm. 26 with repeated notes and chromatic harmony is extremely elegant and tasteful. The bass line is particularly well-written, and patterns like mm. 51-53 brings subtle drama. The entire piece is playable too! Personally I think some reordering/transposing/rerun of the material here would give the piece better cohesiveness. The reappearance of the quaver-dominated opening material at mm. 15 for example can be in the dominant or relative key, and rerunning it again later (though maybe not in its entirety), particularly near the end brings not only unity but also some excellent contrast to the surrounding French overture rhythms.

I think that Ai music is just pure laziness and Is probably one of Three things. 1: I want to win a competition and have a good reputation. 2: I'm just Trying to make a non - Ai song but I want to have some sort of sound effect/thing that I can't get normally, or Three: I'm just pure laziness or not an actual composer. I think that All AI generated/refined Music should be completely banned, with one exception: if the AI did a very small thing like making a sound effect used once or It tells you which note sounds better after a certain one or something. If the actual MUSIC part is generated by AI or almost all of your lyrics (If you have any) should be banned; But if your just playing around and say that it was Ai, and it is not serious it might be allowed. (For 3 I chose other, I think that if someone's music is AI, they should just say so.) oh and It would be really stupid to use AI detection to see if pieces were AI but moderating might work.

Thank you @PeterthePapercomPoser, very kind words! I have no idea why Musescore decided not to label the instruments, haven't had this issue before, and I only noticed it now😅. I'll check out Mahler. The inspiration came from a simple sort of I-bVII-II-bVII-I idea that was looping in my mind for some reason and somehow I ended up in this obscure scale while experimenting. Difficulty was to avoid it collapsing into an F major sound, but I think I managed to avoid that for the most part - although the tonic is unclear to me for most of the time. As you are a clarinetist I'd like to ask, how would you prefer the fingerings to be shown? Should I stick a chart into the score? And how about the multiphonic in the end (just requires you to go a bit further down on the mouthpiece and adjust pressure): Idea is that both tones would be present. Thanks!

1. When it comes to platforms like Suno, that should be regulated: it should not be used in competitions, detection should be used, and if there is abused it should be banned. When it comes mock ups in the Daw or in notation (Note perfomer, vst, etc): For the composer plays the notes into the program, and such. Sometimes, we do get lucky and have live performance. I think it would be cool, if there was sub forum to share our live performances. 2. A pianist and composer, I'd prefer if someone who did not use AI. 🙂 3. I agree with @UncleRed99 Idea. In traditional music, you can generally see the key, meter, and etc, but with lyrical songs we can't see that.

Absolutely! It's a real pain in the arse to do in Musescore though 😄 It's added to my to-do list (along with some dynamics shadings). I'm acutely aware of the problems of creating actually good-sounding music and I'm very grateful for you pointing this out. One of the nice things about the Baroque ritornello theme in a vocal context, is that your theme does not even need to be singable. The tenor aria from BWV 81 provides a particularly striking example. A common and easy solution for this problem is to just have your soloist sing an independent melody in counterpoint with the ritornello theme whenever it is reused. I've attached an example of this technique for my aria.

My view on the matter is that while any pieces of "music" that are generated using tools like Suno should be completely banned, the use of AI tools like Cantai to generate mock-ups from midi or notation should be allowed as they are not really any different from generating a mock-up using sound samples (as others have already said). With regards to the issue of how we should go about detecting AI "music", I like @UncleRed99's idea, though I recognise @TristanTheTristan's concern that asking for technical music theory things like starting keys/time signatures may unfairly exclude composers who do not work in theory/notation heavy genres. I propose that we require users to write a short description of their piece naming some musical elements/techniques that were used (e.g. chord progressions, instrumentation etc.) alongside any additional details they might want to mention, like maybe what inspired them?

Probably, but it's not actually doing anything that isn't already a standard feature really in drum kits for years. Premade beats. I would point out that on marketplaces like gamedev market, they forbid AI art assets, but allow composers to use AI cover art.

Hi @muchen_! I am not an expert on the Baroque style, recitatives, arias nor cantatas, but I feel like the recitative could have been more humanized through liberal use of hidden tempo changes in order to make it sound more like an accompanied cadenza and in free time which I'm assuming that that's how recitative are supposed to be like. This rendition sounds very metronomic which hurts my impression of it. I like the aria a lot though! Although between bars 8 - 14 the singer doesn't seem to have any opportune place to breathe and it's hard to imagine those 6 measures sung in one breath although I could be wrong. Other than that I really enjoyed it though! Great job and thanks for sharing!

Hi @PaavolaPyry and welcome back to the forum! I think the solo Clarinet line dancing microtonally around a single central tone in the beginning sets the stage well for the piece that follows and is yielded from that beginning line. I feel the piece is very logical and cohesive. I can listen to it many times in a row and not get bored of it - which I usually cannot do with an unaccompanied solo piece. But this isn't unaccompanied and only starts that way which is a very entrancing way to start a piece that eventually becomes a Wind Quintet (although for some reason the instruments aren't labeled in your score? Assuming that it's for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, French Horn, and Bassoon). The harmony is dissonant but in a deliberate way that is very digestible (at least to me). It somewhat reminds me of the slow Adagio movement of Mahler's 10th Symphony (the one movement he actually finished himself). The microtones on the Clarinet don't seem to disturb the harmony but enhance it. It's around the 4 minute mark where your Clarinet melody reminds me of Mahler 10 (measure 51). I am a Clarinetist myself but haven't played in a while and wouldn't dream of using these extended techniques that you've employed here - but you're informed by your own experimentation so by all means keep going! Great job and thanks for sharing!

This is a secco recitative in the late Baroque style for alto, part of my cantata WIP. The text is taken from Goethe's Die schöne Nacht. An example translation of the text can be found here. I have also attached a little preview of its paired aria 🙂