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Thank you for your two very touching comments. The 5/8 has actually imposed itself, in the double idea of constant imbalance, of a shaky race towards an impossible love. I didn't want it to seem like a free rhythm game (and I almost didn't want it to be noticed). And you have indeed perceived the subtexts that are in this poem, where we are already on the edge of expressionism. His tensions where the carnal and the metaphysical are tied. The entire last cycle of Jules Laforgue (imitation of Our Lady of the Moon) is haunted by this theme. An exile of love, a mourning of love, a throbbing pain, a frustration, and a feverish incandescence. He was probably already very affected by tuberculosis when he wrote this, since it was shortly before his death at the age of 27. And also well seen, I like to sow here and there some "turns" among other secret messages, which are a little Schubertian necessarily (when you have a piano, singing, you want to talk about Love and pain, how else?). Thank you in any case for your deep listening. It makes me immensely happy to know that my music is heard by such benevolent ears. I'm not done with Laforgue...

Chopin background with difficulties within difficulties the transition to the blues section was impressive. the reversion less so imo. but then I have no solutions I also felt the 2nd movement theme is a bit out of place in the middle of the piece, but then you do need it being there to prime for the coda for this theme to come out one last time

Hello @develop331 and welcome to the forum! I love this piece's subtlety and how sublime it is! The choral dissonances are very affecting and the orchestra adds just the right touch of ominousness at times. You sound like you know what you're doing harmonically and melodically with a clear leading melodic line and well-fitted harmonies underneath including inversions and open voicings of chords. I'm just giving my first impression on listening without a score btw. I also agree that cantamus could take your rendition to the next level. I also hear that you seem to be using different kinds of harmonic voicings for the choir and different voicings for the orchestra which is (I think) the right approach in this kind of piece. I don't often write for voices though. I played French Horn in college and university and I have to say that it's actually quite common to see bass clef in French Horn literature as it has a huge range! The only confusion about that is whether the particular literature is using old style bass clef notation or new - there's an octave difference between the two. But the 2nd and 4th horns in the orchestra are especially likely to encounter bass clef and there are actually different players that specialize in different ranges of the horn more, often buying different mouthpieces to better accommodate the sound and ease of playing they want to accomplish in the range in which they most often play. The Clarinet on the other hand does stay in treble clef only, opting to only use ledger lines (much like guitar except that Clarinet is a transposing instrument while guitar only transposes at the octave). Thanks for sharing and I hope to see more of your contributions on the forum! You could also listen to other composers' pieces and give us your opinion! Kind regards,

hi @PeterthePapercomPoser, thank you for your constructive feedback and thank you for explaining how to figure out the meter again! I keep getting it wrong xD I'm working on my next summer piece and am already confused on what the meter should be. For the ending of Star Away, I was going for a something fading away in the far distance. 🙂 I would love to try making lo-fi music one day, but I have no experience with beats as you can probably tell from my struggle with meters 😅

* looks at my own scherzi

I think this is a rather good orchestration; though it's very uncommon to see French horns written in the bass clef. Usually you would just write in treble clef, with a whole bunch of ledger lines. If you wanted a better vocal rendition, I'd recommend cantamus.app (which has a free trial period). That will reproduce the actual spoken lyrics quite well. You can mix the cantamus audio file with the orchestral MuseScore output using Audials.

I'll put the most notable parts of your movement in bullet points. Then I'll give you my thoughts at the end. Very powerful intro, that hooks right into your motif from the first movement. I definitely am getting strong Chopin vibes from 1:00 - 2:25. The blues section was definitely surprising to me, but it was a really fun section! Then we get brief hints of Rachmaninoff at 4:30. At 5:30, this is a nice change of melody. Love how the right hand and left hand share the melody here. 6:40 looks brutal, 16ths notes against 16th notes at that tempo? I remember you telling me that this part was definitely as hard as it looks! Then you take the first motif from mov 1 and merge with the blues style, which is very fun. At 8:40, you have a nice variation of one of your first melodies, which is my favorite part. Then at 10:20, we have the return of the pentatonic! Without a doubt, the most most relaxing part of this piece, a nice contrast to the rest of your movement which is mostly energetic and fast paced. Love how the ending brings us back to your main motif from first movement again in powerful octaves. I think this piece can teach us that music is more than just melody or harmony. It's also about structure and storytelling. And this is something that can only come from the heart and the creative mind. The fact that I was able to categorize your piece into the above bullet points shows us how well organized this movement is. You use familiar styles to convey your message, but you also broke out of your comfort zone with the blues style. The reason why this was so effective, is because you didn't go overboard, you gave it to us in small bite sizes. Very beautiful work, and excellent performance!

Hello again @kaiyunmusic! What a wonderfully sweet piece! Great job and I'm glad you're finding satisfactory ways to title your music and the ending is alright too! Sometimes a piece can end on a sort of cliffhanger ending or on a question rather than a conclusive finale which is more fitting for this style of music. I have a critique of your meter in this piece - for the majority of the duration of the piece it's actually in 3/4. You can tell it's in 3/4 in the beginning because your melody is stressing the G, A, B ascension with D's in between. So that's 3 primary pulses per bar with 1 note in between each, hence 3/4. In 6/8 you would have two primary pulses per bar with 2 notes in between them. And you do actually have sections in your music that temporarily switch to 6/8 such as measure 25 and measure 53. I also love how the piece actually loops really well like it could be used in a video game or perhaps more appropriately as a lo-fi chill hop track. The harmony is also quite ambiguous. I think the piece is actually in G major rather than in E minor since you have a D major chord at the end in a type of half-cadence, preparing for a recap in G major. But instead the piece starts in E minor creating a kind of deceptive cadence. Very clever writing! Thanks for sharing.

Hi, I finished a new composition called Star Away. I chose an electric piano sound this time because I found it more fitting. Hope you enjoy listening!

The text for this piece is often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, who died in 1226, but the earliest known published version was much closer to our own time. It may have been written by Father Esther Bouquerel (1855-1923), who wrote much of the content for the small religious magazine in which it seems to have first appeared. A popular English version of this prayer is as follows: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. O Lord, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

I've been going back over old files and refreshing the formatting and sound files so the scores look a bit less dated. This piece is from 2012.

This is fantastic, and I can only imagine it doesn't have more reviews because people like to be able to suggest something that should be improved upon, and this is perfect as it is. I agree with Henry that the 5/8 is an excellent fit here, partly because it rushes things along, and partly because it feels slightly off-balance, like a mad love affaire. Well played and well sung! Now I want to go look up some Jules Laforgue poetry. Are there other texts you particularly recommend?

Well, it's yielding excellent results. Keep going!!! Look forward to hearing more as your own style evolves.

Well, flattery will get you everywhere! I think the Mendelssohn/early romantic style is quite clear. That said, it DOES take some knowledge and a little skill even to copy! Thank you! I learned a ton in the approx 2 years it took to get it to this point, with some long breaks in between.... Despite the cost--and being grateful I could do it--it was a hugely benefical experience, from getting the right musicans together, learning about part preparation, doing a read-through, the recording session, and post-production concerns and what I need to be attentive to. I am committed to having the next live recording process go much smoother, including having ALL my music ready , and in a highly polished form! Thank you again! I worked really hard on it--it didn't just happen... I have corrections (I won't say "final") I want to make in my score, and some refinement yet to do as a follow up...

This sounds really nice - as if it's by one of the greats!!! It really stands out amongst recordings shared in this way. Congratulations on writing it and even more so on getting it professionally performed!!

Thanks for the analysis! I really felt more inspired specifically by Brahms and Rachmaninoff when composing this piece, but I never actually studied a Brahms work so I didn't know about the similarities in structure (perhaps only his clarinet sonata No. 2, which I performed in a recital). Anyways, I guess I should look into Brahms's coda developments, it seems quite interesting. I think you are correct, maybe I should try commenting on some of the other works here! I'll keep an eye on any new and interesting topics.

I learned something else. The numbers representing the chord transformations cannot go into the negatives, because doing so has a harsh effect. Here's the improved version of that song generated from my simple input melody:

One of my main goals is just to be the shoulders on which giants stand. Everything I discover about music, however small, will go on to inspire generation after generation to come, sending waves and waves of inspiration throughout the rest of history.

I believe I have found the main principle behind varying and selecting a variety of chord types rather than mainly just one as happened in many of my previous pieces from the program of mine. A short example. All I did was enter the simple melody and then, through trial and error, chose the chord types by inputting from a very limited selection of numbers representing different transformations of the input melody notes into a full chords.

Music is, like all, things modeled after the Trinity--a threefold difference within sameness. That's precisely what harmony is--first of all, primarily triadic (as there are only three broad pitch classes that can be simultaneously combined while achieving a truly consonant effect); second of all, it is a coordinated action by separate agents united under one will and purpose; third, a harmony is one thing with many--primarily, three--parts. We simultaneously hear it as one and as more than one. If it were just one, it would not be harmony; and if it were composed of things completely separate, it would not be harmony either. It is, like the Trinity, both at the same time.

So maybe you believe Chrsitianity much like Kierkegaard's way. Can you tell more how your religion relates to your program and the acoustical aspect of the music? I am really curious on that.

Not so much Hegel. Christianity, in my own highly mystical and unique brand, is the primary philosophical inspiration behind this program. I know not everyone agrees with the teachings of Christ, but there are million things in my life that point strongly and unambiguously to the truth of the religion. Christianity is written into the very fabric of the universe at all levels. And no, I'm not one of those naive Christians who believe everything they say at church. I have a lot of strong disagreements with common teachings in the religion. But I do think the religion is at its heart true, and it has served as a wellspring of inspiration for me.

Oh so how is your program related to Hegel's writing? I am quite interested in it to be honest.

Kudos to you for knowing who Hegel is. I'm a philosophy buff, so, unsurprisingly, I'm familiar with his teachings, as well. My love of philosophy is one of the major inspirations behind my design of this program.

Oh I would be very happy to see your music reach its final Hegelian Geist state! Keep going!!!!!!!!!!