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Hello @Tunndy and welcome to the forum! I think this is a fun exercise to help you understand Khachaturian's composition and how it works harmonically and melodically! And, I love this piece! It's my all time favorite waltz for sure as displayed in this topic: What's your favorite waltz? But of course, people won't be able to help but to compare this to the original, and even if just by duration only, it pales in comparison. But I'm sure this was a very educational process to create this, given that the original was for orchestra and you had to arrange it effectively for piano, which you did with some personal changes that imo don't improve it. But you're fighting an uphill battle in this kind of mimicry because the original piece has 76 years of nostalgia already established for it. And people don't like knock-offs or off-shoots. But I'm not trying to discourage you - if you find this process educational then by all means keep doing this kind of composing! There's plenty of composers who make mock-ups of other composers' works for the same reason although usually they try to stay as true to the original as they can. Thanks for sharing! Edit: But there's also of course the endeavor of writing variations, reharmonizations, or re-arranging the original material which I definitely want to encourage since I myself love writing these kinds of pieces.

In terms of structure: Introduction (b.1-8) A (b.9-24) B (b.25-40) C (b.41-64), I combine and develop both melodies from previous materials, while adding a new dance-like melody. Clarinet melody of b.41-42 and b.48-50 are from A, the ascending 5th motion of b.50-51 is from B. Clarinet theme gets repeated on the piano starting from b.53. B* (b.65-78), with the ostinato and thirds from the intro. Cadenza (b.79-100), contains materials from A and B. A* (b.101-120), I develop the theme a bit more with a climax at the end. B** (b.121-128), B theme with imitative counterpoint between piano and clarinet, transition to the Coda. Coda (b.129-142), the first part of which is the Introduction section paired with the B theme on the clarinet, b.137-142 is the beginning of A but more conclusive, b.141-142 on the piano is the B theme.

Thanks Mark! I seem to have caught the orchestration bug recently. Have made another one today, this time of a never previously orchestrated Prelude by Ravel.

Alex I enjoyed your orchestration ... especially the use of different chamber sections: winds, brass, strings in the reiteration of the theme. Mark

A very engaging work .... which requires very skillful players! How would you categorize your work? It has some many different melodic elements. Mark

Hi ... How would you classify the musical style of your work? Mark

Definitely has a folk quality in the thematic presentation. There is a feeling of music from the Caucuses and well as the some slight Hebraic feel. With a bit more Hebraic influence/style - it could be a lovely nighttime pray. Mark

This work reminds me of There sections akin to your style. I enjoyed your experimentation .... Mark

This is a wonderful tender charming work. The thematic motif is endearing and the rhythmic gestures delightful. And the subtle harmonic movement creates a gentle push forward. Quite mysteriously romantic indeed! Mark

would love fedback

Hello everyone, I have the immense pleasure of sharing with you the complete cycle of melodies for baritone and piano, the imitation of Notre-Dame de la Lune. It took me 9 months to compose this. I had put the pieces online on Youtube as they were recorded, except for the last one that closes the cycle and that you can discover in this full video. There is also a big remix work here because I wanted a listening that is in continuity, as if it were a concert or a recital (20 minutes a little more). I have chaptered the whole, for more convenience, and above all, you can activate the English subtitles that will help you see the text and music links. I also tried to frame as best as possible this time, provided you can read the score at the same time (I know that some people prefer). The following steps if I were logical would be to make a computer engraving of the partition (the manuscript is pretty, but not very readable anyway). Then file with a society of authors. It's planned... In the meantime, thank you for listening!

This one's so short and beautiful, I couldn't resist orchestrating it tonight! Whilst working on it, I discovered a weird bug in MuseScore, that causes low dynamic quaver triplets to be played as semiquavers, with an extra note added to the front! Seems to affect all instruments. After about an hour of fiddling around, I finally managed to get rid of it by raising the dynamics of that phrase to mezzo forte. They also seem to have broken vst3 support, as my copy of Spitfire BBCSO lite will no longer load. I just get a Spitfire control box with an error message. Wondered if anyone else here is having the same problems?

It's definitely better, but imo there should be a faster tempo/accel. up to bars 6 - 7 and 14 - 15. Cuz those figures seem like the culmination of the phrase. If it were my piece I would accel. up to that point and then perhaps rit. afterward. But it's your orchestration and you should of course do what you feel is right. Thanks for sharing this update!

How about this version? I've basically split the difference between the tempo of my original rendition, and the piano performance mentioned above. Also added lots of tempo variations.

Dude, this is so great! I'm curious why you didn't want to release this in October, but if I remember right you like a lot of the spooky horror themes in your music regardless so I get it. I'm no film expert, but your shots all looked really good to me, nice camera too. I really loved the lighting at the 2 min. mark! You seem to have a lot of talent with this, and your music fit really well. To me it wasn't so distracting to take away from what was going on, and had tones to give it comedy and cuteness (like the Theremin sound). I think it deserved that 🙂 Nice job, loved it!

Never ❤️ Oh, and cool music!

Thanks for the suggestions! Love it. Mark

Thanks Peter, will try speeding it up. I couldn't find a metronome mark for this piece: so was trying to use my musical instincts! Think it probably should be a bit slower in the orchestral version, as it seems to work better that way; but I probably went too far. Actually haven't done Ravel before. So far I've orchestrated Debussy and Schumann.

Thank you very much for your comments! It's the first time I've really got any really good, substantial musical feedback on my music, and it means a lot to me. It is very motivating, so it really makes me want to make more! I often compose by improvising (I'm used to improvising in a jazz/fusion) parts/themes, either using a piano or flute sound, and then edit, change instruments, and adding harmony, voices. To get away from a certain predictability when I improvise, I recently sometimes experiment with pitch-class sets, or some of the messiaen-modes. Most of Eight Crows in a Tree was based on octatonic (diminished scale) melody and harmony, with some parts with polytonality, but not in a strict sense. I might use it as a starting point, and then edit it so it sound better for me. And yes, there might very well be parts that are un-playable, as I have never written for any real instruments. I'll have to be careful about that. And yes, I knew the glissandi wasn't sounding 100% natural, but I tried something else, but came back to this, as I thought maybe in a future version of noteperformer/dorico it will sound better. Also about the pitched percussion - I like to use the melodic percussion to emphasize rhythms, if I sometimes use 7/8 or similar. I can see that you, PeterthePapercomPoser, are interested in Japanese music, as you use some for your variations, they sound great by the way! I'm also very interested in Japanese music, the use of harmony can be interesting and complex, while keeping it very approachable at the same time.

Hi @Alex Weidmann! Ah, so you decided to try your hand at yet another Ravel piece to orchestrate! This time on a piece he wrote based on a transliteration of Haydn's name! I listened to the original by Ravel, and its duration is only about 2 minutes, while your orchestration is twice as long! And when listening to your orchestration, I definitely have the impression that it's being played too slow. I'm not saying up the tempo everywhere. Ravel's original was I think subject to some rubato tempo and rubato tempo is something that is possible for orchestra as well, not just in a solo piano piece. They way I would apply rubato is to literally put rit.'s and accel.'s where appropriate throughout the score. It could bring so much more life and vitality to the music if you did that. Thanks for sharing!

Hi @Samuel_vangogh! I think you definitely accomplished your goal of writing a piece like Joe Hisaishi. At first, I thought you intended to write a piece literally using the "Happy Birthday" melody. But now I understand it had nothing to do with that melody and you just meant to write a piece of music as a birthday gift. The music is very bittersweet and emotive. I wish you had written a final ending chord! It seems like that's all that's missing from this. Thanks for sharing!

Hello @stigbn25 and welcome to the forum! The Purple Fields - I like how sparsely orchestrated and motivically streamlined this piece is! And even all the different percussion instruments all have unique, exposed and important roles in the music. Some of the quick pizzicato figures are almost borderline unplayable at that speed, unless you instruct the string orchestra to play the instruments like a guitar (or on two alternating double stopped strings). The ending felt like a cliffhanger. Blue Jelly - I love the glissandi although they sound a bit artificial or like they're played by a synth. This one is a bit more unusual harmonically than Purple Fields. This is also rhythmically quite creative in how some of the grooves are constructed. Also sparsely orchestrated which makes for a more easy-listening experience dominated more by purely essential phrases. The ending in this one feels more conclusive although also avoids any kind of cliche. Eight Crows in a Tree - the mood of this one from the get go sounds much darker and menacing. Your focus on solo individual lines makes the moments where you orchestrate dyads/triads and more harmonically developed sections more meaningful. Some parts of this sound longing. Your characteristic use of pitched percussion makes a return here. Using all the strings doubled in octaves also makes for a particularly strong melodic effect. I love the ending chord! If I'm not mistaken it's just an E - G dyad with the G also in the bass. Very cool tone-painting there with that last chord. I think overall I can understand why you called these "Symphonic Fantasies". They're very free and through-composed formally speaking. This allows you to explore sounds in an unencumbered way. I actually have a project that I just finished that I also call a Symphonic Fantasy although it's a bit more of variations piece on pre-existing themes not composed by me. Thanks for sharing!