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  3. Hello everyone, I'm back, at least for the moment. I wanted to share one of my in-progress arranging projects and humbly ask for your criticism. I decided to write a string quartet version of a Caroline Polachek song I love (linked at the bottom.) A PDF, Finale file, and audio file are linked below: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ljosc9l0xfy0k6fc6r69d/h?rlkey=aml3pst90rdspugzuyiyjllb2&dl=0 If you use Finale, please open the Finale file. (You should have no issue if you hit download after the "Can't load this file type" prompt.) In my mp3 the violin 1 part is absent; I'm not sure why. This is apparently a glitch with the software. My apologies! I am working on transferring the audio to my DAW, but until then, I hope this audio is still helpful in some way to those who don't have Finale. Backstory and questions In my notation and score prep class at music school, we were given an extra credit challenge to post a composition or arrangement online and make it buyable over the next month -- I am aiming for mid-April 2024. At the moment I'm thinking I will sell my score on ArrangeMe. https://www.arrangeme.com/ My works mostly fall under the classical umbrella, but during my past year at college and especially in this current class I've notated very short excerpts and arrangements of pop and rock songs. This "Butterfly Net" arrangement is more extensive, though, and I'm having some doubts about it in terms of texture, rhythm, and narrative pace. I really want to do this beautiful song at least some justice and I would greatly appreciate your advice. I know that arrangements fall on a scale of very faithful to more transformative. For example, Josh Cohen's piano arrangement of "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead is closer to the latter, because Cohen created a spacious intro with a completely different mood than the original, and he extends and reworks later sections within the song. I would like to be faithful to Polachek's formal structure and honor her precise harmonies and melodic lines (I simplified some rhythms) -- because I don't have much time. A string quartet obviously has many limits and I have some specific questions: - I have the pizz. cello emulate the guitar in the beginning, and in the chorus the viola plays pizz. to add rhythmic interest where the percussion was. Is this effective, or distracting? - Am I changing textures too quickly throughout the piece so far? I would like to slowly build the energy and drama. - In bar 19 I considered having the viola continue playing a rhythmic part, but I recognize that it's basic practice not to have all four instruments playing together for the entire piece. Without the viola, bar 19 onwards sounds silly and anemic to me. How could I add some lushness that the original has without exhausting my ensemble? Thank you so much for reading and for listening! Please hear the original "Butterfly Net" below, and an audio file of my arrangement:
  4. Sorry for the late reply. Could you please explain what you mean by segments? Like just break into a new line at each end of a theme? I appreciate your response!
  5. Just putting this out there: I just finished my piece! It can be found over here: I've just posted a new thread for it. If you've been following this work for some time (for some reason; either way I thank you πŸ˜‰), you can go check out the finished work there. Thanks for the support, @PeterthePapercomPoser and @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu! Your kind words gave me enough strength to keep going πŸ™
  6. 'If They May Dance' is quasi-programmatic, depicting a waltz that continually rises and falls until reaching a bombastic conclusion. A main melody is weaved into the piece itself: it constantly changes into slightly different forms to keep the piece cohesive. This work is the summit of my composing career so far. It also marks the longest time I've ever spent on a singular piece (~4 months). I'm pretty happy with it, and I don't really have much else to say about it. My progress throughout is documented in this thread; if you're interested, feel free to check it out. As usual, all feedback is appreciated! Would love to hear from you all 😊
  7. Yesterday
  8. That sounds like a fantastic array of instruments to work with! Each one indeed brings its own character and possibilities to your compositions. It's great that you're exploring different instruments and their unique sounds. How can I assist you with your composing or playing today?
  9. Quite an intriguing combination of instruments! To be nitpicky about the score: you don't specify whether the score is transposed or in C (and I'm assuming that both the Clarinet and Flugelhorn are in Bb but since there's no key signatures for the piece and it's atonal, it's hard to determine whether the parts are transposed or not because sometimes these kinds of atonal scores don't show any key signatures regardless of the presence of transposing instruments). To be even more nitpicky about the rendition: the cello sounds quite synthetic in comparison to the other instruments which all sound realistic. I always find your style of music best at expressing uncertainty, intrigue or unease. It would be cool if the emotional palette of your music was more varied. Not that you by any means have to explore that but I'm just sure the music would have way more appeal (to me at least) even given the modern language. I find that the rhythms, despite always being couched in 4/4 seemed to be more differentiated - I don't know if you included some slight tempo changes or not. There's some really funny directions/comments in the score - "what the heck has it done here?!" and "I'll sort this out later. Firkin nuisance." - LoL. I guess that's your claim to eccentricity. But I'm not sure how much of a difference a performer would make in their performance with those comments. It seems redundant honestly. Maybe it's an indication that you are searching for a way to inject more meaning into your music. But I do have to say that the whole piece is kind of same-y throughout - don't get me wrong - it's definitely interesting throughout but I know it could be so much more. It definitely leaves me with a privation for more meaning, more substantiality. I know you consider yourself a lounge music type of musician but I wish there was more to it and with more contrasts to different aspects of it such as harmony and style. But those are just my own personal thoughts. Thanks for sharing!
  10. I'm on a block on how I should continue this octet. I have the first 3 section ideas finished, but I don't know how I should continue the work. It doesn't feel close to the end whatsoever. I was wondering what ideas you all had on where this work should go. For context, the first movement is (very)loosely based on The Pilgrim's Progress.
  11. Last week
  12. MP3 Play / pause Sonata for Violin Mvt. 1 0:00 0:00 volume > next menu Sonata for Violin Mvt. 1 > next PDF Sonata for Violin Mvt. 1 Lovely work.
  13. The score looks disorganised. Separate your different themes into segments and we might be able to get a convo going
  14. Thanks, I'll consider your suggestions. But for example, in a concerto, there is one main instrument that plays a bigger proportion of the solo, than in my composition the guitar. So maybe this is an electric guitar concerto.
  15. ok here it is! This is probably done for the project at least. I'll extend it in various areas and such later. Also I'm curious if this nocturne fits better for: A stargazer A couple of romantics A mother and her infant One who is asleep An old city at night (18th century) A sunrise
  16. Well - admittedly I am a non-native English speaker but a quick google search yielded this result: Take that as you will - I think it is possible to pronounce the word with two syllables instead of three but I don't know how many of the performers/audience will cringe at the two syllable version or find it objectionable. Peter
  17. We must pronounce restaurant differently. I've always pronounced it "rest-raunt", as long, long. I never realized there were Americans who pronounced all three syllables, I thought that was a british thing. Anyways, I find that I quite often break the rule you're talking about. Because even though the word is pronounced as [stressed, unstressed] I find myself wanting to extend it. I imagine it as a trailing off at the end of the phrase, with an assumed softening (rest-raunt) that I find natural in the way I might sing these lines, with less forward motion, specifically with no intent to move forward, but rather hold to a pitch. I'm curious as to whether after this explanation you still disagree with me. Because this has become something I have accustomed to doing, hearing another perspective would be quite helpful. I've also edited the score a bit, mostly minor harmonic stuff, singability things.
  18. well you don’t know me - am I expected to? "I’m older than you" If you say so. "and have greatest regard for my teachers of the past and for the luminaries I seek to marinate my mind with." Mine taught me how to use the tools but not how to create unique work. My important teachers were dead or very old when I arrived on the planet. DAWs. I use Reaper because it has an exceptionally good midi editor for its price as a private, non-commercial composer, along with very good audio editing. Like other DAWs it has its complexities and its failings. Trying to get a detailed specification for any DAW is difficult and probably best to look at its user manual (at least the index where it should tell you what it can do). Notation software: people here speak highly of Musescore's latest incarnation. It comes with its own sound sample library which produces some pretty good results. I do not use notation software for the actual process of composing. For engraving (preparing the final copy) I use Dorico. It has strengths and weaknesses. Basically I don't like notation software but use it if I have to produce a score (because individual parts can be extracted). So I go from a paper draft into the DAW, make adjustments then create a midi export which can be picked up by Dorico. .
  19. An astute comment if ever! Agreed, and I suppose it's an exercise and something to aim for among beginner to intermediate experience composers (if you'll pardon those descriptions, please). I also agree with about 5 minutes being a reasonable time for a concert piece. Perhaps there are cases when a piece may go on for longer but they should be the exception. Maybe a concertante movement since there are soloists still around. I half-heartedly tried a single movement Sinfonietta (which I thought was ok but failed with inadequate rendering), then a Symphony which was unsatisfactory so I kept just the middle movement as a lone piece. I've no intention of writing another unless it's for fun - light music, e.g. Don Gillis' Symphony 5 1/2. Like many musical forms if you include dances of the same era, they're now outdated, relics from the days of the Sunday concert being "higher-brow" entertainment. Minuets, Sarabands, Bourees...enjoyed by the elite and the effete. This doesn't mean that these forms or the associated music shouldn't be the basis of composition, as long as the composer is aware of their provenance. .
  20. You are welcome and that make sense. However i would recommend that each piece should be able to be a standalone piece yet continuously work together further moving the drama forward for a more impact full listening experience. James Horner does this for example very well In his film scores such as Krull, Star trek the wrath of khan, and others.
  21. Frankly, and I know I'm in the minority here, but most long-form musical works are simply vanity projects in an era where rich people no longer pay you to compose them. I do not know that I have ever listened to any symphony in its entirety, in a single sitting, no matter how good it is. Honestly, most pieces of music longer than 5 minutes really have no business being that long, and starts to either descend into an unnecessary amount of variations and repetition, or may as well be multiple pieces. Elvis had over 20 #1 hits and I don't think any of them were longer than 3 minutes. This was in the '50s and '60s, when we are told people had longer attention spans. I feel there is an important thing to learn there. Most people here don't seem to be film composers or TV, but rather aspiring concert composers (at least from what I've noticed) and thus they don't really realize just how much story can be told in 1-2 minutes. In most cases, that is plenty long enough to say what you want to musically, in one coherent idea. So in short: I don't have any plans of writing a symphony. Right now, I'm putting the finishing touches on an album of adventure orchestral music for TV. The company requires at least 10 tracks, but if I'm being honest, I do feel like I said what needed to be in 8.
  22. Thanks for your comment. This piece of music will be the part of an entire album. I've already made the intro, this is the reason why the tracks start so suddenly. Taken as a whole I'll use various instruments as the main instrument, like vocal, choir, and others.
  23. Thanks for the feedback! I will try out the Musesounds violin! I agree there are some notes that I need to change, and there are some other flaws that needs to be changed to the idea as well! I guess I was mainly looking for a general feedback on how the idea sounds, and if it sounded decent to anyone?
  24. My β€œthing β€œ boils down to it’s either a pdf or a midi both merged, is still an open question
  25. Hello @Guillem82! Great job with this one - I love the B section in the minor mode! And the transition back to the A section is seamless. This is a perfect specimen of Baroque music for the string orchestra! I love all the melodies, harmonies and suspensions! Very elegant! I think I can see the romanesca pattern in the first A section with the fall from E major to B 6/3? I am only in the middle of Gjerdingen's "Music in the Galant Style" and am no expert though. Thanks for sharing! Peter
  26. Hello @Loctobers! I'm not sure if I've ever reviewed anything of yours before so if not - welcome! I think you've definitely achieved your goal, and this seems like it would have been perfect for our Dreamscapes competition (besides the fact that it's for orchestra)! The piece is very soft and underwhelming - even the loudest parts of it are at a relative whisper. It starts good-natured but some parts of it are quite foreboding and menacing! The arpeggios and overdrive guitar give a very transcendent impression. There is plenty of unique orchestral color with the addition of synths as well. Great job and thanks for sharing! Peter
  27. Hi @Guardian25! I think the trills can be fixed and redered better if you use the Musesounds Violin instead of the MS Basic soundfont! I think whenever Musescore renders a trill with the MS Basic soundfonts, it just alternates between the two notes as quickly as possible which does not sound good and results in a very robotic sound, like you said. But if you use Musesounds it will be much more humanized and realistic sounding imo! I think there are some notes that sound really wrong to me! Meas. 18 & 19 - the G#'s sound really bad to my ear! I think if you kept them as G naturals, it might sound better because an E minor chord is more diatonic to the key than a major one. Also at measure 24, the B natural sounds out of place to me as well, since the key has a Bb in it - I think a Bb would fit much better (but it's just my opinion and you are the composer and are free to do as you wish of course). Thanks for sharing! Peter
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