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Of course: A chord’s mediant is another chord whose root is a third apart (it can be a major or minor third), in this case, a chromatic mediant is mediant chord of the same quality as the original chord (Eg: C - E, C - Eb, C - A, C - Ab. Or: cm - em, cm - ebm, cm - am, cm - abm). However, this is just a simplification (sorry, this is a bit complex). Diatonic mediants (C - em or cm - Ab) share two notes (E and G in the first case and C and Eb in the second case); Chromatic mediante share only one note (Taking the huge list above, in order, the notes are: E, G, E, C, G, Eb, C, Eb) we also have double chromatic mediants, this share no notes, but are still a third away (Eg: C - ebm, C - abm or cm - E, cm - A) So: Diatonic mediants have their roots a third away, have different qualities and share two notes Chromatic mediants have their roots a third away, have the same quality and share one note Double chromatic mediante have their roots a third away, have different qualities and share no notes The uses of chromatic mediants could be to: prolong the tonic or a certain degree of the scale (this could be further explored by employing chromatic mediants a minor third away of minor quality so they can be chromatically altered to form a common tone chord of the first chord (Eg: C - ebm - cdim - C, where c dim is a common tone chord)); to “smoothly” modulate by going from a chord to its chromatic mediant and then twist the harmony even more; to abruptly modulate by resolving a cadence to its chromatic mediant, eliding the tonic (G7 - E, eliding the C in between) or to just come up with a different way to use it that sounds good to you. Chromatic mediants between minor chords sound eerie, chromatic mediants between major chords sound uplifting, but it also depends if they are a minor third apart or a major third apart. Just explore them and use your favourites. If you have survived this soporific music theory lesson, let me give you one more fact about them: playing four chromatic mediants all a minor third apart gives you an octatonic scale and three chromatic mediants a major third apart gives you a hexatonic scale Sorry if this was a bit too long

My entire life seems but a continual wandering, and perhaps the jury is still out concerning whether I am just lost or not! Either way, here is a little of what the Muse had to say about it. I hope someone may find some pleasure in it.

This is great advice. My thoughts as well. I don't mind the C tonal center throughout for a shorter piece, but that's more subjective I think. Don't worry though, your piece isn't bad by any means. To me, your music is creative and shows you have an awareness to take advantage of your whole ensemble. Peter is right though; all that parallel motion will lead to really thin sounds, unless your parallel chords are all already chunky (7ths and above I'd say). For your next string etude, what if the focus was on counterpoint and a more full harmony? Contrary motion and all that? Nice work, and thanks for sharing!

Hello everyone, long time no see. My life has been a mess lately. Anyways, I thought this piece would be a cool way to get back to posting on the forum. As the title says I don't know what title to give the composition, but it should be something somber and evocative. Also this is one of my compositions with the most elaborate textures even though the work is only 32 measures long. For more information feel free to leave a question. 🙂

Hi @veps! Congratulations on getting honorable mention in the competition! To me the piece reminds me of Debussy's Preludes for Piano. The chord voicings and interspersion with stacks of 5ths reminds me a bit of the Engulfed Cathedral. Although there's definitely less parallelism. I think my favorite section is measures 10 - 15 where you overlap the end of one set of 5ths with the beginning of another set of 5ths which is a very neat effect. I also like the ending which I found to be a very inspired way to conclude the piece. Thanks for sharing!

Hi @olivercomposer, In b.4, apart from the tritone move of the alto, the alto and tenor are more than octave apart, which is considered a violation of 4 part writing rules since it creates imbalance of register. I think this is absolutely fine to have the leading tone goes to fifth when the soprano covers, since Bach always does this in his chorale for the fullness of the last chord! Henry

You are right those are somes of the "rules" of four-part writing. But normally those rules are just the result of a specific voice movement that consist on moving internal voices as little as possible while avoiding paralell 8th and 5ths. In four-part writing you would not normally have the same C note in the bass for 3 measures or jump around with the internal voices so much. In my opinion, you can jump directly to learning four-part writing without counterpoint. That said, it is probably better to do both at the same time: four-part writing and counterpoint. The "practical manual for harmony" by Korsakov teaches, step by step, exactly what you are trying to do. I think it is really useful for learning four-part writing. But I am sure there are other good books for learning four-part writing. For counterpoint, I used the Kent Kennan book that @PeterthePapercomPoser recommended and it was really useful. I think, even just learning two voice counterpoint, will help you a lot understand harmony much better!

Some lovely thematic and harmonic ideas/material here. I hear it also as a possible orchestra movement. There's lots of opportunity to create a rich texture. Mark

Hello, I find amazing the level of symbolism showed in this piece, its concept is really scriabinesque. Not only it is thoughtful and precisely calculated, but it sounds quite nice. I think the decision to represent the flowing motif with perfect fifths is another extremely appropriate decision, given the external inspiration. It fits the primitive nature of the work I am curious about how you write your harmonies. Apart from quartal/quintal harmony there have to be other techniques. Thanks for sharing your music and congratulations for getting into the collaborative project

Hello @JorgeDavid, I find this piece really sorrowful and melancholic and I wouldn’t have been able to tell that you are not used to write slow pieces in minor if you hadn’t mentioned it. I find main theme specially beautiful in its simplicity, with a thin texture, driving harmony and a powerful message of desperation. I find it a perfect theme (and I emphasise the word perfect) theme to write a theme and variations piece. It has lots of opportunities to be transformed in so many different ways. I can think of: a quasi baroque flowing melody in a single line (something like this) form which could emerge other different lines, a climactic chordal bell-like passage, a complete nocrturne-like transformation to major, an even darker somber version in the deep register with minor chromatic mediants, a driving syncopated dramatic march, a triumphant transformation. And possibly, with such a versatile theme you can do practically everything. Maybe if you agree for your music to be taken to create a variations piece and @chopin wants, a competition similar to the Brahms lullaby one could be done by youngcomposers I also like the harmonic language that you employed here, chromatic, but still clearly tonal, typical from the romantic period. You could try experimenting with augmented and half diminished chords to create even more expression (sorry if you have done this and I haven’t seen it)

Hello again @Marc Deflin! I am glad to see you're back at composing! What I observed about this piece is that it's orchestrated very sparsely, uses lots of parallel octaves, with mostly sparse textures throughout. This means that your writing for the string quartet isn't very idiomatic (although it's adequate and playable and fine if you insist that that is the way you want to write). You never take advantage of the ensemble's potential for fuller, more richly voiced harmonies. With 4 string instruments, potential tutti chords in the ensemble can have up to 8 tones in them if the instruments double stop a chord. You also cling to the key of C minor too much imo. You do use natural minor, harmonic minor and melodic minor liberally throughout the piece, but sometimes you have wrong sounding cross relations between notes, most often between Ab and A natural (like for example, in meas. 4, beat 3 where the Cello has Ab and the Violin has A natural). There are ways of pulling off cross relations like this to make sure that they don't sound bad. The way not to do that is to do what you're doing here which is; moving through parallel motion, descending from D down to an A. The parallel octaves on D establish a texture and put both instruments in the same voice treating them as a unity. You then immediately contradict that with the Ab/A natural split which makes it sound like the voices wanted to continue playing in unison but failed because one of them made a mistake. That's at least my explanation for why that didn't work. At measures 26 and 28 your rendering is very poor and some articulations would have, I think, brought out more your intention of separated, repeated notes. There's also the issue that this piece contains too many ideas that need to be developed further. It's hard for me as the listener to find connections between your themes. There's definitely themes here and you even do some sequential repetition to show that you know that you're working with a given theme, but the piece lacks a sense of a cohesive narrative. Those are my thoughts on your work. Thanks for sharing!

Wow, so many interesting textures in this. Your harmony is really cool and chic, and you're quite the player! I like the improvisatory style of this, it helps capture the essence of wandering to me. same

A lovely piece endowed with much serenity. You do indeed create a mood! Mark

Beyond My Reach - Composition

Hello @Hc123! I'll comment on the first 2 minutes since that's as much of it that seems like it's finished. I really like how the piece starts very underwhelmingly. I think the percussion in the beginning before the 1 minute mark with all the drums could be louder. You're inexperienced at writing percussion parts so naturally, through your timidity you've rendered them too quietly in this recording imo. After the 1 minute mark though, I think it's the same problem except now you're overusing the percussion when it should only be used sparingly and to accentuate important moments with the orchestra (especially the cymbal crashes). But the percussion instruments that are laying down the groove with the orchestra (the various drums) should be brought out more and balanced perhaps at equal importance to the rest of the accompanying instruments in the orchestra. Those are my thoughts about that. Thanks for sharing! P.S.: The score link doesn't work!

Hello @StripedGazelle and welcome to the forum! I like the idea of this piece. I have myself had similar ideas with respect to microtonality and using portamento glissandi in such compositions. I imagined a string orchestra piece in which said micro-tonal glissandi are stretched out over long (relatively speaking) periods of time (meaning - at a slower tempo). I wonder if your intent was somewhere adjacent to my idea or if you'd be interested in composing something slower in this style (and for strings). I do wonder why you don't show the glissandi in the score? Thanks for sharing!

If so, what instrument do you perform it on? Do you try your piano pieces out on piano? What about non-piano pieces? Do you play or try out your musical ideas on an instrument while composing? Or do you just use software simulations for that? If so, what sound libraries do you use and are you satisfied with the results? Does that sufficiently connect you to the performance practices of actual musicians? I generally only create melodic lines/chordal accompaniment. I can play passages in many cases but not extended efforts---I'm not trained as a pianist--unfortunately (I can read/perform lead sheet/pop music--I have a good right hand and enough technique to do brief figurations with the left....Enough theory and experience to know where the bass needs to be...) Performing non-piano pieces: I work through passages for strings on the piano--again not performance grade, but checking concept, harmony, rhythmic flow... When it comes to realizing the piece, I rely on the software to render correct parts, dynamics as I write them. I now use VSL special editions and am comfortable with them. Unfortunately, I am working on mainly chamber music with solo strings, and with most libraries, these are the hardest to sample due to their idiosyncratic nature and high level of individual expression (vibrato width, warmth of tone, sound point, subtle variance of dynamics, overtones/partials/harmonics....) VSL special edition has a good cello, great viola, and an average violin, but in all cases the articulations make the difference---great pizz, staccato, tremolo, accenting, etc... The spatial convolution/reverb/panning are excellent as well, and individual instruments can be tweaked. The pianos are exceptional across the board. All in all, using VSL is a great pleasure and makes the realization of what I write a pleasure to hear--and useful. Nope! I am comfortable with violin, viola, flute and piano (to some extent--self education with scores and books beyond my playing). This is a major reason why I am seeking out actual musicians as a next step to workshop and record a completed piece. Expensive, but really necessary to evolve as a composer. I rationalize the expense by figuring that a formally educated composer has spent 100k to 200k on an education--- if I spend 1 or 2k (or for free!) on getting a piece performed/recorded and experience the give and take/feedback of working with musicians--I am getting educated on the cheap! Yes. As soon as the electronic ink has dried, I'm looking for grad. students to workshop it, or short of that, professionals. Then to record... After that, a public performance? I'm considering being my own empresario and (with help with ticketing/advertising) booking a show with standard rep. pieces and sneaking in my own... I love composing, and if a piece makes the grade, why not have it performed?

A few months ago I discovered the Moonlighter Soundtrack (I've never played the game) and I fell in love. While all music gets old when you overlisten to it (which I did), I still appreciate this song, my favorite one from the OST: I like how this song can evoke such a brave and exploratory emotion with mostly diatonic harmony. I have been one to overobsess over fancy chromatic harmony, and this song has proven that amazing things can be done with diatonic harmony. From my knowledge, the only borrowed chord is the V chord, which is expected.

I agree with @PeterthePapercomPoser, the simplicity and use of borrowed chords is refreshing. I don't know your story, but you seem like one of those more advanced composers that's confident enough in their work to know it's good without having to add a bunch of complexity in an attempt to impress. There's something nice about simple but effective pieces. I would listen to this.

I guess I'd have to say I started composing in earnest, as it were, sometime in the 1990's. But even then composing usually took a backseat relative to college studies in mathematics or church organist gigs or computer programming jobs. Only since about two years ago have I tried to give it first priority. But I'll never be prolific since my approach is so rigorous, or else so self-limiting, I'm not sure which way to put it. I value succinctness above all. Perhaps that comes from my mathematical background. My favorite composers are Jehan Titelouze, Nicolas Lebègue, Louis Couperin, and François Couperin. Thank you ever so muchly much for your kindness!

That's fine. Thanks for replying. I know chromatic mediants are a common technique in film scores, but have no knowledge of octatonically related keys. Maybe @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu was referring to a similar concept when he said the technique was common in film music.

Hello I'm relatively new to composition. What are octatonically related keys? I know what an octatonic scale is, but I don't know how it is used. It's hard to imagine how an eight note works when music theory teaches you to think in seven note scales. If anyone could explain what octatonically related keys are, I would really appreciate it.

Hi all, This is one fast going progressive background study for one polska that reminds of music of Jethro Tull (the instrument selection is similar also) and maybe heavy metal. The soloist part rythmics reminds of spell singing in scandinavia. Instruments: Trumpet solo, Funk guitar, piano and rock organ playing chords. There are no drums. This piece has two parts - first part is 2 minutes long introduction to the background that would be otherwise hidden behind soloist. And in second part trumpet plays solo with same background. The passages of guitar and piano are really fast but they follow the structure of the piece and have "reference points", therefore they are not confusing (or i least i hope so). It may be that only in the second part the listener starts to see how everything fits together.

I don't have the ones that pronounce syllables either. 🙂. You have some really nice harmonies here. I might suggest either a general marking at the beginning of the piece of a tempo rubato or ad libitum, or some rit. and a tempo markings to help the phrases flow musically. (Good musicians will probably do it, even if you don't mark it, but marking it officially gives them permission). This is great! How long have you been composing?

Hi StripedGazelle, Welcome to the community. You will probably find that you get more engagement with things you post if you include both the pdf and a sound file so people can listen and read along simultaneously without having to get to a piano, or be a particularly good pianist. You can add one here by using the edit function. Most composing software makes it pretty easy to generate one, even if midi voices aren't as nice as a live performance. At a glance, this looks like a great start. Ranges are good and your score is pretty tidy. You have some melismas to make things interesting, but they aren't so long that breathing becomes problematic. (Depending on tempo). Did you have any thoughts about tempo or dynamics?

I see what you mean, the transitions could definitely be smoother! Thank you for your feedback!

I wrote this one back in 2014 while exploring triplets in waltz form. Ten years later, I thought it'd be fun to revise and share it with you guys. It originally had a "Waltz" in the title, but I decided to change it to Étude Scintillante (or Scintillate Etude), which roughly means "sparkling study," since the high triplets remind me of sparkly stuff. If that makes sense. Hope you enjoy it!

Hello Peter, Thank you for listening and this comment. The orchestration is indeed a little oversized compared to the very simple purpose of this dialogue. However, I wanted to try to stick as best as possible to the words of each protagonist, namely, the woman's love/mystical exaltation, her alibi, supported by stable tones, a certain clarity of instrumentation, the organ (to emphasize pseudo piety)... in response to the rise in tension of the husband's increasingly pressing and inquisitorial questions, with an instrumentation evoking military instruments (since he thinks he has seen an officer...). The harmonic context then becomes very unstable, dissonant, with an increasingly chaotic singing line.< In my mind, if the woman had the last word, I have the impression in any case that it went really wrong... ("bruler la cervelle", In the end, means "pull in the head" Which suggests that something irremediable may happen after the wife's ultimate answer)... (In any case, that's what I wanted to make you feel in this dialogue, which in my opinion is not trivial). It is not uncommon, in the German Lied or the French Melodie (or even the American or English "Song") to have male or female characters indifferently sung by the same "narrator" (and even sometimes animals (or even objects!)... This must be seen a bit like a declamation of poetry, more so than as an opera scene. That said, I would have loved to summon a colleague to register the wife"s Answers, and I know that it would have been a much more readable approach for the listener, which is a quite right observation on your part! In any case, a big thank you for these relevant observations.

Thank you!

Yes haha, some people have pointed it out too. Actually some people on Reddit offered possible lore related to that dance quality. Thank you very much! I'm glad you think the piece is well crafted. The texture is a bit more elaborated than what I'm used to, but the melodies and themes work similarly to what I usually do with short pieces. Thank you! Yes, I agree it is one of my pieces with the best textures.

Hello my friend. I was thinking of piano parts and the repeating whistlikng sound as main motiff for this one,but maybe its more like background noise 😄. The other instruments definetly were not improvisations😢 i wonder why the sounded like that, is it because they are not repeating and arent placed in correct order? And for changes in tempo and harmony i want to deffinetly work on this in the future because its my biggest weakness i feel. Have a good day 🙂

So I've recently returned home for the summer from school and while I've had a house to myself I've decided to work on a song cycle for orchestra to paint a picture of the different places I've lived. It's generally surface level observation with the 4 places being 1. New York 2. North Dakota 3. Portland and 4. Emma who is the person who always makes me feel at home. New York is a jazzy movement in 12/8, North Dakota is a classic pentatonic melody, Portland is likely going to be more experimental and contemporary, and Emma is just supposed to make you realize how much I love her with each swell. With that I have started New York, finished North Dakota, and Emma, and am vastly afraid of Portland because it is likely the most complex movement. I started this as something to do while waiting for my summer job and now I will be very busy for the next few months so I'm not sure i'll get a chance to finish it soon, but am eager to share what I do have.

Very cool! Is Aaron Copland an inspiration at all? I love the Dvorak New World and Copland Appalachia depictions of the U.S. I've never been to North Dakota, but I've been all over the midwest... I'm sure it's similar in a way 😛 The percussion colors really add a lot to the overall scheme. Cowbells, shakers, stuff that sounds like pans haha... I love it. I'm guessing each movement will be a certain "color" right? If I were to be critical of the ND piece, it's that it doesn't have any contrast. But I honestly don't think it needs it if I understand your intentions correctly. The Emma movement through me off haha. I expected romantic and love themes, maybe something akin to a Rach piano concerto. But instead, I heard sadness, longing, lost love, melancholy, hope, despair, and probably some other things lol. A very "mature" work in my eyes, focusing on emotional color and intent versus logic and completeness, yet it didn't suffer from either. This is a nice complementary movement that to me goes along with ND nicely. You do a great job mixing. Even when the music swells to maximum, I still hear clarity in your voicing instead of muddiness (something I struggle with in orchestra pieces). Whether it's your actual orchestration or mixing technique, I'm unsure which, your music blends well and I think it creates the effects you desire. This was great. I always hate to hear that what you posted is incomplete, as I can't fully gauge your music as a whole without the other movements, but from what I've heard this is stand-out-from-a-crowd stuff, and I'm excited to hear your finished product. Well done, thanks for sharing!

"A very nice piece, just wish I knew how to network" Putting yourself out there and posting your music publicly is the only way to get better at that. Kudos, as most are afraid of critique and criticism. Also, the more you involve yourself here or any other place filled with likeminded individuals, the better off you'll be. For instance, because of my involvement here, some wild man from Hong Kong played and recorded 12 piano pieces I wrote. Cool music, very fun and colorful. Do you have the score we could check out? And also, welcome 🙂

Thank you for your comments. The truth is that metrics is a matter of nomenclature as well. It could have stayed as 4/4 simply, but doing it the way it is makes it easier to write. Curious what you said about it serving as background for a video game, hehe. Why not? And yes, one of my main "concerns" are transitions and also harmonic originality. Regards.

of course I don't remember either haha, all I remember is that K is looking at three operas by Mozart, or more exactly, three characters: Cherubino in Nozze, Papageno in the Zauberflöte and Don Giovanni in DG. He's looking for the traits of the "esthetic man" (as I recall the either/or is the choice between the "esthetic" and the "ethic" man? or something? :) Cherubino is the adolescent who discovers sensual love, still uncertain and eager to learn (voi che sapete che cosa è amore/ donne vedete s'io l'ho nel core - you, women who know what love is, see if i have it in my heart) and loves all women at the same time, Susanna, la Contessa, Barbarina, all of them. Papageno is the ethical man, he is simple in his soul, his desires, he wants a Papagena and sees happiness in marriage and loves and wants to love only one and for ever. Don Giovanni loves all women, but not clumsily and disorderly and all at once like Cherubino, but one by one, putting all of himself in each conquest, without any regard for the other - rapes Donna Anna, breaks Elvira's heart, tries to seduce Zerlina... But beyond the philosophizing (which I can totally see might be boring, I read it in high school maaaaaaaaany years ago, terrible conclusion if I'm right! I think it's mainly about the dilemma: Papageno is good but leads a boring life, DG is bad but leads an exciting (does he??) life, both the ethical and esthetical life have limits and therefore need to be transcended, if I remember correctly, into religious life), I remember some wonderful pages about the experience of going over and over to the theater to listen to DG and about why and how DG is the most perfect dramatic opera, so much so that sometimes he'd just stand behind the seats and listen without watching because the music and the dramatic construction are so perfect leaving no need for the visual element...

Hello @Krisp! The Clarinet sounds you're using are sometimes very bright! So much so that I sometimes am fooled into thinking that it's a saxophone playing! LoL I love the delicate ppp passages in the range of the Clarinet in which such dynamics are the most effective and speak very easily. The beginning is very surprising harmonically how you keep returning the melody to that b2 giving the piece a certain Phrygian flavor. Overall a very unusual and unique piece! Thanks for sharing.

Hi @Luis Hernández! This is very light and easy listening. It shimmers and sparkles with those beautiful rolled chords in the right hand. Despite the unusual meter and grouping of 8th notes, I still hear the piece as being predominantly in 4/4. I think this piece is very charming and hypnotic. I must confess that I didn't like it the first time I heard it - but it has definitely grown on me and now I enjoy it immensely! I think it could also serve as great background music for some kind of simulation building video game such as Sim City or The Sims or something. It has that calm and contemplative atmosphere perfect for that kind of context. There are also some beautiful transitions and modulations. And you manage to bring the piece back to its original tonality flawlessly! Great job and thanks for sharing!

Hello @Quinn St. Mark! I am no expert either but having watched the above Saltarello video that @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu posted, it makes me think that maybe the Saltarello is a dance that is not as fast and driven and intense as a Tarantella might be? Although it does also speed up. That's just my uneducated observation. But then there's also the concern that if your piece were played by a pianist it would probably be performed at a slightly slower tempo to make it feasible. It's a very engaging piece so far though! Also to 2nd what @Thatguy v2.0 said about returning to the quarter note accompaniment somewhere in the piece - I think you could have done that right before bar 15 when you bring back the melody in octaves. Giving the piece some breathing room by bringing back the C minor triads in quarter notes right before that might better punctuate the phrases in the piece. Although you might also not want to do that if you want to keep the breakneck pace of exposition of ideas that you have going. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for your feedback! Yes, one problem of my renditions is that they simply reflect the score (except for the added basso continuo realization), but a baroque score leaves plenty of room for the musicians to add ornaments, articulations, etc.. So no musician would play it like it sounds in the mp3. But I will try to improve the score that the audio file is based on for a more realistic feel.

a NICE PIECE--- I second Henry and MJFs comments--- slurs for the cello accentuating its lyrical sustained quality, and VARIETY. On successive returns of the melodic material a few subtle variations can go a long way to keeping material fresh and engaging-- in both cello and piano parts.

Man, I really hate to hear this. Sorry, but to me this SOUNDED like you worked on it for only an hour. I like you, and I like your style, but I wish you would take the time to consider that this is a great idea, but it doesn't seem like a completed work. It sounds like an improvisation, and you added other instruments when you heard the playback and thought it would sound good, and it does, and I like it... but it just feels cheap in a way. Yeah you have cool ideas, but I'd hate to see you fall into the trap of showing your music off when it's only a sketch of what it could be. I don't want to sound harsh or anything, but I guess it's just a trigger when I hear someone's music and they like to mention the quick time it took for them to write it. It's a good start, but are there any plans to elaborate on it? You mentioned your new job, and to be fair, I used to work bullshit jobs, and music was my only reprieve. I get it. I guess I'm just challenging you in a way? Idk, like I said, I dig your style. I just prefer when someone tells me, "after months of blood sweat and tears, I figured out how to finish this beautiful work of art I've been brewing". Looking forward to future music from you 🙂

I know why study Mozart watch analysis of his melody on youtube study Beethoven watch analysis of his melody on youtube study David Gilmour, Chopin, Mussorgsky, Shostakovich, Xenakis, Boulez, Danny Elfman, Matthew Bellamy, etc etc etc etc etc etc ETC... watch analysis of... well, you get the idea there's a lot to the art of composition, and the more you know of a given subject, the more you're bound to accomplish. 😄 I've taught guitar for years, and I've realized that 90% of people give up and lose faith in their pursuit of music perfection because they realize early on that this craft takes hard work and effort. And through your hard work and effort, your melody writing will improve. I'm excited to hear the progress. Cheers, BRUH

OC--- As with your other pieces, I generally really like your violin line/melody and ( here piano) accompaniment. A few suggestions from my perspective: 1. This piece could benefit for a more strongly accentuated difference in TEXTURE---- more of a full-throated piano section or two with the melody (varied)--and piano with violin executing long supporting notes, for example. 2. More emphasis on dynamic contrast. The thematic material is varied well, but this is lost a bit because of the above. I've been reading Daniel Levitin's "This is Your Brain on Music"--and he emphasizes how we as listeners positively respond to novelty and change in music, and the return of the familiar is an emotional and aesthetic treat for the brain. When music starts sounding looped, would-be listeners might lose interest in what we are trying to express... But again, your melodic sense is excellent. BTW--what sound library are your using? I love that "dirty" violin sound--a little gritty...

These are great observations, @pateceramics!

That sounds like a beautiful idea.

This was really fun to listen to! The soggetto is very easy to remember and to spot which is very helpful in hearing the structure of the fugue. The texture is well designed, with parts frequently dropping out so that it becomes especially meaningful to the listener when a voice comes back. A litte bit less conversation of the soggetto and a litte bit more episodic action could increase variety in the piece if so desired. Thanks for sharing!

I think the Fugue, in this baroque sense, are complex for the average listener. Perhaps what attracts the most attention are the passages where you can recognize clear patterns, either repetitive or in the form of sequences (00:45). I find this fugue very beautiful and fascinating, but I partially agree with the opinion of Although I think that the speed is fine, what I perceive is that at all times, without exception, in some voices the rhythm of sixteenth notes is followed, and even with added "fusas". In my opinion this makes the piece a bit flat, and the material could be exploited in another way simply by simplifying textures at some points.

Hello @Fugax Contrapunctus! I really like this chromatic fugue subject! It has an interesting contour with the highest point coming in the former part of the subject. I do wonder if this fugue might not benefit from being played at a slightly slower tempo. Currently, the 32nd notes in the piece sound very robotic and unmusical. That could be remedied a bit by a slower tempo imo. Or you could suspend the tempo like in a recitative and have the 32nd notes be played more freely that way, before returning to the tempo primo. The constant tempo in this piece is probably the most grating thing about it. It allows the ear to just kind of "give up" and listen to the piece very passively. But, obviously, you don't want that. You should engage the listener in an "active" listening experience. Although, the advantage of this piece is that it could serve as a good background to some kind of mathematical or puzzle game like for example, Tetris. Thanks for sharing!

Disclaimer: This is NOT my entry for the fall competition. I wrote this piece during my student days as an exercise. I was inspired by the Downton Abbey soundtrack and instrumentation, which consisted of piano and strings. I came up with an original theme and wrote 3 variations on it. I would appreciate any feedback and comments. Happy listening! PS: The audio is a little meh....but you'll get the general idea.