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Great work here! I like the harmonies you used. They weren't sot atonal that old people would cover their ears, but just enough to make it interesting. For a few critiques: I couldn't hear the contrabass at all. It looked like it would have added to the piece. Wish I could hear that. This is a live performance, right? Also, I felt sometimes it went on just a tiny bit to long. Never so much that I found myself loosing interest, but just a bit of "are we there yet?". Good work overall! I hope you post some more of your music! Heckel

Glad you spotted the Berg concerto reference - although ending with a chorale is an obvious giveaway! The chorale melody is not by Bach, but actually a symetrical pitch sequence if you ignore the second C natural in the first phrase so I gave the sextet an arch form. Basically I tried to use the pitches of the chorale melody as a rather subtle cantus firmus - if you look at the most frequent pitches the contrabass is playing in each sub-section they are a particular pitch of the chorale. I imagined the piece split into ten sub-sections based on this division, and then these grouped into three sections based on tempi (so there is a 'slow movement' in the middle). In fact I thought about calling it a symphony because of this form. On top of this structure I came up with several motifs that become more or less important in the different sections, some of which are based on the chorale harmonisation. The centre of the piece is at bars 98-103 (based on the chorale pitch F#), after which I work backwards through the material of each section and lead to the coda. This mirrors the structure of the chorale melody. The violin solo at the beginning I felt was necessary to balance the slow chorale-based ending. It's interesting you should ask me to explain this because I gave a presentation on this piece at a Postgrad day not long after it was written. I am happy to say that there was a lot of interest and questions from my fellow students. I like to think of this as my farewell after years of study just as the Berg concerto was a peaceful farewell to his life as a composer. I found out that this piece got a mark of 72/100, which is a Distinction in my uni's marking scheme. Also I think everyone should have a personal numbering scheme so that even if somethign doesn't get published and get an opus number, you can still see in what order it was written.

I've just finished auditioning for the royal academy of music, you will have to learn piano if you attend. They do ask undergraduates to prepare a short piece of piano music that shows their standard of playing, in the audition. Apart from that you're expected to be able to improvise freely on the piano around a set chord progression. Listen / recognise / analyse 12 pieces of of music Give an indepth analysis of a score Sit an exam which contains questions asking you to complete a composition exercise, analyse a short score, and write an essay. But apart from all of that, the interview itself was lovely, the teachers really wanted to engage with you as a person and a composer, and obviously are passionate about writing music and teaching music. And despite everything they make you do, I don't think that its the most important part of the audition, they are fundamentally going to judge you on your compositions, but by doing all the tests they're making sure you would be able to cope with the program of study. Sorry for the long post, hope its helped :S

Thanks for listening... There are no beauty in a battle, only loud metal strikes (or gunshots) again and again for hours... in previous pages I have try to explain, I will again, now in sculpture: 1st part, detailed and imaginative... 2nd part, Big, cold, inert.... (loud) I didn't write the second part that way because that's all I can do, or I wouldn't have written the 1st one. Besides this work is about myself, actually my favorite segment is the timpani part previous to the greatest climax, there to the end, (not within 1st part) You know.... I feel this work is more difficult to understand that I thought... I bet noone really catches the deepness of the ending, with the very last appearance of the theme in total softness. EDIT: have anyone have watched the movie "Alfred the Great" ... when the Vikings army is waiting to attack, the repetitive shouts they do ? you think that's beautiful, or has development ? no, that makes you wish you wouldn't be there.

I will be honest, I really enjoyed the Night movement more than the War movement :( I'm sorry -- after such a wonderfully imaginative and beautiful use of harmony and development in the 1st movement, the "sterility" of the War movement sticks out like a sore thumb. It's not even badly written or anything remotely like that -- it's just really standard sounding. I'm all for intensity, but it felt kind of cliche, like a typical Hollywood flick or something. But I also see that this is a good thing, in a sense -- I think that a lot of people would really start to see the emptiness of these kind of pieces when put side by side like this. Re-writing the same piece is really lame, Hollywood composers, take heed! :( I hope you don't find my comments insulting, they actually only sound more negative than they really are -- I truly did thoroughly enjoy this meticulously crafted work, Daniel! After listening to this whole thing, I feel like I've had a veritable feast :D Thank you for sharing! :nod:

Thanks for listening. yeah, I suppose there's some Shosty in the second part, I'm glad you enjoyed it. for orchestral works, I write directly in Sibelius, and usually record there too, but the render you heard was made on Cubase. I write in Sibelius because is just the same that writing in paper, just faster and you're able to delete and edit easily, (and Listen :D ) Oooooooh I super agree

I like this a lot. The climaxes have tinges of Shostakovich that I find especially enjoyable. What programs do you typically compose in? I need to move on from Guitar Pro 5. haha

Thanks, I'm glad you liked the second part, as you can read (in page 1) most members like the night (because is somehow like perfume), but like you (we the tough guys hahaha) , I like more the second part, I wrote it because I was feeling the first part was not enough, that some ACTION was needed my favorite part (you should see the score, now that you can ) is from 13:48 to the end (score page 65-84), first that part with the timpani (13:48-14:02), then the main climax-decress (14:03-15:04) and the very last exposition of the main theme in the high violins (15:08-End) to end in a very serious calmness, with my signature (the 4th) on the english horn .... If you can/like listening without score I invite you to visit my other work The Warrior of the Iron Mountains Op.12 (kinda ignored because I posted it without the score and with a laaaaarge description) I shall move some of my old threads from the archive to the new YC, I'm just waiting until all bugs are fixed. Thank you for listening...

I am drawn to the second section much more than the first. I love the constant bass drum/timpani...not sure...i am not looking at the score like I should be. The over all vibe is very nice.

The final versions of the Score and the Recording have been updated. (I may fix those ugly slurs someday, but, for the moment, this issue it's done.) EDIT: by saying "this issue it's done" that doesn't mean you have to stop posting :)

cool pic of your room :) I know I might have been pressing the images. sorry for that :) and thanks for the clarification.

Absolutely Yes ... see this from the thread Off-topic -> Pictures: How many war-related things do you see in the picture ? Because I think is time to start what I could call "my career" as a composer ... by the performance of my works .. Let's change that to "I was sleeping and now I wake up" Sorry milady but I didn't understand that :D Thanks for commenting anyway :thumbsup:

I dont write stories, but if there are stories behind a piece I like to know them. Thats why I asked :) So now I know about the connection between the two. Is is ok if I aks further? Why is your revelation war-like? Do you identify yourself with combat? Why is the time of 'not-knowing you', I quote "deep colors in a smooth nice mix, curved, not straight lines, carefully designed to produce a tasteful result." You also said "I can be the pic 1, and the pic 2 also ...". That seems to contradict the statement that Night was about you being hidden, nobody knows you... Maybe I'm pressing the images? :toothygrin: