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"It sounds great" Is this not like arguably the whole point of music?

Hello all, hope you're all well. I haven't posted anything for quite some time but I kept working on my 2nd Piano Concerto and I'm happy to say that it's finally ready! It's dedicated to Ruben, the most wonderful cat who died this week from cancer but who gave us 10 great years, I love you Ruben. The Concerto is in 3 movements, I hope you'll find time to listen to them all, it's just over 21 minutes in all. I don't really like to impose my views or thoughts about I feel about it or what it might represent, I prefer to leave that up the individual but needless to say I'm very pleased with it. I hope you like it, and please feel free to leave a comment, I'd love to know what you think. The links are to my sound cloud page, hope they work ok. Love to you all Mark. https://soundcloud.com/user-729021187/piano-concerto-no2-in-bb-minor-1st-movt?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing https://soundcloud.com/user-729021187/piano-concerto-no2-in-bb-minor-2nd-movt?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing https://soundcloud.com/user-729021187/piano-concerto-no2-in-bb-minor-3rd-movt?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing Hello again, Just a quick addition. I know some of you like to see the score so I have uploaded them here. My process is quite messy, there are lots of mistakes, improperly divided notes and badly tied notes, wrongly spelled enharmonics etc., etc., plus there are various artifacts that are necessary for NotePerfomer to play it correctly. I just hope that anyone wishing to see the score can follow my intentions rather than what is sometimes actually written. If I thought there was ever any chance that someone might actually want to perform it, then I would take the time to produce a performance score, but I hope you will forgive my not taking the time to do it right now. Thanks again and I hope you enjoy it. Mark https://www.dropbox.com/s/vm7nud7lcyys8ym/Piano Concerto No.2 in Bb minor 1st Movt adjusted score. - Full Score.pdf?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/r6o298nfgb2cl3p/Piano Concerto No.2 in Bb minor 2nd Movt. adjusted score - Full Score.pdf?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/ahoabrlurrhlpfg/Piano Concerto No.2 in Bb minor 3rd Movt. adjusted score - Full Score.pdf?dl=0 I made a mistake when exporting the scores and they came out nearly unreadable. I have since made much clearer copies should anyone wish to see them and the links above are now to the wholey more ledgable copies.

I don't think so, and I hope people do read the guidelines for the discussion forum. 🙂 The issue is this: there are things that are up to people's own experiences and taste, and there are things which we can observe and measure, things that are either true or they are not. If my entire argument, say, hinges on the fact that Mozart was born in 1954, it becomes key to actually establish this to be the case with some degree of accuracy. The point of having a discussion and a conversation is to try to find out what's the case, if it's something that can be even found out. We can discuss things, pool our opinions together and figure out what is best by talking it out, hopefully. And everyone is free to disagree or agree, of course, but as mentioned in the guidelines, if you aren't willing to discuss things, then the discussion subforum isn't for you. If you state out an opinion or fact and someone challenges it, or comments on it, that's the nature of the forum and it's up to you to decide if it's worth your time and effort to argue back. Having just people drive-by with their opinions is fine, but I'm sure you can understand that's not very conducive to a conversation. I like arguing, talking and discussing things, and I know that's not for everyone. However, I think that the most important thing is that we respect each other and don't allow any discussion to devolve into personal insults. If we can't be nice to each other, there's no chance to even start talking about anything, let alone get anything meaningful out of the discussion.

Well, I have my own strong opinions of course, such as, Chopin was one of the best composers for piano. Better than Rachmaninoff and Ravel too. But why do I feel this way? I feel this way because he was the most consistent composer where most of his works are of superior quality. Ok so that statement may upset people who dislike Chopin and prefer a composer such as Rachmaninoff. I certainly cannot prove that Chopin is a better composer than Rachmaninoff, and there are certainly instances where Rachmaninoff's works can be classified as top tier piano literature, but I feel he is not as consistent as a composer like Chopin. Bring it on! Just kidding, if you disagree, that's fine and expected. Just state your points in a civil manner on why you disagree with me, and of course, let me know who your favorite composer is and what is your reasoning behind your decision? No need to prove it with evidence. Just prove it with passion.

Thank you very much SSC for saying so, I am proud of my attemps. Each time I write something I think I learn something else, but I know my lack of knowledge is hampering my efforts. However, I have no rush, as I said, really I do it because I love to do it and it keeps me out of trouble LOL. The first concerto is on here too somewhere. Although I love that one too, it's a smaller (15 mins or so) and quite a lot more "pastiche" effort. I like to think I have advanced a little since then although it too has some very beautiful moments in my humble opinion. I would have loved to have had some sort of formal training in my youth (I might be a bit long in the tooth to start now LOL). Believe it or not, I didn't even take music in school past the obligatory first few years or so. When I start on the next piece, I would love to pick your brain so thank you for that offer. It might be a while yet, the last one took about a year of tinkering, but you never know when the muse will strike! Thanks again for your kind words and incouragement, It's much appreciated. Perhaps this is a good question for a conversation in the forum, but I think that a certain level of obsession is necessary in order to be a good musician and or composer and I think I do have at least a touch of OCD LOL. Mark

Well the truth is that it's mighty impressive to do something on this scale without any kind of proper formal training! You should be proud, I think. Most people would've given up. That being said, y'know your biggest problem isn't your ideas or execution, in my eyes it's just that you're not that familiar with how forms work in long pieces like this. So, if you have any questions or if you think you could use my help, I'll be glad to help you out. You have a lot of room for improvement, which considering where you're at now, is really a great thing! If you can write a piano concerto (two, it seems!) on intuition alone, I wonder what you can do with some training.

Competition in music is pretty stupid, the arts aren't about that at all. Oh, and I don't like Marx either. Just because I don't like Marx doesn't mean I'm highly competitive in the arts. That would be black and white thinking. There are certainly areas in life in which competition isn't the bad thing as often is portrayed although I think as a value cooperation is always higher (unity over difference).

Have you ever listened to Schönberg's "Verklärte Nacht"? Its thematic and harmonic ingenuity easily knock Vivaldi's entire work out of the water(no offense to the Red Monk) and it still has many memorable, yet accessible moments. Maybe they will flinch at some point, but at least they are not bored to death by endless Ritornelli sections for two Violins. Why compare the two? Arch Enemy produces bottom-of-the-barrel melodeath(emphasis on the first two syllables) which is basically glorified rock music. Take a simple song structure, slap some blast beats on top and congrats, you have got yourself an AE song. Cannibal Corpse at least put some effort into their batshit insane lyrics and hilariously frantic riffs. They would prefer the former(if at all) because it is easy rock.

Maybe it just bothers you that I'm not insecure at all in the music that I make and the stuff I listen to. As for being mad, you're the one that's mad, quite literally. I already told you my position on marx, but you dismiss it. You know what, why do you even post if all you're going to do is believe only what you want to believe? Like, I'm not kidding, if you're not here to discuss anything, and instead you're here to say you're 100% right and everyone else is 100% wrong you should go write on your blog or something, and stop wasting everyone's time, ffs. (Which, by the way, is in the guidelines, if you bother to read them.)

@AngelCityOutlaw I don't know why you hate on Mahler so. I mean I know he's got many movements of symphonies and such that are overblown and bombastic, but when I think of Mahler I admire mostly some of my favorite scherzos and the Symphony No. 5 Adagietto which is just the purest expression of love in music that one could find. And the Adagio from his Symphony No. 10 is just so mysterious and lucid. It's mostly all very accessible music it seems except for those aforementioned pompous and bombastic movements that I always skip, although I'm sure you could find your given equivalent of those in the music of Richard Strauss.

Hmm classical music... I'm more into the music making of monks and the like, lately. It adds something 'professional musicians' don't have, for me... I used to consume lots of classical music but classical music is as much a consumerist culture as popmusic. It's mostly about me enjoying myself. While these monks and nuns add a prayerful attitude in their music in which they can take you. I developed a preference for the latter in the past couple of years, tbh. When I hear this for instance I just melt.