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Well, the idea for the discussion guidelines is to give people an idea of what happens regularly in discussions. It's not meant to keep anyone away from discussing things or away from the forum, per se, but rather inform what is the ideal best practice. If someone thinks it's not for them, they can decide then and there and not engage, and that's fine. They can keep posting music and commenting on other people's work all the same, as well as participate in other parts of the forum too. I would like it, however, that as many people as possible participate in the community subforums in general (out of which the discussion subforum only one of them.) And, well, it's a difficult balance having the place be free enough that people can say whatever is on their mind and making it feel welcoming to everyone. You can't have both things to the same degree, and while I think the music posting part is a lot more welcoming in the sense that you engage on an individual level with people and music, the community part does require a little bit of filtering, or we end up with chaos, as is often the case on the internet.

I seriously question that anyone can teach creativity to anyone else - the spark has to come from the wannabe creator. The tools can be taught, examples shown, hints and tips given. You can show someone how to write a traditional fugue or follow species counterpoint but when the student wants to strike out on their own, what can be 'taught'? A sensitive, experienced teacher could ask the right questions of students to affirm what they're aiming for; could point out technical mistakes and impracticalities. Today with digital audio, experiments can be encouraged to aim for given solutions. One feature so obviously missing is self-criticism. When you're working to achieve marks and pass exams how much licence are you allowed to develop your style, and then step back and ponder on whether it's truly what you want? And have the courage to be truthful when it isn't and go through the frustration of changing the thing? But as for teaching to compose: if the teacher tries to inculcate a particular style or trend it can end in acrimony or produce a fairly sterile result. I speak from experience of having to ditch a college education because of being forced down routes I had no wish to take. It did damage that still hasn't been fully repaired. So I developed a cynical view of college education and degrees in composition. The courses exist to produce graduates who in turn become teachers to perpetuate the cycle or mere critics or something further down the food chain.

Quinn, I think you're right for the most part. I might have come across a little strongly in my post above because I was annoyed at the autism thing surfacing on multiple threads over a couple days. I felt like that wasn't the first time either, but going through this forum, I see the vast majority of discussions are quite respectful. So I might have been a little unfair to the forum's overall culture in my first post, and I apologize for that. And the viewpoint intolerance that I mentioned is just what's being discussed in this thread: the tendency to attack the person based on their viewpoint. (Which, again, is probably rarer here than maybe I implied in my original post.) So I think we're actually in agreement there. I have to disagree with the "if you feel uncomfortable, leave" mentality, though... I'm not a mod or admin, but I would think they would want as many composers as possible to feel welcome here. And it's generally not a good look to make people feel unwelcome based on their identity (which tends to happen when multiple people use that identity as an insult). That's all I meant.

100% agree. My teacher used to say: Education isn't up to taste and you don't get to just skip things because you don't like them. I'm glad I was able to cover so much stuff in my studies, because, like you said, it prepares you for being a professional regardless of what you end up doing. Specially true with the logistics and rehearsals and so on. That part was very important for me.

Agreed, SSC. Good teachers don't just let their students bring in some random thing they've been working on for evaluation once a week. They put together a cohesive set of assignments that work different parts of the composer toolkit, so that by the time you graduate, you may gravitate to a certain style, but you have learned everything you need to know to continue down any path you choose. You may like or be known for a certain style, but also have some paid work available doing something rather different. Graduates need to have the choice of taking the paycheck when it's offered, whether that means teaching composition students of their own in everything from counterpoint to minimalism, or turning their famous string piece into a wind arrangement, or writing something very basic for an amateur group that wants to commission them.

That's a really good question and I think we should address it seriously. To me, one of the best telltale signs of this happening for the worse is when there's a student concert and the students sound like discount copies of the teacher. I've seen this happen in a few conservatories myself, and it's always kind of sad to see. Granted this can happen for a number of reasons, not all of them necessarily bad. One is that the teacher is famous and people who already want to write like he does gravitate towards him, and two is that they may voluntarily also choose to write in that style because they like it. Those are two benign reasons I think are fine. However, what you mention about manipulating is clearly got a negative connotation. I've also seen teachers basically throw students' ideas in the trash because "they've been done before," or "they're not interesting enough," or whatever. I've met composition students who were dissatisfied with their teachers often because they clashed on aesthetics, which is not uncommon. Sadly, since becoming a composition teacher normally has no attached pedagogy study, a lot of people who become professors normally don't have that kind of background. Moreover, they may or may not be heavy on the ideology side of things, specially these days. I think that's also a potential point of friction. So, I always liked the approach my teacher had where he would not tell students what kind of language they should use, but he'd criticize them within their own parameters, if he needed to. For example: If you were writing something more traditional, he'd criticize it from a historical perspective. He was very adamant that everyone should be free to select the musical language of their music on their own, for their own reasons, and I agree with this. So, the question is, if it's unavoidable that a composition teacher may influence someone in their music, is this necessarily a bad thing? I'd argue that no. It's not always bad and specially if the relationship between teacher and student is built on respect and understanding. What teacher does isn't so much "corrections" as allow for discussion so the composer can see a different POV on an issue. Well, my teacher's stance was that there focusing on uniqueness or "personal style" is not a worthwhile thing to do when you're studying. The idea is that you should write as much music as possible, hopefully try out all the stuff you're learning while you're at it. If there's such a thing as a style, it will happen to you as a result of your experience, not because you "tried" to do it. That kind of organic development, to him, was a lot more interesting and rewarding than just arbitrarily picking things because you want to stand out or "be different." Your music will represent your tastes and ideas regardless if you want it or not, so just trying to do it artificially seems like a waste of time in my opinion. Additionally, people change over time, as do their tastes and ideas. It's obvious that this also affects their musical output and this is also why it should be an organic thing. Mind you this is also applicable if the teacher is trying to force their ideas and tastes on their students. This often doesn't work because the student will just write what they want to write anyway and simply not show the teacher, at which point studying composition becomes and exercise in futility and frustration.

I think you did a great job of keeping the music track a "supporting player". An important takeaway is that a score doesn't have to be busy to support the scene.

I really liked this! What a great complex waltz with engaging dynamics. I really liked the rit. at 5:14 to end in such grandiose fashion. This really portrayed the aura of a ballroom. Congrats on this composition!

Nice score. I' think my only complaint is it could've been a little louder and still wouldn't step on the dialogue and the winds runs/glissandi at 2:40 or so could've synced better. However, and I know you didn't make it so it's not your fault, but I do have to rant about the clip itself. I really, REALLY, hate this trend for the last 10 or so years of making "It looks like it's for kids, but surprise! It totally isn't!" I actually sat down to watch this with my three-year-old nephew the first time I saw the clip on YouTube and then shut it off midway through. There's really no good reason why Hollywood and co. keep doing this kind of thing. That Santa Inc. Garbage, edgy and violent superhero films, etc...

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Another sinfonia...