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Just gonna put my 2 cents in here. I recently was in a competition that to me, I clearly had the best piece in. I placed, but I didn't win. I was not very happy with the results. But, seeing as I didn't want to be entitled or piss off an entire community of people, I accepted my place in the competition with some grace. I know that I should have won, but what's more important? The connections you find and maintain in a community of like minded people, or your superficial (your sentiment in your rebuttal) place among them ("above" or "below")? Why would being in what you perceive to be a higher strata of composers on here, according to judges who you don't seem to respect, mean anything to someone holding the opinions about art that you do? My point is this. Competitions are messy and oftentimes hurt your ego. But nothing hurts worse than losing your connection with people. I hope you find some peace of mind in the coming days, and if you need to chat, message me any time.

One minutious revamp, two of Bach's favorite instruments, three dazzling voices - this piece has it all for me. The title is pretty much self-explainatory. Otherwise, please consider reading my YouTube video description here: Enjoy!

It's that time again. I may have gotten weird with the score.

UPDATED on 4/16/23c Here's a guitar thing in D minor with an arrangement. I'll UPDATE the mp3 as I improve on it with the posting date followed by a letter (as in a,b,c, etc... in the the event I post multiple improvements on the same day.) I've also included a version here with speaking parts. Enjoy. -Rick

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Hi all, Slightly bummed my piece didn’t place in the competition, but it received a live premiere two nights ago. So, cannot complain. Pretty decent premiere, too! It’s just a fun work. Didn’t try to push the bounds too much. Wrote the music in 3 days and took another 2 days to engrave and edit. Just supposed to be loud and fast. I think the ending section is a pretty cool ending, though. I wish the drummer went a bit crazier. I told him like 3 times in rehearsals, but he wanted something mellower. We also swapped DB for electric bass. Video: Score: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9i2abuvvcwvltb8/Blast Off! - Full score.pdf?dl=0

Here's a work from 12 years ago which I took a look at with a fresh eye. I decided to add a mid-section(s) ... These are some new ideas ... not yet fully realized. However, some feed back would be welcome. The initial section is finished. I also included a few new measures at the ending. I wonder if that works too. Mark

Hi Mark. Let's dive into it. By the way, if the work is unfinished perhaps it would be wiser to move it to the proper sub-forum (for incomplete works). I would suggest the same as Henry. Transitions seem the main issue here, at least to me. The section in 3/4 starting at M31 and everything following it up to M71 seems right now a different piece. Making a soft transition might be difficult but you very well know your craft; most likely a rit./accel. passage will solve it. You could also prefer to put a fermata in the preceding silence (is that what the tenuto mark means when over the silence? I noticed it at the end of M30). You seem to have enough material to make 2 pieces actually, so perhaps cutting the 3/4 and using it to make a second trio via developing what you have there isn't a bad idea. "Moods" that both give seem also quite contrasting. The section between M71 and M92 is quite good by itself but also unfitting due to the transitions that were used in both its beginning and its end. I suppose this material is introduced there in order to make a softer transition from the "B" theme and the "A" theme but I believe it doesn't truly work because of the abrupt tempo change at M92. It is obvious that this work still needs a decent amount of your polishing and care in any case! Looking forward to check either how it goes or the final product. Thanks for sharing, Mark. Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

This is my "Caprice for Solo Violin No. 2". It is also the second caprice that I have ever composed. My first one (see the link below) was my submission to the "From Bits to Bangers" Young Composers Composition Competition, based on the "Dragon's Lair" video game music track and received low marks in part because it did not reflect the theme of the track too strongly. I would be interested in hearing your opinions as to how this one compares to that first effort of mine in the genre of the caprice, purely as an example of a caprice. Here is the link to my "Caprice for Solo Violin No. 1": https://www.youngcomposers.com/t44427/caprice-for-solo-violin-no-1/

That is not correct. Slurs for strings are indicating if notes should be played on one bow and you should definitely indicate that to the player. Pretty often composers also indicate up-bow, or down-bow as well so look into that.

Thanks Daniel Omicron for your review and your suggestions. As far as dynamics and articulation are concerned, I would say that I don't regard them as very important and leave them for the interpreter. I thus give the interpreter greater freedom to choose how they interpret the piece. I am more concerned with the process of composition itself. But you are right, maybe I should take the time and add more of them in the future. As far as slurs are concerned, I use them when I see the need to go for a legato sound effect. And in these two caprices at least, I mostly haven't intended a legato effect. But I have also read that slurs can be used only for phrasing, independent of a legato effect. If that's the case, maybe I ought to use them. But then again, I see them as secondary to the process of composition itself. Regarding the changes in time signature, I have had reviewers say the opposite (i.e. that I should have changed them) when I haven't changed the time signature to fit the rhythm of the music. So here, in these two caprices at least, I have changed the time signature often to fit the rhythm of the music.

Just a little ditty for piano... nothing serious. Wanted to write something that was relentlessly cheerful! Edit: I noticed after uploading that a few changes I made were not saved before exporting.

Quite fresh music here. Precise scoring too. I think my favourite part was the "mini cadenza-like passage" at M17. Not much criticism to give, I just wanted to comment on it since I enjoyed it quite a lot, it's such a nice short piece and as Vince said the structure is clear and thus the piece flows without a hassle. Kind regards, Daniel–Ømicrón.

nah I think the original is much better as I just finally got a lossless copy of the SH2 OST album anyway thanks for the heads up

Hey Pabio, As usual this is enjoyable fugal stuff! I like how you go to as far as B flat minor here. However I really want to have Bach's signature as a fugal subject since this is for his birthday, or at least it apperas as the second subject like how it appears as the third subject in the contrapuntus XIV when that subject creates different aura for the piece. Thanks for sharing! Henry

Nice, but I would def go for more reverb on the Duduk especially. This kind of style is always really great with huge 'verb on the duduk, but I'd cut a notch out in the lower-mids where that sharper resonance is. A synth or string drone underneath would also really glue it all together.

This short piece was inspired by Malcolm Arnold, Ingolf Dahl, and a touch of George Gershwin. I don't have much else to say about it at this point other than it should be fun to play. My quintet will be performing this at some point.

Much appreciated. I definitely could have expanded more and used more pizz among other textures. I initially had though about writing a tone poem for full orchestra but only had about 2 weeks or so to come up with something and considering the time crunch, I was fairly happy with the result.

Thank you so much for listening and giving such a kind and valuable feedback. Your criticisms are valid. I too think that the rythm is a bit samey throughout the piece, so the addition of some polyrythms could have worked really well. I did think of extending this piece by introducing a new theme and then concluding it by repeating the starting measures and now that I think about it, it was a really good idea which I missed. Thank you for bringing that up. Your feedback really means a lot and help me learn so many new things and become a better composer! 🙂

some of the following echoes the above, i think. but... perhaps passages where less than four voices appear would be effective. interludes such as this would give you the opportunity to explore the various themes of the work in more detail and extend it with variety and contrast. the passage with three voices moving in fourths seems a bit iffy. 46-48 from 48 on, the subject is presented verbatim a number of times. maybe modulating to related keys or using fugal answers for each entry would work better? except for the last one where the Picardy third might sound even more effective than it does right now. this would make for a very dramatic end to the work. still, as it stands now, it is very well constructed.