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Hey Alex! First of all great job working at orchestrations. I saw you’ve done a number of them, and as someone newer to composing I think they’re a high quality way to practice and grow. I myself do arrangements of pop songs for Pep Band, which is a very similar process, so I get the concept. I think you’ve done a high quality job in many areas. You’ve got the piece generally laid out, with variations in timbre. The repetition had a semi-lulling effect, yet there was also variation to keep up interest. You’ve got generally nice timbre choices and pairings. I can tell you have a composer’s intuition:) It was a pleasant piece to listen to overall, so you didn’t do terribly:) To provide what I can to hopefully help you take it to the next level, I listened to your piece several times & a recording on YouTube of someone playing the piano version. In my opinion & sense, the original piece edges on a little too repetitive, but it does gain traction at about measure 8 when things start feeling developmental. It does have a kind of lulling effect though, so I think he achieved his purpose, but in my preference I wouldn’t encourage the composition to have any more length or repetition. Here’s my understanding of the original: it seems to actually have two melodies going on simultaneously, playing on each other the whole time, with the other notes providing warmth & fullness. He does a 4 bar A theme twice, then changes to the relative major on a big chord. I liked how the pianist did a little rubato at the transition, because otherwise it would just sound like a major sudden change with no warning, which would feel offputting here. Then he has a 4 bar cascading, what feels like an almost inversion of the previous, repeated (similar to the beginning). It feels like a reprise, concluding & transitioning. That section has large moving chords on the downbeats, and can kind of feel like the ending music of a movie scene. Then he has a iii chord, which I thought he was going to modulate to that key, but he continued developing for 4 bars ending on the B (V of E again). But he goes into a CM7 chord with the melody for 4 bars, the bVI no 5th, which to me feels minor. It ends on a B chord with cascading notes that feels like a cadence, into the final section. It’s an 8 bar near restatement of the A theme, which feels relieving and longed for. Then it ends on the iv, with sudden long chords, which to me just makes me question if whether the child fell asleep or not. Relative to your composition, and recognizing you’ve already done a good job and my comments are just trying to help you get that last 10% to make it pop, I think your timbre changes felt simultaneously too much and too little. At first I didn’t know what to comment, but I think you almost tried to apply film score, quick drastic timbre changes to a slow, lullaby-like, repetitive piece. I think if you were more clear & distinct about your timbre changes, especially using them on the 8 (or less often the 4) bar marks & to mark harmonic changes where he has them, that would help encourage the natural cadence of the piece. My two favorite timbres you used were the low woodwinds with clarinet melody, and the string ensemble. I also think the horn melody was a nice additional change, but it was much brighter & more poignant than the other timbres, so I think it would fit more on the 2nd set of 8 bars, or other more in-your-face moments. Whatever you do, keep the melody on one instrument through the phrase instead of changing so often. The second thing that would help would be the transitions. Ryan Leach on YouTube has a great video on writing transitions: I think both introducing newer elements earlier, and utilizing the more prominent changes (like the large, slow, cascading chords at m.8) in a prominent way will both make the sections fit more together like a natural puzzle. The last minor thing would be trying to make the upper & lower melodies equally as present, with the harmonies quieter behind. It’s a small thing that would make a big difference in this piece, but I think the flute was too loud, and I lost the lower melody over time. Great job, and please let me know if these helped at all. Happy composing!

Hey everyone! My name is Vlad, and in my free time, I dabble in composing what I like to call "pseudo-academic" music. I have absolutely no formal music education—just countless hours spent listening to classical works. I’d love to share my Symphonic Suite from Freyja - Vanadis, a piece heavily inspired by Sibelius and Wagner.

Here is one of my favorite sonatas in binary form, inspired by the colossal Scarlatti, who is also the reason I started composing music systematically over the past two years. It’s a blend of Scarlatti’s style but also includes elements from other classical composers. A very playful sonata with quite a few unexpected modulations that make it even more humorous… I hope you enjoy it.

That's the beauty of it all, it's all part of your own style. 🙂 I'm not too familiar with Scarlatti, but your sonata for sure kept me engaged. I love the energy, wonderful job. I listened a few times just because I enjoyed it so much. Thanks for sharing!

Long time no see, @PeterthePapercomPoser. Exactly around 6 months! Hope everything is going great! I was really busy and ran into another musical hiatus where I could not practice or study at all, but I finally restarted it last week. I was planning to focus on learning, instead of composing, as I want to improve my technique and also go through some partimento (rule of the octave, schematas, etc) and jazz practicing. But, after 3 days of piano, I happened to compose again 😅 Now that I am practicing again I will try to browse more often through the forum, I have seen you have kept on with your microtonal pieces! Thanks for your feedback! I also like that from the piece. I always had a tendency to use cross relations without even realizing, particularly in counterpoint, as I enjoyed the sound but in this piece, that G/G# one surprised me (I realized once I composed it), since it is on the same beat and on a strong beat. I think my ear grew used to major seventh dissonances from when I learned a little bit of jazz 😆 Thank you so much for commenting!

I wouldn’t say anything negative about 5, I more so think a fast 4th (between the current 2nd and 3rd) movement would do a lot of justice to this piece. The last movement you showed has lots of beauty to it, my only consideration is many beautiful movements in a row detracts from their beauty. When you are able to compare the beautiful and the “uglier” movements, it makes those beautiful moments all the more moving, and same with the fast movements. I honestly would gladly listen to any of your current movements in person if I had the chance, they are wonderful. Just because you wrote something that is hard, doesn’t mean its bad, otherwise most of the best music would be no good. I will say one thing, in my opinion (as a vocalist) if you have a solo voice singing with an orchestra, you should utilize the voice at least 60% of the time. This is not something that I’m totally sure everyone will agree with me on but I’ll explain my reasoning. In a concerto or soloist oriented orchestra performance, the soloist must stand infront of the orchestra. Particularly for singers, their job is to emote and show the emotions of the music. When you have a singer on the stage, they are the only face not in their music. They look directly at the audience. Long interludes of 2+ minutes are incredibly difficult to keep the audience’s attention. And if the singers sits and then later stands it cannot be acted through. Film music gets away with the soprano coming in out whenever they want, but I believe this should not happen on stage, simply out of a desire to tell a story, in what I believe, is the most convincing way. I’d be curious on other people’s thoughts on this.

"Thank you so much, I’m really glad you liked it. In the past few years, I had really explored his sonatas and I was blown away by how incredibly stylish and ahead of his time they were. He truly became the greatest source of inspiration for me. So far, I’ve written 20 sonatas in this style, although in most of them there’s a mix of Scarlatti, Mozart, and Schubert. But the combination left me amazed by the result."

In an effort to actually get something done, I challenged myself to write and record a little piece in two hours; behold the result! The recording definitely got put off until the end. It's pretty out of tune/bad quality, but, I hope, bearable to listen to 🙂 Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!

@PeterthePapercomPoser, thank you for listening and your helpful (and very kind) feedback!

Very nice. I'm a big admirer of Scarlatti myself, definitely hear the inspiration here.

Hey @JorgeDavid! Long time no see! I think this is a very quaint little waltz that you've performed yourself! I don't think you're having as many troubles performing it as you make us think saying that you "need more practice"! LoL My favorite parts of this are the unexpected cross relations between the melody and bass like in bars 4 and 20. In bar 4 you have a G natural in the melody contradicted by a G# in the bass while in bar 20 you have a D in the melody with a D# in the bass - great idea! Usually these kinds of cross relations would be heard as mistakes in A minor but you used them deliberately and made them sound intended and I really enjoyed them! Great job and thanks for sharing! P.S.: I think even if you were using a notation program to realize a rendition of this instead of performing it yourself - in Musescore, for example, I would liberally use rit.'s and accel.'s to make the tempo sound more rubato and humanized.

As Tristan mentioned, the tempo is slower than presto. When Chopin wrote his, he rarely used a tempo marking. The engraver added them later; or it was up to performer. So my suggestion would be is: have a pianist play through and then ask for feedback from them. Ask him or her, what tempo should you mark and other feedback. I notice the notation error. You are using a hemolia: a doted quarter followed by three 8ths grouped together. do not that. It makes it appear you are in 6/8 and not in 3/4.

Hi there. Let's go to the point right away. Firstly, Nice waltz! I really enjoyed listening. There seems to be a problem too, by the start. It is definitely not Presto. The Bpm is more like 112 (I use a metronome). Presto is kind of like 180 Bpm. If you want a Presto, I would recommend writing something like the following: Presto (c. 112). Secondly, I could definetely hear Chopin here! The ideas at bar 18 and 38 is also very good. Thirdly, cantabile part seems nice. The immediate transition to G Major and back to A minor is extremely nice. Although in a Major Key beginning, it still keeps a melancholic atmosphere. The bars 49-56 area's texture is favorable. Bar 62 is played wrong. You forgot to play the (appogiatura) B natural. Fourthly, From Vivace, there is a Key signature change, which I like. Again the tempo is played wrong. Bar 93 does not make sense Lastly, from maestoso, I really like the texture. Bar 116 is one of my favourite bars in this composition! Then, it is go to the start up to the Coda mark. The coda is not long enough, though. Could be longer. In conclusion, You have great composition ideas, but you still need more practice. Overall, I would rate this piece of music a 8.5 out of 10. Have a nice day! -TristanTheTristan

Hello @Celloliver and welcome to the forum! This is a modest little piece! I do have to admit that often, with the double stops and two cellos playing together it can sometimes get a bit muddy. But you do often have the melody in the highest range of the cello which is a beautiful expressive tessitura for the cello. I like the main melody and I can definitely follow the melodic line throughout the duration of the piece so it seems to me like you're not a total beginner to writing music! Great job and thanks for sharing!

I love the work you do with the subtitles, thanks for making your music more accessible to us non-French speakers. The music is hauntingly beautiful, you're a wonderful craftsman and performer. I usually just listen to your music for enjoyment rather than critique, and even though I don't always comment, I'm always a listener. Thanks for sharing this!