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Greetings! Haven't stopped by in a while, thought I'd take the occasion of winning the 20 Year Membership badge (!) to drop in and share a big something I finished recently. This is one of those pieces I have worked with, off and on, for many years - I began composing it in 2001 and just finished it this summer. I cannot account for exactly why it took me so long to bring this to completion, except that for much of that time I didn't feel worthy of the material I had sketched, and couldn't readily come up with ideas to match it in quality. This piece is in my usual Classical style, unusual mainly in that I have employed an exceptionally large orchestra, including three trombones. Ostensibly, it is written for instruments of the period, roughly 1800 to 1810, though I have it on good authority that the flute part is in places nearly unplayable on a flute of that time - not impossible, but extremely difficult in such places as the frightful two-octave ascending chromatic scale in the first movement, and the mortifying cadenza in the third. Ordinarily I would have edited the piece on such advice, but there comes a time when artistic vision must prevail, and this was one of those times. The opening movement is a standard Sonata-Allegro as typically modified for concerti in the Classical period. The second movement (Andante) is broad and expressive. The third movement is a Polonaise (Vivace alla Polacca) in the form of a Rondo. I hope you enjoy the piece, and as always I look forward to any comments you may have. Thanks!

Yeah man, these are all good suggestions. @PeterthePapercomPoser and I brainstormed a ton in the last few years, we came up with a lot of what you suggested. Many others before we were involved held them too. It kinda just depends on if enough want to do it. We tried money incentives, but looking Bach, the attraction it gave was nice for participant numbers but not so much for the "fun" part of it. I've found that if it's lighthearted, it's better for a community type of contest, but there needs to be a community. Maybe we could run them on our discord, are you on that? I roam both, but I know some use one over the other.

Here from the chat inbox. I would be interested in participating in “for fun” competitions of course! Would us, the users, be allowed to publish our own ideas for competitions, or, would I be correct in assuming that Administrators are the only ones with access to publish competitions? Here’s a suggestion; maybe there could be a poll based on similarly suggested competition categories mentioned by users here at the suggestion thread. Then participants could vote on which one they’d like to do. Also could be a separate thread made requesting users who could judge the work rather than having the same people do it each time, since I see where you mention it becomes draining. (Which, I feel I’d be safe in assuming that Peter and Henry share a similar sentiment with that as well) that way the load of judging is distributed across other members who are of good reputation in the community, and could accurately judge the works presented? @Thatguy v2.0

Also a good guide on how to write for drum set in general:

Do you know about changing noteheads? This is for Sibelius, but I'm sure musescore is similar

Not yet, but if you're interested we could get something going again. All for fun of course 🙂 Have anything in mind? I'll link this to the chatbox if others may be interested. I will say that it was a bit draining to be a judge, but I'd be up for simple easy topics for short pieces just to see if there would be interest. I personally would write something along those lines.

Thank you so much for letting me know about the notation error, @Kvothe! Because of the grouping the first bar (and similar ones) might be understood as 6/8. I did not know it but now I totally understand it. Thanks for noticing! I will fix it for the final version. Also, regarding the tempo, I guess I could get rid of tempo marking since the expression marks such as "agitato" might be enough to convey the mood of the piece. Sadly, I do not know any pianist, so I cannot get real-life feedback, but I will try to find out about how tempo markings are normally used! For this piece, do you have any particular suggestion about which tempo marking would fit best? Thanks for commenting!

Thank you so much for the feedback and I am glad you liked it, @TristanTheTristan, I really appreciate it! Regarding the tempo, I am curious about what is the convention with Waltzes. As far as I know, I am using the metronome at around 180bpm if I consider each quartet note as the beat (so three beats per measure). Or is it maybe common in Waltzes to consider the bpm as the first beat of each measure or to consider other particular measure (such as feel of the music)? Thanks for all the feedback of the parts you liked the most! And yes, there is a few notes that are different because I am constantly changing a few notes here and there and I will record it when it is completed. But 99% of the piece is going to stay as it is. Regarding the bar 93, I understand it is a weird bar. It is just a repetition of the same material already played (first in Amaj, now in Dmaj), so the bass note should be A, to have a diatonic F#min chord with the third on the bass moving diatonically. However, in that particular context I like much more the A# in the bass, I am not sure why. It does create a F#7 chord with the natural A on top. The fact that the bass moves from A# to G is strange, but I do like it. But I can imagine most performers would actually change the A# into an A thinking it is a mistake 😅 I am aware of that bar and might consider changing the bass note to the A. But for now I like it better this way. Thanks for noticing it! I also enjoy that part and, both the Maestoso together with the set of bars that you pointed out are my favorite part of the piece! Glad you enjoyed it too! Yes, the ending is quite overwhelming. I am not good at writing Codas but I am going to extend it for the final version, even if it is only a couple of extra bars. The ending now sounds too rushed and probably a few more bars to let the ending breath will improve it. 8.5/10 is really good!! Thank you so much for your encouragement and the nice words!! Thanks for listening and commenting!

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.

This is my first time writing for wind quartet and would like to know if there is something that I'm overlooking as far as the range or writing for each instrument. As far as the music itself, I would like some feedback on sections that might not quite work or maybe even the tempo changes or transitions. I still would need to include dynamics and edits to the score but if there are any editing or formatting tips I'll take those too. Anything would be appreciated. Thank you.