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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!

MY_MUSIC_082_20240215_104222_AudioVerb.mp3

MY_MUSIC_020_20231019_162402_022841824.mp3

MY_MUSIC_229_20250208_041257_AudioVerb.mp3

Thank you very much for your kind and respectful opinion, I appreciate very much the fact that you're interested to my work, thank you very much!

Hello Demertzis, I listened so far to three of your piano pieces. I was impressed, especially by this one. I have to say that you have a rich fund of creativity and are an undiscovered genius of piano music!! Bravo. I hope that you notate your music and give it to actual performers so that the world will hear your great music interpreted by the great pianists that it deserves!!!

Dear all, After the "Halloween" music, I decided to start a larger set of works - the Festive series, which is a collection of music for festivals in my home place. I started with Double Ninth festival, which is quite close to this year's Halloween (29 Oct). Regarding the work, Double Ninth Festival - Hiking on Mount Qi writen for Ensemble and Voice This is a work under the Double Ninth festival, also known as Chung Yeung Festival, is a festival that reminisce our ancesters and dead. This work is writen based on the work 九日齊山登高 by 杜牧 (Du Mu, 803-852), a Chinese calligrapher, poet, and politician who lived during the late Tang dynasty. The lyrics are as follows, Double Ninth Festival - Hiking on Mount Qi - Du Mu Translation by the composer Autumnal scenery spotted on water with wild geese heading south, With wine pots, I climb up the lush contryside with friends. Hey, just laugh in all the difficulties, With chrysanthemums in the hair on the way home. Guzzle in the name of the festival, instead of climbing up and sigh for the sunset. Living short as people always were, Why should we weep at the mountain like Duke Jing of Qi? HoYin

WOW!! That was incredible -- wonderfully done Your writing for the ensemble was just lovely. I would love to know what originally inspired you to write this piece. Also, do you have any books on orchestration you'd recommend?

It is possible that I had it muted in the mixer lol I agree, but I'm not exactly sure how to add rubato in on muscscore Yes, still working on this and deciding what dynamics I want where Yikes lol I appreciate the feedback; the piece definitely needs more work. I would love to write some more melodic material, but I love that theme so much that it's hard for me to write new stuff without being drawn back to the same intervals and the same lines.

This one was intended as a kind of character piece. Honestly, I was watching the new season of Wednesday Addams and the music from the show inspired this. LoL There's dynamics in this that hopefully a Clavichord would be better able to perform. Thanks to @Alex Weidmann for his input about how to get the Violin to play classic phrasing rather than portamento! I would appreciate any kind of feedback, comment, critique, suggestion or observation that you may have. Thanks for listening and I hope that you enjoy!

I am a simple guy. I see tarantella, I dance and give like. I've recently made one too but it has a harpsichord instead (not sure if you're using clavichord here or harpsichord actually, this does sound much like a harpsichord). In any case, I liked it a lot. You never fail to deliver man! My kudos.

Awesome, looks much better now 🙂

Why Herro my brudda

Hello @J. Lee Graham and welcome back to the forum! Wow! What a wonderfully accomplished work! I am glad that despite feeling "unworthy of the material" that you managed to finish it after more than 20 years!!! I also have had such an experience. I started my Variations on "Deck the Halls" for Piano and Orchestra back in the 2000's as well, over a decade before when I ended up finishing it. And it was only thanks to the fact that I learned to write music on paper that I managed to have the discipline to finish it. I totally understand the sentiment! It is hard to limit yourself when writing for period instruments when you know that superior versions of the instruments would in fact have capabilities that would very much facilitate the music in question for the composer. I think I would also leave the piece as-is knowing that there do in fact exist versions of the instruments with the capability to actually perform the piece live, which is ultimately all that I would care about. I have to say that my favorite movement is the Polonaise! What a delight to hear someone include this stately Polish dance in a concerto! I am Polish myself and have danced the Polonaise as a youth in a Polish Folk Dance Ensemble. The dance has all the pomp and nobility of the spirit of Poland! I think it was also you who remarked that your favorite National Anthem is the Mazurek Dabrowskiego in an old thread I read somewhere. I actually have always dreamed of creating a mash-up of the Mazurek with the American National Anthem to create a kind of "Polish-American Heritage Anthem". We'll see if that ever comes to fruition! Thanks for sharing this wonderfully bright piece! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

A lively interesting work ... in a classic classical style. Quite enjoyable ..... with a very clean/precise orchestration. 🙂 Mark

I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I hear early John Adams.