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Thank you all for listening. The fact that some notes have stems and others do not is to differentiate, within the tintinnabuli technique, between the two types of voices: the melodic voice and the tintinnabuli (or supporting) voices. The truth is that this technique can be taken to very complex levels. I really like it and studied Pärt in some depth.

Hi @Uhor! I love this piece! It gives an antique feeling but the language is modern, just like Vaughn Williams's approach. I like in 2:21 you reach that calm and really sacred passage (the chant?). The violin melody in 2:39 is really touching. Normally I would feel bored by the brass passage but the one in 3:54 doesn't bore me at all, because there is real solemnity here. What I think of is maybe you can add an organ here till the end as well. I enjoy the ending too. No one is "too old" for our forum! As long as we keep learning and progressing no one is old. This forum is for anyone who is willing to mutually communicate on each other's music. Only those who stop learning and consider themselves the best are old. You can continuously submit pieces to our forum! Thx for sharing! Henry

Seasons Greetings all! Here's a little something I'm cooking up for a concert next year. It's based on the Epitaph of Seikilos, which is the earliest surviving complete song. I tried to give it a flavour of Antiquity, and to create unexpected harmonies. Haven't come up with lyrics yet; though it will start with the original Ancient Greek text translated into English. Maybe my piano part is a bit too thin? Or perhaps I should keep it sparse? The notation is intended for midi, and I'll be adjusting the dynamics upwards by at least one degree for the musicians. When I make the final score, I'm intending to write out the spread stacked chords in full as arpeggios. N.B. Score updates will be posted further down the thread.

Hello Folks, this is a 3 movement work I recently finished in my first few weeks of composition lessons. The following three movements are about three leaves as they fall from a tree. For each leaf, a different character is met. These leaves begin in similar places, swaying in the wind, before falling into the world of their character. The first leaf falls and is found by a little kid. This kid plays with the leaf, more excited than any adult could understand. They fly, dance, and eventually sneak together into the house. The second leaf falls and is watched by an old man. The man does not interact with the leaf, but instead is reminded of the beauty and fragility of the world. He remembers his life through this lens. The third leaf falls and is spotted by an angry man, who wants to crush every leaf. The leaf realizes he is coming, and flies with the breeze to escape, before eventually failing.

This time I have mixed "O, Christmas Tree" with "Hark! The Herald Angel's Sing!" I included three stanzas of each Carol and each occurrence of each stanza is set differently with the final one being a bit polytonal. Also, this time the mash-up is accompanied by a brass octet instead of strings. And the choir is a SMAATTBB 8-part choir. Thanks for listening and I hope you had a Merry Christmas and that your New Year will be a happy one! I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions, critiques or observations!

From 2023. computer with the original music score died from water damage unfortunately so there is no score. This was the most Christmas like song on my channel that I could find.

This is an accompanied recitative in the late Baroque style. The text is taken from Goethe's Unbregrenzt (unbounded). I have also attached the aria "Nun Töne Lied". These form a recit-aria pair, part of my WIP cantata.

Hello All! 😀 In this post i present my composition called "Land Of Gods". It is not finished yet from an orchestration point, but i believe with the current score you can feel and understand its musical content. It is purpose is to convey the awe, the majesty , the grandeur, and the influence of the ancient deities of ancient Greece. The mighty gods, untouchable by humans, they are able to influence all aspects in the life of the people. Its dark at times, epic and very melodic. The divine realm, ruling the cosmos, both with good and evil intensions, but never within reach of the mere mortals.

Nice layering of the different melodies! At one point I wasn't sure which song I was listening to because you blended them together so seamlessly. Nice change-up of the harmony towards the end.

@SeekJohn14v6 has submitted another song:

I never seen in fugue written 10 in Lydian. Not until now. The entries of the subject and counter subject in the exposition are done wonderfully. I see no counter point issues. Counter point is one of the hardest things to master once we go through the basics..and fugue writing is excellent way to master that. Those tritones between voices (C nat and B#) are hard to avoid in Lydian mode. But, I think you can figure it out. Do not stop. Keep writing.

I agree with Henry that at least some of those C-naturals should be B-sharps, but really, this is wonderful. Almost mesmerizing. By all means, keep going!

And for my 4th and final submission to the event:

Hello Wieland, thank you truly for this and happy new year to you. 🥳 I did title the song "bittersweet" but doubted if it fit that title well. After hearing your advice, I think I will definitely keep the name, since it is tinged with a few sad harmonies. glad to hear that I came at the right time(and not just "procrastinating" you see) but I have to apologize about the abrupt splicing of the recordings; I was trying to prepare my materials before going on this family trip, where a real piano will not be available. Anyhow, I am glad I got my submission in on time.

What a charming, if somewhat sad song! Maybe its a fortune that you posted your submission „so late“, since its melancholic mood perfectly fits the imagination of the last piece performed on a party or the piano player is playing his ultimate song while the last guests are leaving the restaurant. I suspect that it is a live-recording. If so, congratulations to that beautiful performance and a happy New Year.

Yo you can post the piece individually and then link the post here!

I don’t have the score for all three of these so bear with me. unfortunately my videography sucks too and i think i often record in a way that makes the instrument sound pingy. anyway, tell me which one you hate the least

As a final composition before I consider myself 'too old' for this forum I composed this Medieval-Renaissance Kyrie of a Mass based on a Royal Gregorian Chant. The counterpoint emphasizes octaves, fifths, fourths and seconds, but it still prioratices independence of voices. Not perfect but hopefully interesting enough.

Hi @Alex Weidmann! Indeed the harmony creates unexpected effect. I like the modulations throughout. At b.56 when you move to E flat major I thought you were using the clichetic "up an semitone" modulation just like many boring pop songs do, but you prove me wrong haha. I don't think it sparse, especially when played in real life it will be full of pedals and the texture would not be thick at all. Only the scoring would be a bit confusing, I think you can simply write those arpeggios out in 32th notes and then have a pedal under it. This will create the same effect and without the arpeggio signs haha. Thx for sharing! Henry

Hi @Cafebabe! I like that you are using the French Overture format for the Oratorio with a slow, dotted passage for the A section and then a fugal fast section after it. I think you can fully extend the A section first by making it in Binary structure, instead of just an 8 bar passage. For the fugal passage of course you can extend it to a full fugue. I like the walking rhythm of the 2nd movement. The melody is nice, and probably you can extend the movement by turning it to a ternary Aria. Beware of the parallel 5th in b.4 of Ab-Eb to G-D. Thx for sharing! Henry

I've only recently started this, but I would love to hear suggetions 😄 nutcracker inspired.pdf nutcracker inspired.mp3

Hi! Here are my Two Lullabies for voice and piano. I finished them a couple of days ago for a high school friend of mine. The audio is a MIDI mockup -- I'm just looking for some feedback on the emotional affect of the pieces. Does the trajectory from the first (poem by Dunbar) to the second (poem by Blake) read on its own, or does it require an explanation? I would also love some thoughts on the harmony in this little set...

Hi @mercurypickles! The first one does portrait the dreamy mood with a less firming rhythm of tied triplets, it reminds me how Schumann treat the subject. For the second piece, the thing I like the most is how you treat Ab/G#, play with its ambiguity and put it in F minor/E major, have it resolve till the very end of the work. Thx for sharing! Henry

Dear friends, hello! I'm Zhang Wenhao, a Chinese singer-songwriter. Today, I'm here to share with you a Chinese-style pop love song called "Medicine and Grain Porridge". This song tells the story of a young monk who gets injured while collecting herbs outside the temple and is saved by a tea-picking girl. Later, he falls in love with the girl, but their love is doomed to have no result. There are many regrets in love, and eventually, one has to learn to let go. But it's already precious enough to have met someone. 亲爱的朋友们，大家好！我是来自中国的创作歌手张文灏。这次来跟大家分享的是一首中国风流行情歌，名字叫《药膳粥》。 这首歌曲讲的是一名小和尚出寺采药不慎受伤，被一名采茶女所救，而后对女孩动了凡心，但注定没有结果的爱情故事。爱情中有很多的遗憾，终究要学会释怀，但有些人遇见已经足够珍贵了。 歌词如下/The lyrics are as follows： 作曲/Composed by：张文灏 Zhang Wenhao 作词/Lyrics by：张文灏 Zhang Wenhao 住持心系民疾 广施福泽 僧众出寺采药调配药膳粥 山崖间的薄荷 剩下一棵 我摘取之后失足踩空跌落 醒来身处茶庐 寻声庭中 红衫的你在院落轻哼茶歌 你闻声止歌回眸 脸带羞涩 我罹患上名叫凡心的病魔 红尘里的你 青灯下的我 相识那一刻 就奠定好错过 你身在俗世 我心向禅佛 木鱼经声婆娑 轻诵着奈何 他日再晤面 小僧行礼说 一句女施主 添了愁忖几多 你浅笑细语 我佛珠慢拨 满卷情思都流作清水一钵 丝丝药香弥漫 你的四周 药引是我一抹隐隐的不舍 你捧粥予我喝 伤口愈合 心头却更难耐凡俗的折磨 休养半月余久 带着情愫 我挥手与你作别回到寺阁 持斋诵经敲钟 每日依旧 脑中却常有你嫣然的酒窝 红尘里的你 青灯下的我 相识那一刻 就奠定好错过 你身在俗世 我心向禅佛 木鱼经声婆娑 轻诵着奈何 他日再晤面 小僧行礼说 一句女施主 添了愁忖几多 你浅笑细语 我佛珠慢拨 满卷情思都流作清水一钵 红尘里的你 青灯下的我 相识那一刻 就奠定好错过 你身在俗世 我心向禅佛 木鱼经声婆娑 轻诵着奈何 他日再晤面 小僧行礼说 一句女施主 添了愁忖几多 你浅笑细语 我佛珠慢拨 满卷情思都流作清水一钵 从此山水相隔 翻作过客

Can I steal your piece so I can earn a badge too? 😆

I really enjoyed this piece. You seem to have learnt your composition lessons well. I loved how dynamic the work was, and you seem to have used the instruments to the best potential. Just a couple of nits to pick - it really does feel like that, very minor: 1. Non vibrato is not the best way to ask for no vibrato to be used. Senza vibrato or senza vibr. is better - senza in Italian means "without." Non in Italian in this context would mean "not." Of course it's up to you, the instrumentalists will understand your intention either way, it's just one is better Italian than the other. 2. Slurs in a pizzicato passage are superfluous. I'd remove them if I were you. It's literally impossible to slur between two pizzicato notes. Keep going with your lessons! You're doing great.

After listening your second Christmas carol mashup and following the score I must say you have „invented“ or „promoted“ a very interesting „new genre“ of counterpuntual composition (at least for me). The exciting thing about it is, that the listener usually doesn’t notice the elaboration needed to achieve the mashup. They hear melodies, harmonies, and phrases that are familiar to them, but at the same time something unexpected is happening. I called it „new genre“ since you do not combine single voices together, such as in a canon or a double fugue, but take phrases of two to four voices, which are already harmonized together, and put them against similar phrases from the other carol, thus creating a counterpoint not only of voices but of – to say choirs. That's amazing and very inspiring!

Another short, funny piece! You could imagine it being played endlessly on a loop at a children's carousel at a Christmas market. Thank you very much, have fun, and happy New Year.

Despite the dispute about the usage of AI in a YCF event, I must admit that this song comes well polished and can be clearly categorized as a „mainstream“ Christmas piece. Will say, there is nothing wrong with it and I really enjoyed listening several times. Since the purpose of this forum is discussing about the creation of music in the sense of harmonics, voice leading, rhythm, form, score engraving etc. it is difficult to give more response than explaining the personal taste on your submission. However, thank you for sharing and a Happy New Year.

This is a very peaceful and festive piece that easily gets one Christmas feeling. I like the well-balanced and calm orchestration with the spices of the bells, trombones and pizzicato strings. Condolences to your waterlogged computer, so it’s a pity that we have no score. Thank you for sharing, welcome to the forum and a Happy New Year 2026.

@TristanTheTristan I love the piano sketch of the piano concerto. I know it is a challenge to write such a massive piece. It is great idea to write out piano sketch before you write out the full score. Not many understand this. I can the influences you mentioned throughout the piece. It definitely reminds of their writing. Using musescore is great a tool, but as @Wieland Handke mentioned it would nice to have audio version, too. and full orchestral score...when that is done. 🙂 I would love to see that. We can help you out with that. Start slow with that.

Hey, cool music, and welcome! Very Christmas-sounding indeed 🙂 The part at around :40 reminded me of the third mov. of Sibelus' 5th... you know that one? Check it out if you haven't, it's a masterpiece. Thanks for sharing, and give some thoughts on the other Christmas pieces in the event... you'll find more will check out your music if you listen to theirs too!

I really like listening to this style without the score, since I think part of the magic is not knowing exactly how long the phrases will be, or when a solo bass note will ring, etc. This is great Luis, it's always a pleasure to hear your music! It reminded me of quiet falling snow at night 🙂

Hello @Musicman_3254, thank you for sharing your contribution. As far as I remember, your piece is dedicated to the fallen soldiers in WWI who decided to stop fighting for a few days at Christmas 1914 and gather to play soccer. I think I read such a description, but I can't find it anymore. Although the mood doesn’t really remind on the peacefulness of Christmas, I think it is a serious choice to present it here and remembering on that what happened 111 years ago, taking into account that the same terrifying things happen again in Europe in the 21st century. Using a special orchestra with all conceivable wind instruments and percussions forecasts somewhat the sound of big bands but is on the other hand an onomatopoeic description of the short period of silence between the fire trenches. In bar 49 I guessed to listen the referee’s whistle. As I mentioned in a post to @TristanTheTristan, I would appreciate if you would also share it as MP3 audio file, too (for the next time). This would make it easier to listen to it several times, which would be absolutely necessary to thoroughly review a piece of this length.

Hello @TristanTheTristan, in contrast to other participants sharing „miniatures“ (starting with a 9 seconds long piece), you submitted a large multi-movement opus, which, to be honestly, overwhelmed me a bit with its variety of themes and textures. I just have listened it for one time completely and try to give some imaginations „from memory“. Its a Concerto for Solo Piano and I like that you have added some marks concerning the instrumentation (such as „Flauto“ or „Tutti“) which helps to imagine a possible orchestration. The opening theme of the first movement has somewhat Christmas mood – thus connecting it with the event, however that mood is lost more and more with the upcoming variations of the thematic material and texture. The second movement - as being more slowly - was easier to perceive for me. I especially enjoyed the surprising resolutions or chord progressions in the arpeggios in bars 14, 31ff! Starting with a march, the third movement also bears a melodic section and a lot of material where I did not find out how they are related together. All in all a long piece with much effort and much potential. I would appreciate if you would share it as MP3 audio, too (for the next time). This would make it easier to listen to it multiple times, which would be absolutely necessary to review a piece of that amount thoroughly. Finally, I would like to say—and this is not necessarily a criticism of your composition or the piece itself—that I find the quality of the pieces presented on the Musescore website disappointing. At first glance, one might think that the scrollable score is very useful. However, this is negated by the poor articulation and dynamics, which make trills and tremolos sound very unrealistic, for example, and lead to rhythmic disruptions when introducing triplets, etc. Played by a human (or with more realistic articulation, dynamics, and agogics), this piece should therefore be very exciting.

Beautiful, sad, very Tchaikovsky. Music like this makes you feel which is not easy to do. Cool technique too.

Looking at the score, I was initially somewhat surprised that a lot of notes had lost their stems. Being sure that this was intentionally and reading a bit about „Tintinnabuli“, I now understand that device of minimalization, even in the notation. The piece itself exudes a kind of calmness and melancholy which emphasizes the silence and toughtfulness one would feel around Christmas time. Concerning the „Tintinnabuli“-technique, it is surprising for me how one can create such colorful melodies from mostly stepwise thirds and blend them together with only arpeggiated triads of the main tonic chord, without loss of harmonic functionality and without introducing dissonances (but, haha, I think I’ve discovered a G in bar 18). Thank you for sharing and a happy New Year 2026!

Hello friends. Merry Christmas! I've spent this December 25th afternoon listening to the entries in this fantastic thread (if I missed any, it was unintentional). I’ve enjoyed it so much. I love hearing different approaches to a specific theme. I'm not much for celebrating Christmas in a traditional way, but I must confess that every year this period stirs up feelings that I sometimes try to capture. So, I wrote this little piece last year, (totally) inspired by Arvo Pärt. Best regards.

A work of symphonic proportions. It’s the kind of piece where it’s a shame not to have more realistic sounds, given how colorful it is.

Yes, it’s a fun piece—too bad I can’t see the score.

Oh wow, this mashup is very different, but when the two melodies (which I didn’t know beforehand) came together, it was very moving.

Listened to the whole piece. This is a very deep composition with various themes and fun styles throughout. This must have taken you awhile to create!

A nice swing to it. Love the occasional brass at the beginning, and nice looping!

Nice piece! Some nice use of a 'rare' dissonance. It is definitely inspiring, your effort, that you took to make a 'beethoven symphony 9' sized orchestral work. Choir, Orchestra...

This is quite a nice short piece! Too short... Maybe add the lick in there...

@PeterthePapercomPoser Below you will find my review for your chorale Taste: This piece seemingly uses two traditional Christmas chorales. We can hear how one lead into the other with no hiccups. The general audience might not notice the subtle transition, but those who perform it and the carols will. This will be great piece for concert. Instrumentation: The string accompaniment provides harmonic support for the vocal. We do not hear strings often. It is often an organ. But organs cliche. To answer if this playable? Playable is not correct word. Singable is. Yes a choir can and should. The score can easy to read and follow. No issues here. Others have mentioned: it reminds them of ET 3 or Mozart or Haydn. Those great choices, but homophonic texture with harmonic language reminds of Tchaikovsky; and maybe beethoven?

The texture gets so thick but I love how it sounds consonant throughout. For some reason I'm reminded of Home Alone when I hear this haha, I love that movie. Wonderful music Peter, it definitely is stocking stuffed full of holiday spirit. Merry Christmas!

Nice piece! Really appreciate your effort! It seems like the 3rd TS sometimes, but very Haydn, and perhaps some Mozart and Beethoven.

Pretty awesome how you were able to seamlessly merge the themes together. Fun dissonance sprinkled in every so often, which could very well be hints of a Bad Santa making his way through town. Or perhaps the Grinch is waiting nearby to cause mayhem. But overall the themes are pleasant and you changed them up to incorporate your own voice. The ending is very pleasant and have fun harmonies. But I do hear a tiny bit of sharp dissonance hidden in the passage. It sounds like something didn't quite go as planned, but it was too subtle for Santa to notice.