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A piece I wrote in Sibelius a couple years ago just to get an idea out, which I then had a lot of fun seeing where I could take it. Hope you enjoy!

I think that this is an excellent form! I am going to start writing Sententiae!

Opus 300 is an amazing landmark, so well done! Just by looking at the score, I am very impressed with these pieces. I have not listened to the audio yet, but once I have I will comment more deeply. (Sorry, this might be really unhelpful)

The transition between the two moods could be more fluid or dramatic, but you have done well at conveying the individual moods clearly, and you have natural melodic flow. I really like that you are trying to tell an emotional story. I'm not an expert on form, but I think a nice trick you could try to employ is to let some recognizable elements (motifs/themes/rhythms/harmonic devices/whatever) carry over from mood 1 to mood 2 to give the piece coherency despite mood changes. Given your described inspiration source, I hear the wilderness before and after, but I hear all the destructive wildlife arriving at once with no foreshadowing, and all the chirping birds and butterflies disappearing at once. That's not necessarily wrong in itself. If the story was that you were hiking in the woods one day, went home, then returned next week and saw that everything had changed, then we wouldn't observe a gradual transformation from the hiker's POV, but in that case we are maybe missing a pause from leaving the woods, and anticipation building as the hiker returns, followed by the dramatic discovery of the change. For example, you could have an intro to the cheery section (the hiker approaches the wilderness), then, following a short departure after that section (the hiker goes home - a brief silence or some restive transition), repeat the intro (the hiker returns) in order to falsely promise the return of the butterflies, but then betray the listener with discordant shock (all the birds and butterflies are dead). If your story should rather use gradual transformation (omniscient narrator - we see the transformation happening before our floating eyes), I think a nice trick to go from idyllic to dark is to play a dissonant, maybe off-key pedal point (a sustained bass note that juxtaposes the harmony), and then gradually pervert the music above into something more sinister. There are many ways to skin a cat. It's a very nice first piece all in all.

How does this work? Piano is softer with less reverb and not so wide in the mix. I am a fan of Thomas Newman, especially his 'Brookes was here' piece, I didn't however have him in mind for this piece. Appreciate the feedback.

This is my latest cinematic orchestral piece "Gone". I would appreciate your feedback and suggestions. Click the YouTube link below: "Gone" by Karisa L. Clark

Here's something a bit different. I've always been a big fan of composing in as many mediums as I can get my hands on, and one medium that I've really been getting into over the last couple years is chiptunes. I've done quite a few that I really like but this one is probably my most well-liked so far on the website I participate in (battleofthebits.org). It's quite classical-leaning in many ways, as opposed to a lot of chiptunes which deliberately seek to sound videogame-y. I called it 'ceilidh' because it was inspired by two ceilidhs that I attended during my first week here in Glasgow. A ceilidh, to put it as simply as possible, is a traditional Scottish gathering with song and dance. To me, the term 'chiptune' is distinct from '8-bit' in that a chiptune is music that could actually be physically played on a specific music chip. To prove it, the .mp3 I have uploaded here is an actual recording that another user took of their own NES, playing the music file I had created. It also means there's not much use me uploading the source file, because it was created in FamiTracker which is not notation software.

Hey guys. I've made this peice and seem to be making a lot like this these day. Does anyone know other dudes who sound like me? Or have any feedback for me? I'm kinda in the dark hear. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks