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Hi @TristanTheTristan! Perhaps I should have said "switching to a different plugin" instead of proposing the word "fix"! It might just be me, but doesn't that Pizz sound a bit... blurry, or muffled? It could just be my ears playing tricks on me (haha). I found myself thinking that something like "Berlin Free Orchestra" or "SSO Discover", whatever has a clearer sound, might have been a better choice. But it comes down to personal preference, so it might not be a big deal after all. In any case, thank you for sharing your work! I liked it! Best, Lithl.

Hello @Alex Weidmann , this post is a bit „off topic“, I wanted to respond to your yesterday’s post „Drozdov - Au Tombeau De Rachmaninoff (orchestration)“, which has now disappeared (for good reasons). But the “internet” never forgets (I, fortunately had the page still open ... 🤪), so I can quote one of your lines: „I'm totally hooked on orchestration now. You enter notes from a score, like a recipe, and something magical comes out! And it's in a form no one's ever heard before. What could be better than that?„ Yes, that’s been my experience too, that - while it does take a lot of effort to expand a piano piece (let’s say with four or six voices) to an entire orchestra which literally has more than 30 „tracks“ that can be used – it is really fun to play around with the instruments. Normally, my compositions are for piano (and I think I’ll continue to compose pieces entirely for piano first, before I begin orchestrating them), so that I thought for a long time, I would not be interested in pieces for full orchestra. But there were two experiences during the last few month which have caused my interest in orchestration to grow more and more: First, there is a choir and an orchestra in Berlin (the “Orso Choir”) that were founded by a very dynamic man and are under his direction. About twice a year, they perform special arrangements orchestrated by the conductor at the Berliner Philharmonie —for example, interpretations of rock music, film scores, or even themes from video games. And even though these genres aren’t usually among my interests, it’s great fun to watch the conductor “play” with his “toy”—the symphony orchestra. The second was a performance of of Dvořák’s “Stabat Mater” with a full orchestra and a massive choir (430 singers). This was a real fun, not only because of the bombastic sound, but also because I was able to follow Dvořák’s orchestration live. For example, in the opening movement, Dvorak stays very long on the harmonies and even single tones – letting them „rotate“ through the entire orchestra. At one point, you hear and see the cellos playing a chord while the double basses accompany them with pizzicato. A moment later, you can still hear the chord, but you see that the cellos have stopped playing, and after a moment of surprise, you realize that the horns have taken over and the pizzicato has been reinforced by the timpani. Yet the transition was so seamless that you didn’t even notice the change in instruments, only a slight shift in timbre. So, let’s go on orchestrating (and composing)! Wieland

I don’t think that you—as a composer at this level, as here at the YCF—should try too hard to develop a personal style, since it seems impossible to me to even intend to do so; for, on the one hand, “almost everything” already exists in terms of musical forms, systems, and languages, and on the other hand—even if one of us were the absolute genius who shapes and influences an entire era—he would unfortunately never live to see it, since such groundbreaking developments are usually only recognized decades or even centuries after the composer’s death. With that said, one should not bother much about it, since a personal musical language actually develops almost automatically as long as your composition exercises and works aren’t too “random,” you follow a consistent approach in your work, and try to incorporate only a few influences from different musical styles or languages into your next piece, rather than imitating a specific style in one piece and then switching to the style of a completely different composer or era in the next. After a year of being a member here on the forum and participating in three competitions or events, I think, I could identify some composers based on their “personal style”—for example (this is a very arbitrary list and by no means exhaustive …): @UncleRed99 – famous for the „warmth“ in its pieces, its chord progression and beautiful utilization of woodwinds. @Fruit hunter – very interesting percussion pieces. @Fugax Contrapunctus – everything about fugues and canons in an extremely thorough, intellectual (and even theoretical) way. @HoYin Cheung – mostly atonal pieces, especially for strings. @L.S Barros – influenced by renaissance and baroque, often utilizing brass ensembles and perhaps myself – counterpoint composition technique, voice leading, and mixed with influences from the 20th century, always starting as piano piece, but more and more orchestration examples ... Maybe for one of the next contests, we could make the submissions anonymous and award badges to the reviewers who correctly guess the most composers… (perhaps a silly idea).

Fair point. I agree with this (without nostalgia, of course). It seems that because people are being exposed to so many musical languages today, there can be an underlying sentiment that "all music is equal". Or else the classical canon is treated as something sacred and inviolable, and its composers above all criticism. Either approach bypasses the hard and necessary work of actually understanding WHAT makes these pieces work, on a level deeper than that of surface rule-following (since rules evolve and change, but the principles behind music don't). Quoting Boulez here: "In order truly to harness the power of the classics, you have to dig deeper, reach down to what made them behave in a particular way, to understand and to analyze their approach. It is not enough to observe the results and to dispossess them (quotation, stylistic imitation, etc.); creativity does not have sufficiently powerful thematicism at its disposal, but becomes spent, though referencing and distorting, no longer able to forge material only for itself."

Talk of "innovation" is a moot point when we are inundated with music that isn't even "good" to begin with. If something is new, but it sucks, then it doesn't matter how different it is. So the conversation is kind of cart before horse. People mistakenly assume, in a world right now of endless remakes, re-releases, etc. that the problem is a lack of "new ideas". The reality is that we, as a society, are not presently able to replicate what made the the old things great in the first place. And if we can't do that, then no "innovative" idea is going to be worth a damn.

CALLING ALL ARTISTS! I need someone to help me make the cover page better. Thanks!

Hi Wieland, Thank you so much for your detailed review! When I encounter the squiggly arpeggiation symbol on a piano chord, I tend to either put these in the harp; or ignore the arpeggiation altogether and make them into block chords distributed across an instrument group. As for the key signature, I'm reliably informed it's nothing to worry about. Not having the option to use open strings is not really a problem, since the string section are trained not to use them anyway, unless specifically indicated in the score. (That's because they're too resonant, and tend to stand out like a sore thumb against the other notes.) Apparently E flat minor is no problem at all for the harp, and does not place any extra strain on the instrument. Also for transposing instruments, they will be looking at a key signature with fewer accidentals: so it doesn't cause them any issues either. I think the idea that this key is a problem is something of a myth. (N.B. The tutor who told me this, has worked with the London Symphony Orchestra: so he definitely knows what he's talking about!)

I really liked it. The beginning at least sounds a bit like the music from the Zelda video game series. Thanks for sharing… definately keep making music like this. I’ll be coming to listen!

@CrystalCanon I think the current landscape of academic music is complicated. On the one hand, the few major venues that remain play it safe and, yes, every now and then, they programme something from the 20th century. Contemporary composers are rarely programmed, and often these are commissions that result in a premiere and little else, with a few exceptions. Ideally, more opportunities should be given to this contemporary music. Another issue concerns composers who build their careers within a closed environment such as music academies or conservatoires, where they have access to musicians to perform their works. As for the idea of learning from all sources and styles, that’s only logical. But it strikes me that many people have little or no interest in listening to, let alone learning how, other styles work. What strikes me even more are those who, when writing music, limit themselves to imitating very specific periods, whilst showing no interest in anything else. And I also agree with your final point. Each person’s preferences influence their objective compositional style. I, for example, thoroughly enjoy the Baroque, the style galant and Romanticism, though I’m less keen on Classicism. And I’ve studied everything from the Renaissance right through to rotational matrices… Yet my preference is for the modern language of music, from Impressionism onwards. In order to start doing something in that vein, I’ve had to spend a long time learning (with great pleasure) about tonal music, and I still enjoy it to this day.

But you're not implying that composers should imitate all the classical, romantic, and 20th century composers that are getting into programs, right? I don't know--I'm not discouraging eclecticism in any way, but I'm a bit wary of composers imitating other composers simply because they are the ones currently being programmed. Popularity is often a good signal to dig into examine someone's work more closely, examine it's "why". But I think it also pays off to be honest about the music you really like, what inspires you on an intuitive and visceral level. Sometimes it just isn't worth compromising. Agreed--you often don't know what works for you and what doesn't unless you try. The music one listens to can be different from the composers that actually influence your creative processes. You can't develop any kind of original style without all the practical work of trying out many different things (and accumulating many failed sketches in the process!) I think the personality of the composer also has a lot to do with that, besides just the professional/amateur divide. Or maybe those who feel the need to define their singular "personal voice" are also those more likely to commit to a head-on, professional career. But I think both approaches can be quite respectable.