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I wrote a movement in sonata form where all of the phrases in the exposition and development are prime numbers in length in terms of measures. Primes.mp3 Primes.pdf

The Mummy OST by Jerry Goldsmith - Imhotep:

Hello @Alex Weidmann, Congratulations on this fantastic-sounding orchestration of this beautiful piano piece! Even though I’m more familiar with pieces for solo piano and am just at the beginning of my “orchestration career,” I have to admit that the orchestrated version is calmer and gentler than the piano original, where the difficulty of the piece remains perceivable, even in a professional recording. Having an entire orchestra „at its disposal“ gives the chance to create seamless transitions between the various passages and moods from one instrument to another, and – as I’m now also experimenting with orchestration examples, I’m always astonished how well the different instruments blend together, even though they have such distinct timbres on their own. This is a very interesting topic. Having arpeggios in a piano piece tempts one to utilize the harp for that passages. But as Luis demonstrated in his fantastic example, this can be achieved in a more natural way for the orchestra by distributing the arpeggio among several different instruments. However, the „arpeggios“ in this Elegy are real slow (in eight notes), somewhat more in a kind of „broken chords“ which are even written out in full in the original piano score. But what to do if arpeggios in the piano piece are “faster”—that is, block chords preceded by the arpeggio symbol, played the way a harpsichordist would (i.e., with a gap of 32nd or even 64th notes between each note of the chord)? I struggled with that problem in my own orchestration example, in which I tried to achieve the arpeggiated piano texture by distributing it among pizzicato strings, sometimes percussions (vibraphone and glockenspiel), while also retaining much of the original piano notes for the harp. In a „second layer“, the voice leading was then „doubled“ by the remaining „singing“ instruments (woodwinds, brass and some violins). Concerning the usability of the key of E-flat minor for an orchestra, there have been interesting discussions in this thread (and also here in@danishali903 ‘s Nocturne No. 1 in E Flat Minor by Gabriel Fauré (Orchestrated) https://www.youngcomposers.com/t50225/nocturne-no-1-in-e-flat-minor-by-gabriel-faur%C3%A9-orchestrated/ ). The arguments that transposing the piece could make it more playable—for example, for string instruments—cannot be dismissed out of hand. However, as long as there is no actual performance, I would hesitate to transpose the piece to D minor or even E minor. Although there are no longer any physical characteristics distinguishing the various keys since the introduction of the equal-temperament system we use today, there is nevertheless a strong historical and psychological connection between certain moods and their respective keys, a connection that has been “followed” and repeated by numerous composers over the past few centuries, especially in the romantic era. One can even go back to Bach’s Welltempered Clavier where we have the wonderful E-flat minor prelude (in the first book) which is a perfect example for the mood of a „Nocturne“ or „Elegy“, whereas the pieces in E minor are much more „harsh“ and therefore bear the absolute contrasting characteristics. Wieland

The sixteenth Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest is now open. Our annual juried contest spotlights new musical talent from around the world, offering four cash prizes and opportunities to be heard and published. In 2025, we received 127 submissions from 17 countries, including Canada, the U.S. and U.K., Italy, France, Japan, and others. First prize: $500, a composer profile in Musicworks in 2027, and the composition released on the accompanying Musicworks CD. Second prize: $200 and composer coverage on musicworks.ca in 2027. Third prize: $100 and composer coverage on musicworks.ca in 2027. Marcelle Deschênes Prize in Electronic Music / prix Marcelle Deschênes pour la musique électronique: $300 and a composer profile in 2027. This prize is open to entrants who self-identify as female or non-binary. Learn about the prize HERE. *Cash prizes and entry fees are listed in Canadian dollars. REQUIREMENTS Compose and submit an experimental piece in any electronic-music genre—acousmatic, electroacoustic, glitch, soundscape, intelligent dance music (IDM), turntable art, or video music. The contest is open to entries from anywhere in the world and from artists at any stage of their careers. Pieces must be previously unpublished (i.e. not released on a commercially available recording at the time of submission). Maximum length: 10 minutes. Accepted file types: MP3 or MP4 only. Contest entry fee: $30 CAD. Unlimited additional entries are $5 CAD each. All entrants receive a one-year print subscription to Musicworks ($44–$59 value). Contest closes November 9, 2026 Prize details, eligibility, assessment criteria, rules and restrictions, and the entry portal can be found HERE. Previous Electronic Music Composition Contest First-place Winners 2025 Panayiotis Kokoras (Greece/U.S.) 2024 Rocio Cano Valino (France/Argentina) 2023 Ningxin Zhang (China/USA) 2022 Leah Reid (U.S.A) 2021 Mariana Vieira (Portugal) 2020 Rocio Cano Valino (Argentina/France) 2019 Alex Buck (Brazil / California) 2018 Manuella Blackburn (Manchester, U.K.) 2017 Erik Ingalls (Windsor, Ontario) 2016 Craig Aalders (Vancouver, British Columbia) 2015 Juan Camilo Vásquez (Bogotá, Colombia) 2014 James O’Callaghan (Montreal, Quebec) 2013 Margaret Noble (San Diego, California) 2012 Bennett Jenisch (Los Angeles, California) 2011 Ian Battenfield Headley (NYC)

@Luis Hernández Thank you so much for listening and for the feedback! Totally get where you're coming from! While writing these, I kept trying to maintain fairly strict counterpoint, but I found that when both voices became too active, the music started losing some of the calmness I wanted from a lullaby. So in several places I made the second voice more of a harmonic support rather than an equally independent contrapuntal voice. I also found that stepwise motion was really important for the sense of calmness I was going for. So sometimes i prioritized that over strict counterpoint, which led to some of the parallels you noticed. I probably could have found a better balance between the two! And again thanks so much for listening!

I completely agree with this. The thing is, when you’re learning, I think it’s good to explore and delve into a wide range of styles, given that we now have the resources to do so. Of course, it’s a process that, depending on each person’s circumstances, may never end. I think the level of commitment plays a big part here. A professional composer is not in the same boat as people who compose as a hobby (and do so whenever they can). Honestly, as I’m in that second group, I don’t think I’ll ever have time in my life to define a narrow circle of influence. That doesn’t mean, however, that when I set out to write something, I do so within a framework I’ve defined beforehand.

That’s true. Although I’m not sure what implications there are in music being a form of communication. I believe that music is, if anything, a metaphorical language. But the meaning of what it might convey is highly subjective. I certainly don’t believe that innovation has to come through new sounds or things like that. The expansion of the expressive techniques of many instruments has already been fully explored. I was referring more to innovation in terms of style, defined as the set of visual, technical and formal features that characterise a work, an artist or an entire artistic movement. And it is far more difficult to create a new language. As such, I believe there have been very few: modal music centred on a single note, tonal music centred on the triad, and, shall we say, the liberation from that centre in its many expressions. But who knows.

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Hi @Vasilis Michael my friend! Thx so much for your comprehensive review and appreciation! I feel really happy for it! Yeah I hate doing the same thing all the time so I chip and chop here and there to vary the music. I always think in a chamber music every player is independent and at the same time harmonizing and cooperating with each other (just like a fugue but unlike orchestral music) so I always want every player has a chance to shine themselves and communicating in different ways. Yeah I think it will be boring if I don't do so: I could have changed the melody for variation but since I really love that particularly melody, I can only change the instrumentation and keys and texture for varitation, as well as pushing the music forward. I put coherence and motivic development in the first priority in my music since that makes a piece a meaningful entity rather than seperate parts forcefully glued together to be named as a piece. The harmonic language is determined by the Eb-D-C-B motive itself, as there are lots of modulations via major 3rd which is also the main motive of the whole piece. I want that major motive not only controlling micro but also macro aspect of the whole movement as well. Thx for mentioning Brahms, I only notice recently that the whole Clarinet Qunitet is essentially Brahmsian. Yes, the confuso description is added in this revised version since I find it fit to the music. The dark energy here is released by 1st movement's disappointment and despair and may be you can check it out too if you have time (it's 21 minutes long 😬): When I compose I always think of what I want to express and what the music itself wants to express. To me technicality is always means to the ultimate aim of the music: the unique meaning this piece of music can express. So every piece of music has their own life because they have their own thing to express. Being effective is merely a prerequisite for real expression in arts. I am really happy to have discovered your music and invite you to this forum! I love your music even more since recently I am digging Scarlatti's Sonatas one by one. Thx for your review and activity in this forum! Henry