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Thanks for the opportunity to provide feedback, and sorry I think I forgot about your reply. I just rechecked my notifications and found yours, so here are my comments. Hopefully this isn’t too late. First off I think you have a lot of nice ideas. You have a composer’s intuition, and these ideas sound like things I would have written when I was first starting. You have a nice sense of melody and accompaniment, and each of the phrases seems to pair the melody with an accompaniment pattern or echo pretty well. I think this is a high quality start to future composing yet to come. Finding it’s already good, I think each of these ideas of yours could actually become their own pieces. Changing meters so often makes it sound like a separate thing, so could you consider making a separate piece out of something like measures 1-16? Then I think the next easy improvement in quality would be varying up your melodic and harmonic pacing. It sounds like each idea has a similar feel for 3 or 4 measures out of the phrase, so could you look into some of Ryan Leach’s videos on Period and Sentence form? Here’s one: Cheers, and happy composing:)

Wow! I drop this here and look away for a moment (or several weeks), and y'all bless me with an embarrassment of riches in your comments! I'm so sorry I'm just now getting around to replying, but I've been a bit unwell. I suffer from Bipolar Disorder Type 2, which causes dramatic mood swings fairly frequently (I also have ADHD, but that's another story), and over the last couple of months I've been having a lot more bad days than good...some days I have trouble even getting out of bed, which is a pretty serious depression. I saw my physician recently, and he adjusted my medications, so I'm hoping to feel better more often soon. Today happens to be an exceptionally good day by recent standards, thank God. Thank you very kindly to all who listened and commented. I'm going to try to reply to various points and specific questions in these posts in the order they came below. I appreciate your complimenting the orchestration. I've never studied orchestration formally, I just put down what I hear in my head pretty much. Are you an oboist? Just guessing from your user name. I should probably post my oboe concerto and see what you (and others) think. Ah yes! That secondary theme is one of my favourite moments in the whole movement too...and you mentioning it gave you a similar feeling to Beethoven makes my heart flutter! 🙂 Oh my God! 😞 I had no idea! I suppose I've never actually looked at a score for a concerto. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Thanks! I'd love that too. There is a chamber orchestra in Wichita that performed my 9th Symphony a couple of years ago, I've thought of showing the score to their director to see what he thinks of it, and if he'd like to program. It of course calls for a first-rate flautist, but maybe he's got one in his back pocket. I'm going to take your suggestion and leave this piece just as is. Was it Beethoven who retorted, "it wasn't written for you" when someone complained that his work was unplayable? Everything is unplayable until some intrepid soul plays it. So, you liked my Polonaise eh! I'm very gratified. It still brings up the hairs on the back of my neck, especially the ending. I've written a number of Polonaise insertions in various movements of my work, but this is the first time, I'm pretty sure, that I made a whole movement out of one. It's so grand and expansive. I did some research online to see how the dance was actually done, and it's wonderful! I read somewhere that in Europe, and especially in Russia (and Poland I'm sure), the Polonaise was the first dance played, to give everyone the opportunity to show off their fabulous clothes. And yes, it was me who wrote that my favourite National Anthem is that of Poland, which amazingly enough is a Mazurka. I've written a stand-alone Mazurka as well, for strings, as part of my Sundry Dances collection. By all means, give your vision of blending the US and Polish National Anthems a try. They share the same metre, which is part of the puzzle solved already. Thank you! What inspired the piece? Nothing in particular. I was driving to my friend's house one day, and I came up with the idea for the opening theme out of thin air. it happens a lot like that to me. When I got home, I plugged it into Finale, and in a few hours, I had the orchestra introduction finished. I'm almost ashamed to say that I've never read an orchestration book. I taught myself orchestration, basically by writing down what I hear in my head...if I don't hear something in my head, but Finale playback sounds like something is missing, it's trial and error to find it out, but most of the time I hear things more or less fully formed in my head. I'm more like Mozart and less like Beethoven that way, though these days I'm trying to emulate early Beethoven more. Someone else here recommended Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov's book, which I have been told is excellent. Hector Berlioz also wrote a "Treatise on Instrumentation" that I gather may even go even further afield, being that he was an extremely experimental composer for his time. Good luck! I didn't used to be a big fan of concerti either. It took me a long time to finally write a whole one (my Horn Concerto in E-flat of 2014). There are so many really great concerti that for a long time i just didn't feel like I had anything in particular to add to the pile. But my feelings have changed, and now I have several other concerti planned, though not started yet. I really want to write concerti for piano, violin, and 'cello. Thanks for your compliments and comments on all three of the movements. I'm so glad this piece made you feel "right at home!" And thanks for sharing this piece with your friends! By all means, if you'd like, subscribe to my YouTube page...I have literally hundreds of scrolling-score videos of almost all of my music that I consider worth sharing there. I can always use more subscribers. 🙂 I use an application call Bandicam. It's pretty easy to use. I recommend paying a few bucks to buy the full version of the software, or you'll have watermarks all over your music. Just set the area of the screen containing your score (in scrolling mode, preferably, if available on your notation software...I use Finale, for now anyway), hit F12 to start recording, then hit play in your notation software, and voila! When the piece is done, hit F12 again, and recording stops. The output is an MP4 file, uploadable to YouTube, and a WAV file. Hope that helps. Dear God, it's 4:17AM Central Daylight Time and I'm just now wrapping this up. Thanks again all of your for you kindness and generosity of spirit! All best!

piano orchs.mp3 um (1).pdf

I've recently been rediscovering the Metroid series Crazy story: About 12 years ago, I covered this song with a friend on OCR. I believe our mix is still up, and someone actually made a guitar hero cover of it.

Seasons greetings one and all! Just wanted to share this little experiment I tried this week, where I deconstructed Mozart's Requiem, then used little fragments to try and fashion a new piece. Later I decided to quote part of Mozart's work at the end: so it ended up a bit like a theme and variations in reverse. Not sure I'm done with it yet; though it may be finished? Including part of the original work probably just serves to show how weak my choral writing and voice leading is compared to Mozart's! I've a feeling it's a complete failure; but was fun to try. Anyway let me know your thoughts, if you have time.

If you're just wanting an orchestra to perform your uncommissioned music, then they may charge a rate to print sheet music copies and otherwise prepare the piece. Especially for student pieces. Like, recording an orchestra for example typically costs 10s of thousands per hour. In concert music, if they commission a piece, they would pay for that piece and then pay out performance royalties to the PRO on top of that. Also in concert music, if they did not commission the piece, but choose to perform it in a concert, the composer is paid royalties through their PRO. BUT I'm not aware of many orchestras outside of music college ones being in the business of playing concert pieces that that don't already come from classical repertoire, films or video games anyway. In short: If it's for a concert and you're trying to get them to play your piece in it, they may want some amount of money to prepare the piece, but not a raw fee simply to "play" it. They have to pay to play it. But it is a bit of a moot point. Most orchestras, at least that I'm aware of, won't even give an unknown composer consideration for concerts.

“Parallel fifths are allowed as long as there is a reason. There are moments when, to give a different timbre and texture and make a difference, it’s enough to truly justify it. Nothing is forbidden; otherwise, our horizons would never expand.”

Nothing wrong about parallel fifths, just write them, if you mean to. Do not write them in pure counterpoint, unless you mean to.

lol where do you quote this from? Tao Te Ching has only 81 stanzas…

Updated with @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu's performance... thanks Henry! I think so!

Beast of a piece, let me know what you all think!

Hey Vince! Nice prelude! Does this mean you're just going to keep writing more of these periodically? It would be cool! I think the tonic 6/4 chord in the last bar makes me expect a V before resolving to the final chord. It's such a well worn norm in classical music to hear the I 6/4 either followed by a dominant or a cadenza. Considering that a V/V and bII6 are both pre-dominant function chords, I don't think it would be unusual to transition from one to the other, especially since the V/V can function as a tritone substitution of the bII. But there are no bII's in those bars. In bar 2, the implied chords are V/V, IV, ii7b5, with an anticipation of the return to the tonic in bar 3. Then in bar 5, there is a resolution to vi. The only place where a bII appears anywhere in this piece (as Vince mentioned) is in bar 9 beat 3 but it's in root position with the 3rd omitted. But thanks for sharing Vince!

Piotr, Thank you so much for doing this massive Muzoracle casting for me! I am absolutely blown away by the effort and thought you put into interpreting it and composing the music. I love how you translated the 'Silence' card by starting the piece with a single, isolated A note, and then brought the music to a beautiful, balanced place with the Violin's high chord for 'Harmony.' It's amazing how you used that whole ensemble—the Trumpet, French Horn, Flute, Violin, and Vibraphone—to tell the story of the cards. Hearing how the piece resolves on the final E♭ major chord after all that complexity gives it such a confident feeling! It actually makes me feel quite hopeful about my breath, notation !

Hello again @Tunndy! Nice ideas! I think the following parts with 16th notes: should be notated as either being in 6/16 (or you could double all the note values and use 6/8). I've marked the strong beats as red down arrows and the weak beats as black up arrows. That's at least how I hear the rhythmic stresses in your piece. Thanks for sharing!

The ideas you have written down are very good ,either continue with the structure you have with your peice or use these ideas in variations and what not. it looks like you already set up some variations as well. Sometimes I think when a dotted quarter note that is unisonly played feels a little bit amateur to me. If you wanna sound professional, definitely fill in those spaces. Like a downward 16 note run you could use. The flow and direction of the music is very open and you could benefit from a lot so definitely keep on finding and trying what works best for you anyways good work and amazing work.

This one is a little bit minor, little bit dorian, kept it on the simpler side. 😄 I hope you enjoy, and as always all comments and thoughts are welcome!

20247637.mp3 Sagai Go (Reprise).pdf I have reworked this piece since I last shared it, a few months ago. Sort of at a loss for what to do next, so I've been going over some older scores, correcting mistakes, improving harmonies and adding sections in places where it felt lacking. This score in particular, I had always felt was missing something; like the last section into the outro was rushed. So I added in a section between there to smooth out the transition into the outro, and have also changed the key of the score. I think it came out quite beautifully. I wasn't very scrutinizing to it for much else other than it's flow. If there are other mistakes that I missed, please feel free to call em' out 🙂

Idk, I still think the flow is off. Maybe its just a stylistic preference, but the cadences into rests, then starting back up again threw me off. I kept thinking the music ended, but then it kept going. It's nice as it is though, its a really great picture type of piece, like a tone poem. I just think it could have been shorter if you like it the way it is, to me its begging for contrast. Not necessarily something crazy, like throwing green paint on a black and white drawing. But for instance, your harmonic texture is nearly the same throughout. You change chords at the same rate, which makes it monotonous after a while. That can be fine, but we never went somewhere else, so it staled a bit to me. It was very pretty, and as always your coloring is fantastic. The sax is always a nice touch, and Im a fan of your style! Thanks for sharing bruh

I have written another piece for my friend Kat's Casting! This time Kat asked the Muzoracle if she will graduate from a 4-year university. (Muzoracle is a storytelling/divination tool similar to the Tarot card deck, but with cards with musical concepts and 12-sided Musician's dice and Solfege dice.) My interpretation of the cards and dice are displayed below. Since the first card drawn was a Conductor of Percussion card, I chose to use Piano, an instrument that Kat likes. The second card drawn was a Major 7th of Woodwinds, so I chose Clarinet, an instrument that Kat used to play. And finally the third card drawn was an Octave of Voices card, so I chose a solo Soprano singer. If you'd like to find out more about Muzoracle and how castings are interpreted go here: https://muzoracle.net/ This short musical interpretation of Kat's Casting is about a minute and a half long. Since the black 12-sided Musician's Die landed on F, the piece is in the key of F major. I created the following melodic/harmonic underdrawing guided by the cards and dice. The first solfege die landed on Ti and the card indicated a percussion instrument - in this case, Piano. So I had the Piano start solo on an E (in the left hand). Then I had the Clarinet and Soprano enter on an anacrusis into a melody that uses E, Db, C, and B. Since the interval of a Minor 2nd is prominent in the casting, I decided to transpose the whole melodic/harmonic underdrawing down a Minor 2nd giving me access to tones needed to create a V7 of F. I then used that dominant to bring the piece into F major and repeat the melodies and harmonies at the pitch level of F before repeating the piece and ending on an F7 #11 chord. I also liberally used accelerandi and ritardandi, guided by the accelerando/ritardando card in the 1st position. If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading! And I hope you enjoy listening to this short chamber work I wrote to represent Kat's Casting. Comments, critiques, suggestions, or observations are of course, always welcome. Thanks for listening!

Judging by the music, I'd say no lol Aside from that, the music is really cool! The delay effect is haunting, and you've once again woven randomness into a great piece of music. Nice work there Peter

Yeah, and also more advanced pieces in your portfolio will definitely help!

@PeterthePapercomPoser Thank you! I am planning to create website. Hopefully professional one: one linked to soundcloud and youtube. But that takes time.

Omicronrg9 started the fashion of making a portfolio page in the "About Me" section of his profile: Now Henry, me, and many other composers on YC use this section to display a press kit/portfolio of compositions in their profile.

So far this is one of my favorites that you have done. The trio work well together, and this is certainly one of the most unique castings you've composed. I can see this being converted to just a piano, if you ever wanted to create an Etude out of this. It would be fun to play and listen to, and potentially falls into that Etude category. And like always, your recordings are getting really, really good.

For me, this will always be the catchiest song from a video game. It keeping popping into my head quite often in the most random moments since its release so many years ago.

There was something I was going to say about this part specifically and I remember like 3 days ago saying "When I get home I have to remember to say it" but now I'll be damned if I can remember what it was.

Well, keep in mind I don't write concert orchestral works much and neither did the composers I worked with when they were recording orchestras. So I'm not an expert on concerts. But from what I DO know about concert composers: Most of them come through academia. If you're a student, that's your best shot. Some churches might also have small orchestras. Otherwise, volunteering or getting some other job with an orchestra and building up a network with orchestra directors and what not you may eventually get them to perform some of your shorter pieces (not much longer than 4 minutes) in a concert. If you really build up a good relationship with them, they might even start commissioning you, which a single commission could be a 5-figure amount of money. But that would probably take years of networking and essentially proving yourself. The reason it's so difficult to get an orchestra to play new music in a concert, even if it is very good, is that orchestras have become very niche and they need repertoire on the bill that is basically guaranteed to put butts in seats; names that people recognize. If there are too many names people don't know, then they risk not selling many tickets. That's why so many concerts these days pull from games and films: It's the best source of "new" material that people will pay to see. Honestly, you may just want to reach out to orchestras near you and straight-up ask them about playing your pieces and what sort of hoops you'd have to jump through (don't phrase it like that though).

Well, that sounds cool! I will give it a listen!

I find the music in the tradition of Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota .... their Italian movie scores ... a bit of Film Noire here ... hauntingly beautiful music. Mark

Thank you for your compliment! This is not a lyric adapted from any Celtic legend. It's something I came up with myself, and the inspiration came from the game "Warcraft III".

Hi there, I understand you were trying to write a barcarolle. Let break this down. You have the correct meter 6/8 and the right tempo (moderato). That is step in the right direction. However, you do not have the folk like character that piece calls for. Remember...you are writing a character piece that mimics a folk song that Venetian gondoliers would sing. Thus, the theme needs to be lyrical in character. And the bass line, none the less, needs to support that. I recommend watch this: Chopin examples

Hi. You know, I took inspiration from your 'About me' (actually, it is about you, but nevermind.) section. Thank you very much for that! I really appreciate it.

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!

Thanks for your comments. I honestly don't know why I wrote this with the flute part on top. I suddenly was worried that all my other concerti were written this way as well, but I checked, and all the others were written correctly. So who knows? I consider myself a Classical Revivalist mostly, though I can and do write in other styles occasionally. As such, it has always been extremely important for me to be as authentic as possible, and I'm very glad that comes to the fore. I have my own personal style within Classicism, but my stuff is always going to smack a little of Mozart, Haydn, and early Beethoven (the latter of which I'm particularly attempting to emulate lately, with varying degrees of success). I was shooting for 1800 to 1810 as the specific pinpoint for much of this work, so it might not have seemed that groundbreaking during that later time frame, especially considering what Beethoven was doing, though I realize the 2nd movement especially sounds a bit earlier. As for scrolling score videos, Google an application called Bandicam. Shell out a few bucks for the full version, or your music might get covered with watermarks...it's not that expensive if I recall rightly. It's pretty easy to use.

Hi Lisa! Piotr is our admin here and welcome to our forum! Henry

I've been impressed with some of Benjamin Wallfisch's stuff. Especially on "It", which I'm not into that kind of horror movie, but I was surprised listening to the score how melodic it is. I also really loved the score to del Toro's new Frankenstein movie, which is one of the most melodic scores I've heard come out of Hollywood in a long time. It's by Alexandre Desplat and it even plays *gasp* during dialogue and doesn't distract from it like directors all feared for the last 20 years.

Mysterioso in E Minor is a piece I made for a full orchestra. It is approximately 3:50 long and has 122 measures. I'm looking for feedback on the overall composition and how well I orchestrated it. (P.S. I might change the name to "Adventure in E Minor" due to its wide range of themes, emotions, and tones.)

😆 I'm sure my big hands can get hold of them haha

Morning @Thatguy v2.0 Here is mine review of the prelude: The overall structure is built is first on opening phrase. I love how you use this idea and expand on it. The anticipation of each chord of each phrase is nice resolution of the chromatic raising line. I think the implied harmonies: I-V/V-bII6-I. This now makes ask...why are we going from V/V to bII6? 🙂 The answer: this is not a typical resoultion of the seconary dom...

Hey @Tunndy! Although I don't think that this orchestration is entirely in good taste (with some parts still sounding quite mechanical and robotic such as especially the triplet 16th note runs) I think it's a huge improvement over your other orchestrations of famous piano pieces! You didn't include the piano in the orchestration as a crutch, and you use the instruments mostly idiomatically, making good solo instrument choices and giving the different instruments a chance to imitate each other creating changes in timbre that were original and most definitely not intended in the original. I like how you let the solo flute lead with the main melody, using the strings at first only to outline the harmony. Later you include some variations on the main melody to extend it. Then you include harp arpeggios in a way that sounds appropriate to a harp rather than a piano. You also create lots of variation and contrasts between restatements of the melody that in the original were the same. I like your use of dynamics and thickening up of the texture and creation of dramatic moments with the timpani. All in all, I think this was a very successful orchestration! (despite some things I would have excluded) Great job and thanks for sharing!

Hey everyone. I have been going back and forth on my first piano concerto for a long time. Unfortunately, I reached a point where my original design has acted as a roadblock for me to finish the first movement. I decided to restart the work and compose from scratch. I will add more context below, however as an introduction, this excerpt is the entire exposition of my first draft. It is five minutes long and I wish to have it preserved here on YCF. So, sit back, and follow along to the work-in-progress of my first concerto! 🎹 ________________ CONTEXT AND FEEDBACK: I started this project back in June 2024 when I improvised the first theme in one of my practice sessions. I fell in love with it and immediately knew I found a theme worthy for a concerto. I am sticking to late classical (and possible romantic hints) for this work. Hummel, Shostakovich, and Rachmaninoff are the main three sources of inspiration for my orchestration. It follows Sonata-form, however using three themes (1st, 2nd and closing theme) in the exposition. Recently, as I have been diving heavily into the works of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, it has dawned on me the level of sophistication each composer had in their writing. How Beethoven would use elements of the first theme to make his second theme, and later use the first movement as basis for theme and variation writing or fugal writing in his third movements. So, after a break in the first half of the year, I have been looking at this exposition and tried to add sophistication. However, I noticed so many gaps in the structure. As it stands, it feels like a compilation of several themes versus one long work showcasing the transformation of the motif and form. As a result, I have stopped working on it and grabbed a blank manuscript and wrote down the key three themes I want to use. I have yet to start rewriting, as I want to give my brain a break and simply ask for feedback. I would appreciate comments on form, orchestration and anything you deem fit. Please do not hesitate to be blunt either! (I may try to write pure double exposition instead of this quasi-expo before the first piano cadenza.) Thanks in advance!! 🙂 _________ EDIT: There is no English Horn in this work so far. I used my Orchestral template and forgot to remove the English Horn from the instrumentation page. Also, The score is NOT TRANSPOSED; it is a concert score)

Nostalgic vibe there. Do you think of the harmony first or melody?

Hi @UncleRed99! Clearly I forgot your original post so I will just treat this as a complete new one lol. I think so too, I enjoy this Japanese style music with a slight sadness but not too much. I feel like in b.51 the transition to a louder passage is a bit abrupt, maybe add a gradual transition with a volume crescendo before it? Because for me it's the only place I feel abrupt in the entire piece even though there are other spots with the tacit after a fermata. I feel like the trumpet melody in b.61-63 is too high in its register and will overpower the other instruments. Overpowering is ok but I think it doesn't fit your style here too much personally. And in b.53-57 there's an imitation between oboe and saxophone, but I think the oboe is overpowered by the saxophone so the imitation is not the most effective. And in b.94-95 I feel like the accompanying figure is given too much emphasis particularly with the 1st violin and trumpet. Maybe remove the trumpet? I sound nitpicky, but I do enjoy the piece! Thx for sharing. Henry

Uton mid blisse dancian! Lovely work ... Mark

Installment 3 of posting my old pieces, please enjoy this lied from 2018

Hi! I just finished another choral piece, based on Dylan Thomas' famous poem "Do not go gentle into good night"... According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_go_gentle_into_that_good_night), this poem was written for his dying father before Christmas, and below is a brief summary... In the first stanza, the speaker encourages his father not to "go gentle into that good night" but rather to "rage, rage against the dying of the light." Then, in the subsequent stanzas, he proceeds to list all manner of men, using terms such as "wise", "good", "wild", and "grave" as descriptors, who, in their own respective ways, embody the refrains of the poem. In the final stanza, the speaker implores his father, whom he observes upon a "sad height", begging him to "Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears", and reiterates the refrains once more. Do not go gentle into that good night Dylan Thomas (1914 - 1953) Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated 🙂 Once ready, I'd also like to work on some notations, piano reductions, etc... Have a nice day!

So I'm going to attach the score here, you will be able to see the voice movements and text enjoy!

I decided to write for trio plus voice using a poem by Sarah Mangold. The poem at first seems quite bizarre. The list of observations ("celestial winds", "rainbows", "kidneys", "gesture of remembrance") highlights the randomness and diversity of things we might notice in life. Each has its own significance but it's unclear which will ultimately matter. So as a result the poem makes little sense, until some thought is put into it. "Perishing the keeper" might refer to the inevitability of death and the loss of those who hold or keep memories, knowledge, or roles. "Footless birds of paradise" combines a paradoxical image with a symbol of exotic beauty. Birds of paradise are known for their stunning appearance and unique behaviors. The term "footless" might suggest something unattainable or ethereal, enhancing the sense of mystery and beauty. I decided to put this poem to music by having a feeling of indeterminacy. There's a home, it's all tonal, by it is all unstable. You'll notice a lack of slurs and articulation, instead just the word "dry"; there is in general supposed to be lack of 'emotion', in a unuseful placidity. Let me know if this is effective or what I could do better.

Since Covid made singing in groups so unsafe, choirs have taken a real hit to their membership, and many are still smaller than they were before the pandemic. I wrote this piece to be performable by a small group. The range of the baritone part should be manageable by either tenors or basses, since they are generally the smallest sections in a choir, to help with balance issues. The baritone part does divide a bit for the sake of interest and to give any bass 2s a break from their high range, but as the piano and other parts are generally covering those splits, they can be done away with if a group only has a single male voice, or a conductor chooses to put all their tenors and basses on a single line to improve balance against larger soprano and alto sections. The ranges of the soprano and alto parts are also moderate enough that an alto 1 could sing soprano or a soprano 2 could sing alto in the case of unbalanced sections. I've mainly limited dynamics to mp and mf, since smaller groups are more likely to have blending and balance issues at very loud dynamics or sound timid at softer ones. I'd love to know your thoughts, particularly pianists! (I'm not a pianist). Does anything seem particularly awkward, or should be written for the other hand? Would the thorny accidentals at measure 63-64 be easier to sight-read at speed if I used the Cb and Bbb enharmonic equivalents, so those righthand notes were in paired thirds going up and down the scale? Thank you for your thoughts! Revelation 21 KJV 1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

This is a motet I composed based on a poem written by ChatGPT. Also, I'm not sure many people will notice, but this motet was also heavily inspired by Bach's BWV Anh. 159 ""Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn." What do y'all think? Any criticism regarding word placement and counterpoint is greatly appreciated!