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This forum update was a big one, which is why I put it off for a year. But I have about 90% of things back. As of now, I just made another update. MP3s and PDFs are back and with improvements. We have proper view counts now (finally!). I will be working on getting our old colors back, and don't worry, the logo will be back too. Hopefully I can also bring back the chatbox, I just need a few more days. Another major update which has been quite hidden, is the integration of a new music notation software that I've been working on for some time. That's why I had to update the forum, I'm getting ready for a release of Version 1 soon. The early adopters of Music Jotter will be migrating here and I'll be using the forums for issues and customer management. I'll also be opening up a subscriber tier (The forum will always remain free but the subscriber tier helps me develop Music Jotter, for those interested in the new technology). Overall, this forum software also should be a lot faster, so hopefully we see some improvements with speed!

It's that time again! Time for another Young Composer's Musical Composition Competition and thanks to @TristanTheTristan who has instigated this poll! There are a few things we'd like the members to help us determine (and to help gauge the level of interest in another competition): 1) What should the competition be about? To write background music for one of @chopin 's Retry Bro's YouTube videos. Explanation: @chopin has a new YouTube channel! It's called Retry Bros. and consists of him playing Super Mario Maker levels and coming up with entertaining narration from Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, and other assorted characters. There's also a musical element. So far, Mike has come up with some clever lyrics and used AI to make realistic sounding songs that go along with the video. Now, where you would come in is that you'd be writing background music for one of @chopin 's new videos! To write some kind of autobiographical piece with a paragraph describing how the music portrays the autobiographical material. This one is @UncleRed99 's suggestion. The idea is to "write a piece that simply tells a story about your life, and something meaningful within it. Utilize complex elements to express emotion, tension, or any other desired emotional or mentally relatable expression. Provide a brief summary describing the root of the story being told." @Thatguy v2.0's proposal is for everyone to write a piece about their home landscape. This theme could be called "Landscapes - Soundscapes." @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu bestowed his theme proposal to me so I decided to include another theme in the options: "Sound Mimesis - Acoustic Anatomy". The idea is to use the instruments at your disposal to mimic sounds in your natural environment (although the sounds don't technically have to be created by nature - they could definitely be artificial sounds, but should be mimicked by acoustic instruments). My own idea is for the members to write M&M&M's - Mock-ups, Mash-ups and Medleys. The idea is for the members to take 2 or more preexisting themes from different genres of music and to make mash-ups and Medleys with them. 2) What kind of ensemble should the competitors be free to choose to write for? Solo piano/keyboard or solo polyphonic instrument (such as guitar or harp) One monophonic instrument accompanied by one polyphonic instrument Choice of mixed trio/quartet/quintet of individual instruments Chamber orchestra (string orchestra) Full orchestra 3) How many months should the competition span? (1 month, 2 months or 3 months) The duration of each piece should once again be between 3 - 7 minutes. Reviewing the entries will once again be spearheaded by the members/competitors at large. You are free to use the Official Competition Reviewing Template or you can review the entries in any way you see fit or create a template of your own making! There will be tiered "Ardent Reviewer" badges given out for this event: Featherweight Reviewer - for reviewing 33% of the entries submitted to the event Welterweight Reviewer - for reviewing 66% of the entries submitted to the event Heavyweight Reviewer - for reviewing 100% of the entries submitted to the event We are instituting a policy of not allowing any AI generated works in the competition. Because of this you will be required to detail how you created your piece and submit a PDF score or midi file for the perusal of the staff and members at large.

Hello @Marek , I see, that you have joined the forum recently and now at the first topic you have the fortune – or even the evil – that you’ve received a very detailed review which is not only intended as suggestion on the improvement of your particular piece but useful to all other members in this forum. So I could imagine, that there will be many replies on this topic in the future – perhaps a discussion or even a little dispute about the issues MK_Piano pointed out, especially on engraving. So there is my advice, take that serious, but not personal. I remember on a topic by Frederic Gill where some members had (their own) conversation about details he surely had not in mind and finally was a bit overwhelmed and „overteached“, so that I was a bit afraid he would be too disappointed and would leave the forum at all. Therefore, I now come first to your music, where I only speak from my listening impression: I can really imagine a shore in the morning where the fog is slowly lifting and the sun comes on shining through the clouds. It’s a very calm and serene moment, in which the perception of time seems to be gone away. After you’ve walked an endlessly seeming time at the shore, you turn your head and look back – now discovering the great lighthouse you hadn’t seen before, since it was hidden by the cliffs above, you now have passed. I tell that story to express the sole criticism which I have, and that is the length of the piece in comparison with the things that happen. And in this I can only agree with MK_Piano’s comments on his final pages of the annotated score. Now to the comments concerning engraving: Hello @MK_Piano, thank you for your effort you have put into annotating the score. I think this is helpful not only for Marek, but also to me and many other forum members. There are a few general rules you pointed out which one should follow to achieve a clear score presentation, for example • No dynamics on rests. • Not to prolong notes using ties whenever it is possible to notate otherwise, for example with dotted notes. • No separated rests whenever it is possible to combine them into a larger rest. • No diminuendo to „nothing“ (e.g. unplayable dynamic marks like „pianississimo“). • Some aesthetics (clashing dynamics symbols). And in the examples in that particular score, it is „obvious“ to follow that rules would be a huge improvement. However, as I remember at some of my piano preludes and fugues, there are some situations where I intentionally violated that rules in situations where I find that the score becomes more readable when using tied notes instead of dotted ones or when separating longer rests and put the shorter against the notes of the same length in another voice – to mention some examples. I don’t want to go into detail with this at Marek’s thread here, so I would ask you whether I could discuss that topic with you in the future, for example when I’m about to present that respective pieces here on the forum. One advice I can really emphasize, is to maintain two different scores. One as the „printing“ score to be used for playing from, and one solely for the purpose of recording in your software. I do so with all of my pieces, and the „recording“ score is full of exaggerated articulations, dynamic marks and even micro tempo changes to achieve a satisfying, more realistic recording result wherein I can express my ideas about the interpretation.

I am shocked that you said you are not an orchestration expert! You definitely are an expert for me with your ochestral works posted here! Henry

I am not an orchestration expert, so everything looks very fine to me and is well orchestrated. For the cymbals parts it’s best not to choose a decrescendo on an attack since the decay is already a naturally happening phenomenon. Other than that, I like how the brasses used throughout what you have provided.

liebestraume-no-3 un orchestra.pdfUploading Attachment... I know it's been done before, but I really wanted to try making an orchestral cover for this btw I'm aware that player and tempo markings are a lil weird here, mainly the lack of div. unsi. and player marks for the winds and brass at times, I just didn't bother writing that, as this isn't going to be preformed. feedback would be appreciated :P (unless you're gonna tell me the climax comes too soon, I KNOW) liebestraume-no-3 audio.mp3

I'm creating an absurdist world, where the series link together...so it might be weird if you aren't into that kind of humor lol. But I rely on music to help with storytelling. Here's an example of a musical, but I also started doing mini episodes.

Hello everyone! I‘m very excited looking forward to the next competition I would like to participate. The suggestions concerning the the topic in combination with the instrumentation are very interesting, but also challenging. After a quick look, I’m not really sure yet which topic/instrumentation I would prefer, and which musical idea would best fit for any of them, so I need to take some time thinking about, how to vote in the poll. (Hopefully, I won‘t miss the deadline ...)

That sounds really interesting. Is there a video of @chopin doing something like this that I can watch? I like this idea, as well as the landscape one and the mashup. As for the overall theme, I don’t know—it should be open-ended, right? And as for the duration of the competition, maybe two months at most, so it doesn’t spill over into the next season.

Wonderful suggestions! I am eager to see what this one turns out to be. In my opinion, I wish I voted for two genres as both landscapes or autobiographical writing seems very interesting to me. I do like writing for large orchestra, but for things like this, I find the intimate nature of a chamber group or solo instrument befitting for a few minutes depicting spring. Two months seem very appropriate to start a brand new work and finish it.

This is a very small and simple Fugue i made in one sitting, im still pretty bad at making fugues and baroque music in general, so please have a bit of mercy on me! LOB 53 Fuga.mp3

In what? We haven't decided what competition we're going to hold yet! LoL

I'm in.

@MK_Piano I am a pianist, I've played the intro for this piece, but I haven't gotten around to play the full thing, as I've only been playing for around a year, so it was a bit much for me.

Excellent Rendition............Just like the Real Thing.

Yes, but not yet as I intended. To clarify my ideas, I have attached a version of your latest score with some annotations. I see that you have marked the notes where the other hand takes over. But the markings (m.g. and m.d.) aren’t very helpful for sight-readers, since the note is still written in the “wrong” staff. Sight-reading is about reading chords and intervals—not individual notes. Whenever a note of a chord or interval is written in the “wrong” staff, the recognition pattern that a sight-reader normally uses to identify a chord or interval is inherently lost, forcing the player to identify a single note and add it to the chord/interval being played, which slows down the process. Consequently, such situations require practice and/or memorization, which contradicts the approach of sight-reading and playing the piece “without practice.” Therefore, I very appreciate scores where the chords/intervals are notated as a complete pattern in that staff where it is to be played by the respective hand. I must admit, that such a score looks sometimes a bit „cluttered“ because of the „kneed beams“ and sometimes cross-staff note stems (producing sometimes problems for the collision resolving with dynamics, slurs etc), but if the player finally makes the respective annotations by hand in its score, the readability is reduced, too. Please do not take my comments as personal criticism of your score; rather, they are intended as general advice or as basis for discussion, since I often come across scores here in the forum—even from very experienced composers—that, while well-suited for analyzing voice leading, leave me with the uncomfortable feeling: “Has the composer ever played this piece himself, and did he pay sufficient attention to its playability?” AnnotatedScore.pdf

It saves on every keystroke while you compose, it's like Google Docs; you can just download your midi file. But if basic composition isn't working for you, it could be a browser bug, so if this is the case, I would need more information about your browser. I've tested Music Jotter with Firefox and Chrome, and it should also work with Safari. Here's another trick...as long as your composition plays back, you know it has been saved, because saving your midi file happens before the playback compiles (behind the scenes).

As smooth as the rolling seas with the fog. -fruit hunter approves! I’m a serious note even with MuseScore basic sounds this sounds amazing. This is definitely a good ballad to program into a concert orchestra and we need more music like this although that I may say that the orchestra is kind of a dying art in itself hopefully in the future change will be made that academic full orchestra’s can be existing and play music by composers and just not arrangers This would sound incredibly beautiful with real instruments or even just muse sounds

It will be difficult read, like REALLY difficult.

Hallo @TristanTheTristan , Haha, F-flat major, a key with a double flat in its key signature … But thanks for the link; interestingly, it included some examples where composers actually used F-flat major, at least in certain passages or movements of their works. So you brought me to an idea: Since I have not yet composed my E-major fugue, there might be a spot where I could use F-flat major in a passage with a mood that calls for flats rather than sharps (I associate the mood of flats with „darker“ and „somber“, but also „warmer“ and „mellow“.) But to take it a step further, I should not use F-flat major, but F-flat lydian, so that I could make a key signature change in the score to seven flats in order to stay within the common range of usable accidentals. And the mood of F-flat lydian must be completely confusing: As „dark“ as possible due to the seven flats and „luminous“ at the same time, from the Lydian mode.

Listenable? Very much so - I'd say a beautiful work indeed.

I had this doubt long time ago for tying around 16 times or so and all lost lol.... Later just figure out the seniority rule myself haha Henry

Thanks! It was definitely fun to do. I actually been meaning to update this post. After some chat with @UncleRed99 about Cello playability, I simplified the cello part in the third movement for ease. Overall, a good result for at the time was a silly little project. 🙂

Ties between members for the day won are broken by seniority. So that means that Luis won the day because he's been a member the longest - Henry has been a member 2nd longest and you have been a member here for the shortest amount of time which is why you didn't win the day that day.

Nice stuff. F Sharp?! Why? So many sharps! Anyways, taking a guess, the next thing you compose is in F Flat Major.

Hello everyone, I don’t know whether this is the correct section to post concerning „technical problems“ and suggestions, but I’ll try it. Congratulations to the software refresh of the Young Composers Forum! However, since I’m working in the software branch, I know that customers can sometimes be a nuisance because they’re the first to notice what isn’t working or seems not to be working, or when something has changed from what they’re used to. So I'll have to get used to the new layout first. What I really miss – and I am sure I’m not the first one and that the staff will be already on working around that problem – is, that the attachments, i.e. the PDF files with the scores and the MP3 files with the recordings seem to be lost, which is a big problem for reviewers. Apart from that „bug report“, I noticed that there are a number of placeholders which await to be replaced by real pictures to make the forum „colored again“. Since I’m working for a while on my own website – which I would to present to the members of the forum, too, once published – I have done a lot of „artwork“ during the last few month, so that I could contribute a few pictures as well, if appreciated.

This score was conceived on the idea of building a chord using an interval pattern built as: Root (Any note) > Perfect 5th > Perfect 5th (from the prev. note) > # Semi Tone > Perfect 5th. I found that this gives you (X)min9 every time, regardless of what note you start it on. But built with intervals like this gives it a very wide, open, airy, ethereal sound that I just couldn't get enough of. Additionally, there is some personalized nuance included in the direction and theming of this piece, that is intended to depict a feeling of melancholy, mixed with a sense of hopefulness; It tells a story of losing one's purpose within their life, and struggling to find their way back to a specific goal again. I am having a difficult time sticking myself to a certain structure/form, and struggling to find more direction as to where this piece could go... Any suggestions or comments are highly appreciated :) 32468483.mp3 Aurora.pdf

Hey everyone! I am decided to go ahead and publish my finished works on the forum. I may re-upload some existing works to match this shift, however, let this score mark the second part of this series! No.2 - Ballade for the Dead A Ballade for the Dead was composed for a larger chamber orchestra in 2025 during their call for scores, and unfortunately, did not pass on to the final round of judging. A little defeated, I thought about what to do with the score, and thankfully found inspiration to use it as the first movement of a 3-part suite titled describing the afterlife. It is not yet finished as I am working on the subsequent movements, but am eager to share the start of the project. The pronunciation for the work is meant to be pronounced as the other version "Ballad" instead of "Ballade". I just liked the E better for the spelling 😅. To add, I have found inspiration for a possible choir version depicting the battle between God, Satan and a lonely Priest. Many possibilities to be had! Feel free to leave any comments about the work and I hope to see you all in the next one! (P.S. In my opinion, this work is complete and as of this post, I have no plans to update the score) _______________ PROGRAM NOTE: A Ballade for the Dead is a several-minute long work for chamber orchestra detailing the concept of Death. The piece does not follow a specific storyline, instead, it paints a dramatic and abstract journey through the afterlife. Join the orchestra as they paint the agony, dread, and quiet beauty that might be experienced by a soul as they cross over; whether wandering through Purgatory, facing judgment, or simply drifting beyond, they follow this Ballade of Death. no.7_A Ballade for the Dead.mp3 no.7_A Ballade for the Dead.pdf

This original piano piece has very simple chords and melody, with the goal to create a soft, intimate and peaceful mood. Yet also with some underlying uplifting feeling and emotion. Simple, with 'stirring' quality if you know what I mean. Hope I achieved that. Let me know. 2019: This is an improvisation I made in 2019, recording live into my DAW without following the DAW metronome. So I had it in midi but measures do not follow a metronome beat. I couldn't record to a metronome anyway because there is much intentional rubato in this piece. 2026: Now I wanted to use a better piano sound and that was easy- just play the midi file with a good piano vst. The piano you hear is the UVI Model D Piano vst playing the original midi file I improvised in 2019 (with some minor note improvements) However what was not easy is creating the score! Which requires quantized notes. So I had a lot of work remaking every measure to have midi notes quantized, not for playing, but for the score. So the score does not play the piano but does show the accurate notes of the midi file that is playing the piano. Comments and suggestions welcome! score available for purchase at: https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/se/ID_No/1956655/Product.aspx Follow score pdf:

Hey @MK_Piano ! This is a nice macabre movement. I find that you have a tendency (2:59) to imitate Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata accompaniment - I think you also did this in your Halloween piece. I also recognize the melody that's playing there - I could swear that it's a quote from another Beethoven work - possibly Symphony No.6? I don't know if that was intentional. My overall impression of the piece is that there's definitely identifiable main themes in it - some of them aren't original, and there's also lots of repetition by changing the instrumentation/orchestration of the occurrence of the themes. But I did enjoy listening to this grotesque and dark piece about death! Thanks for sharing!

Your charisma is noteworthy 😀 Also... I got a WWE Intercontinental championship belt from the last competition. Winner gets it... but ask Peter, he has it.

On my birthday, I will be in Poland, (again), so I decided to post this impro earlier! Allegro, Rondo. Adagio. Scherzo. Finale. 4 movements on Happy Birthday.mp3

But I am definitely in.

In this case it was about orchestrating the sketch in the image; I might even make a collection of mini orchestral studies with these kinds of things.

Thanks for the tip!.

I am starting to have ideas if this is the theme, a fantasy based off past indoor percussion shows I played

The Candy Box Album Part Of an Original 8-Trax Album-Series, created in 2000. A1.DARK CHERRY 1.mp3A2.FUDGE NOUGAT 2.mp3A3.CHAMPAGNE TRUFFLE 3.mp3A4.CARAMEL CRUNCH 4.mp3

Thanks for sharing! I have played this work for solo piano and it is one of my favorites to both perform and listen to. I do have some comments about a few things, both from the eyes of a pianist and a composer. However, it’ll be sometime before I can sit down and type it all out in detail. May I ask if you are also a pianist, or if you have played this work in some capacity?

Thank you, Fruit Hunter, yes, I know most of my pieces are rather sparse compared to some of the epic stuff I hear many people making. But I have difficulty dealing with many instruments at the same time, so I tend to use a transparent sound, and then maybe try to use the colours of the various combinations instead. And i like to use harps and celeste to punctuate rhythms and transitions.

Wow, thanks Wieland, I wasn't very sure of what you had been talking about, but those are some very helpful notes you've put in there and it does help clarify what you mean (and also very meticulously well-presented)! Cross-staff beaming, yes, that's probably easier to read than main gauche and main droit text. Hmm. I usually do this sort of beaming with other works of mine so I wonder how I seem to have forgot with this piece. MuseScore 4 is being fussy with me for this and I might need to brute force adjustments to make sure I don't get overlapping stems, noteheads, beams, dynamics, and/or hairpins. I don't have Elaine Gould's Behind Bars but do you know what the convention is for whether to put the beam above or below the midpoint? Here I've gone for the side that has the majority of the notes but I don't know if that is standard: Thanks again for your help, and I do have to say this already looks possibly a bit neater than having m. g. and m. d. smeared across the page. I'm always trying to give my scores a clean and readable look so any feedback is always welcome.

I listened to anticipation and it sounds nice. Very floaty and sparse but still feeling full. Keep up the good work.

This part may be a bit confusing for first time users. I have 2 ways to export midi. As a jot file, and as a midi file. The jot file is actually the file you want to save and load back into Music Jotter. The midi file is the performance file, which is intended to be used in DAWS or other software. I strip it of all the formatting meta data so keep the files lightweight. Download the .jot file, load it back into Music Jotter, and see if that fixes your issue.

Thanks everyone for your comments, I sincerely appreciate every one of them! As is ever the concern of a composer I'm very happy to know that the right mood/atmosphere came across to other people :) There seems to have been some discussion about the key and key signatures: I was never really a fan of music with all sorts of accidentals and black keys until I came across Scriabin, whose delight for the likes of F♯ major/D♯ minor, B major/G♯ minor, G♭ major/E♭ minor, and D♭ major/B♭ minor seems to have slightly rubbed off on me. Idk though, I felt like F♯ major gave off sweet lyrical romance (e.g. Poème op. 32/1 or Étude op. 42/4) vibes so I went with writing in that for this work. The key signature switch to G♭ major/E♭ minor was actually only a logistical sight-reading one, if I remember correctly. In the middle section there's some vacillation between a major key and its relative minor, which would have been fine for bars 9-12. However, I move a fourth lower in the following four bars, i.e. tonicising the dominant, which means that if I kept the original key signature I'd get C♯ major and its relative minor A♯ minor. Eek. Sharp overload. I am not quite sadistic enough to put that onto the performer, let alone F♭ major (though that has now given me an idea...). I figured that writing out the middle section in flats meant that I could resort to using natural signs rather than extra sharps in bars 13-16, but yo, @Luis Hernández and @Wieland Handke, you may have a point with it also engendering a somewhat darker mood, as I had intended. This is an excellent point, now that I'm poring through the score again. I think there are some spots (e.g. b. 12) where I quite like the arpeggiated quality, but I have also decided to add a few markings for spots where I think it is justifiable to have the other hand take a note or two. Was this what you were thinking of? Version with redistributions.pdf

Hello again! I just finished my comments and am eager to share. Please find this PDF for your convenience! Go to the end of the score to see the final comments. May anyone else on this thread also consider checking out the comments and share your thoughts! M. Neupauer - The Great Lighthouse (ANNOTATED).Pdf

A beautiful piece. It doesn't seem very complex, but it's very well structured (which, for me, is one of the biggest challenges). And the dynamic control is exquisite.

No.2 - Ballade for the Dead 1: Oh My God....... This Composition actually has a " MELODY " I thought Melody's were Banned on this Forum. This Melody is DISTINCT , as opposed to OBSCURE, its instantly Recognized when it presents itself. So that is a Major Plus +++++ 2: This Score has a , Beginning-Middle-End that's also very Evident, as opposed to ........ " Where am i in this Composition ? " 3: Overall Feeling & Sound of this Performance is : Main-Stream-Commercial Movie-Score.

Hello everyone, I recently updated a little draft of music for string quintet on the incomplete works forum and I just developed it into a full piece. After some thought, the section felt somehow like a developed theme, so I composed a main theme by using some of the musical features found in that draft I composed. The piece is an elegy and has the following sections: [m.1~m.9] Introduction -- The introduction was composed by making use of the most important harmonies of the piece: Cmaj, Cminor, Dbmaj and Gmaj. [m.10 ~ m.25] Main theme -- Main theme in C minor. This theme is in 2/2 (cut time). It works as a period but, in this case, both statements end in a half cadence (the second has a stronger modulation to G). [m.26 ~ m.40] Development section (original draft) -- Developmental section which starts with the main theme in Cmaj. This section is repeated once and it is in 4/4 (common time). [m.41 ~ m.51] Restatement of main theme -- second part of the main theme repeated once, this time ending in a perfect cadence (with picardy third in last chord). I am considering repeating also the first part of the theme in the restatement. Somehow I feel the development lasts for long enough as to justify a complete repeat of the initial theme, but I am still not sur. Any suggestion about the best thing to do is welcome! I think the atmosphere fits that title of "elegy", but it is also too hopeful at times so I am not sure if it is really an elegy. Please, let me know if you have any suggestion for the title! Also, I am not sure about the use of dotted notes for those moments in which they need to cut the phrase a little earlier. Would there be a better way for notating that? Thank you! As always any feedback is more than welcome and hope you enjoy it!

So you might not suspect it, but microtonality is actually much more common than you'd think! When blues singers and soloists bend their notes up or down, they're using microtonality. When Pop singers accidentally sing a little bit out of tune, it's microtonality (even though it might not be deliberate). When out of tune sound effects happen in VGM or Film music that are just part of the vibe, it's microtonality. When string instruments do glissandi or guitars are played with a slide or a bend, it's microtonality So don't be shy and bring on any example you can think of that exemplifies microtonality! Here's my example from Chrono Trigger, the classic RPG for the Super Nintendo. This is the music that plays during 2,300 A.D. and is called "Ruined World": The microtonality in question can be heard in the background sound effect of what I presume to be a set of metallic cans being hit against each other.

Thanks Henry. Mendelssohn is a composer I've neglected until now; although he was apparently a greater child genius than Mozart! I accidentally wrote a few hand clashes in the harp (e.g. Bar 45 on Middle C). Hadn't thought of using xylophone, but will give it a try. I would like to add more for the violins and celli to do: so I think your suggestion is a great idea.

Hi @Alex Weidmann! When as a kid (and now as an old man) I always love this Mendelssohn piece! I like your combination of vibraphone and harp, and later also the glockenspiel (maybe I love a xylophone more) combination for the accompaniment. Flute is definitely a great choice for the main solo instrument throughout! Maybe for me, I will definitely have the melody played by the violins and/or the cellos for another timbre. But still, a lovely arrangement! Henry