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🎄🌲🎄🌲---=== It's time for our annual Christmas Music Event!!! ===--- 🎄🌲🎄🌲 It's that season of the year again and time to write music in your adored wintry (or summery for those in the southern hemisphere), Christmas-y, Hanukkah-y, or Kwanzaa-y style! The only rule is that this is not a competition!!! So please review the pieces casually, only using the competition reviewing template on those who have expressed a desire/interest in having their music reviewed in this way! 🎅 In this event - anything goes! Submit music in the spirit of the holiday season of any duration or instrumentation! There will be badges given out for all the participants, of course! We will also give out "Ardent Reviewer" badges for those who take it upon themselves to review all the participants' music! This thread will double as the submissions thread as well as the event announcement. Please post only links to your music posted elsewhere in the forum (so that it may be properly reviewed in its own dedicated topic). The following members have thus far expressed interest in participating: @PeterthePapercomPoser @Monarcheon @TristanTheTristan @AngelCityOutlaw @PCC @Crescent Roulade @Mooravioli @Wieland Handke The event opens on Black Friday, right after Thanksgiving! And closes on December 31st! Excited to see what we all come up with this year!

“ The calm before the storm, the feeling of eating gas station sushi except instead of intestinal problems it’s your ears getting that treatment. Sonic diarrhea is a seven minute work consisting of random noises, groovy melodies, and the sonic equivalent of having a horrible stomach ache… it’s great for the performers too. They get to have a little bit of fun. Structure: this is treated like a Rondo if you may, (ABACA) we have the sonic diarrhea theme (A) , a calmer theme (B) and a very jazzy theme unexpectedly (c). Enjoy!”

not sure if I can meet the deadline, I guess I might be able to share a part of a multisection comp

I'm game. Vamos a ver que podemos hacer.

“It is a very difficult topic for me since I have so many beloved concertos. Especially when I have to choose among so many that Mozart wrote. I consider Mozart and Beethoven to be the top, but I certainly also have some from the Romantic composers that I adore. I will definitely include 2 or 3 by Mozart. And the ones I don’t include, I feel like I will be doing them an injustice, but what can I do—I have to choose some.” 1. Μοzart Piano concerto no 25 K503 . ( This is seriously my personal favorite piece in general, i cant describe what that concerto means for me ) 2. Mozart Piano concerto no 24 K491 3. Mozart Piano concerto no 17 K453 4. Beethoven Piano concerto no 4 5. Ok here i have to choose and one of the romantic era that is my favorite and this concerto is Brahms piano concerto no 2 PS: “Ah, if only Schubert had written a piano concerto. How much I would have loved that.”

I would enjoy to participate in this event, too. I hope that I can accomplish my contribution within the next two weeks. Looking forward for listening and reviewing the contributions of other participants

hello peter, I am interested in joining as well

Good evening again, dear friends. Although I have posted all the movements of the sonata separately, here I am sharing the entire sonata, where you can listen to all the movements one after the other for a better experience and appreciation of the work. It may not be something innovative, but it is the musical language that expresses me, and that musical language is classical pre-romantic. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you once again.

Dear friend, thank you so much for taking the time to comment on my sonata, and thank you as well for your appreciation and for liking it so much. It was my greatest challenge so far to write a large classical sonata, and I’m incredibly happy that I managed to do it — and most importantly, that people who have heard it enjoyed it. The truth is, when I compose I don’t really think much about which modulations I’ll use; the nature of the piece and the themes themselves somehow guide you, helping everything flow naturally. It’s something truly inexplicable and magical. I worked quite a lot on all the movements, and I’m extremely fond of the minuet and trio — especially the trio, which I believe is, both technically and musically, the best thing I’ve ever written. It’s as if an invisible musical force helped me create it the way I did. At the moment I’m taking a long break from composing because I had become a bit exhausted, and I need some time to recharge before starting up again. Of course, it’s also a matter of limited time. The programm I use for the score is dorico 5 elements. I'm still learning it . Is very user friendly I recommend it. As for a piano concerto, I would love to write one — it would be a dream. It’s my favorite genre. I haven’t planned to start one yet, but maybe I’ll attempt it in the future. Once again, thank you for your kind words.

yeah :D

After undergoing plenty of struggle to find a proper textual setting capable of matching the rhythmic patterns of this vocal fugue, I decided to settle for an altered version of the "Libera me" movement commonly found on Requiem masses. Despite the minor changes required for the text to fit the subject of the fugue, its treatment throughout has been a conscious attempt to make it as audibly intelligible as possible, as opposed to the vast majority of my previous vocal works, where any regard for the text was completely secondary to the music. YouTube video link:

And I thought those low D-sharps on the basses were far too excessive! I couldn't even bring myself to sing below a very awkward-sounding E despite technically being a baritone. I wonder how potent of a voice a deep bass singer must have for such a B-flat to be remotely audible as pitch instead of pure vibration. To me, such extended ranges seem far more extreme than the usual alto-contralto range, which I believed is usually cited to reach down to an F below the staff. In any case, the concern is understandable. This fugue was originally set for D minor, as much of a nod to Mozart's heavy association of death with this particular key as a matter of convenience in order to adhere to the standard ranges for vocal music, which as we know often tend to require more conservative estimates in choral settings. Unfortunately the digital choir soundbanks I'm using struggled far more just a semitone above in certain passages, with certain octave leaps in the tenor part sounding especially screechy, so in the end I was forced to choose the lesser flaw and thus had to resort to lowering the whole piece to its current key. I hesitate to even call it a double fugue, as what might appear as the 2nd subject is in fact merely derived from the first, and I certainly would not dare label it a triple fugue, despite the relatively minor changes undergone by the subject that would normally not be explained by a conventional tonal answer. The stretto treatment is undergone first by what could be considered the 2nd subject following its own development section, and only then does the stretto for the original subject come about, thus helping cement an overarching ABA' superstructure that unifies the piece as a whole beyond mere exposition, development, stretti and codae in cycling motion. As for the Christmas Music Event, perhaps I might be able to submit a proper piece before the deadline. As of lately I've been considering a 5-part motet rendering of "O Magnum Mysterium", though I may consider other related texts to the same effect. In any case, I'll let you know in the dedicated thread if I manage to finish anything suitable in time. Thank you for your review!

Hey everyone 🙂 I've been slowly plugging away at a cycle of 24 preludes. I got pretty slow with this (ending up only writing like one prelude per year for the past couple of years) so hopefully I'll pick up the pace now that I'm pretty close to the end (8 left to go!) Bb Minor is maybe my favourite key signature, so it was pretty hard to decide what this prelude would be like. The theme is 'Masquerade', and I think the personality of the piece is quite hard to pin down, a mix of sarcasm and earnestness. Hope you enjoy! 🙂 this is my first piece I'm posting on this forum, but obviously feel free to check out anything else on my channel + especially the first fifteen preludes in the cycle so far, haha

Great use of percussion in this work, including a load of techniques and instruments I'd never heard of. I hope the propane tank is empty; otherwise you could have an explosive ending!

Hello again @Vasilis Michael! What can I say? This is a masterful sonata that I can enjoy from beginning to end as if it's a masterwork from the classical era! Honestly, the only part I ended up skipping through is the double exposition in the 1st movement! You are steeped in classical pianism and it shows! There isn't a single awkward moment nor bad transition in the whole piece! The tonality is so free flowing and adventurous! It's amazing that you managed to start and end each of the movements in the same key - the freedom of the chromaticism is something I'd expect of free-tonal pieces that modulate when they want to without any obligation to stay in any particular key. The abundance of themes is also very Mozartean. And they are very delightful and musically interesting - I wouldn't exclude nor add to any of the movements in any way. I think they are perfect just the way they are. I don't usually like slow movements but the peace and calmness and the space in your 2nd movement was captivating and adept - it kept my attention throughout and has a warm place in my heart. The minuet and trio was also very expert - I loved the E7 b9's! All your phrase extensions are also perfectly calculated and none are too long nor too short. But my favorite movement is for sure the 4th and final - I loved the cross relations! And I think your chromaticism really reached new heights in the final movement. It also has a somewhat Mazurka-like character to it that I really like. Overall - I cannot say enough good things about this piece! And the fact that you provided a very polished final score engraving for when you compiled the whole sonata in the final YT video is great! What program did you use? Thanks for sharing and by all means keep going! Do you ever plan on writing a piano concerto?

This is a really good piece!!! Interesting name lol 😂, i did see some impossibly high clarinet 1 stuff, but i think if you replaced it with an Eb clarinet you’d be fine! Awesome piece

Happy Winterval to all! This is a work I posted previously in the incomplete section, and it takes the form of a mini-concerto for violin (with the movements indicated by the rehearsal marks). It's more or less finished now; though I may still have to tweak some of the voice leading, and haven't started writing in the slurs yet. Since I last posted it, have added a coda at the end, and a whole bunch of counterpoint throughout the piece. (N.B. Rehearsal mark C indicates the start of the coda.) The work was inspired by Vivaldi, along with a modern work called "The Gold Standard" by Richard Harvey. (The latter was the main inspiration for the coda.) Think the most successful melody-line is in the second movement, as this carries emotional weight for me. The other two movements are more like baroque dance music. (I could imagine the cast of "Bridgerton" dancing to them at a ball!) I may have to cut the work down, as we're not really supposed to go over 5 minutes, and I'm now at 6. So any suggestions about where I could cut would be very helpful. Not quite sure the structure is properly balanced at the moment, or whether the movements gel together as a coherent whole? Any suggestions on what to name the piece also welcome. N.B. The dynamics and articulation are intended for midi rendition, and will have to be adjusted before I send it to the orchestra who are performing it next year.

It reminds me of 20th century neoclassical. Very nice.

I like how creepy it sounds and the dissonance you use! Kinda reminds me of shostakovich!

I couldn't help but fall in love with this track from Silksong - Cogwork Dancers after 8-bit music theory covered it:

Yes!! Anyway, the sounds you've got are nice.

I'll give it a shot

Thanks Luis: that's exactly what I was aiming for! Can't wait to hear what it sounds like when played by real musicians.

Congratulations. I think it sounds great. I certainly think it has a very classical feel to it, but in many places it veers towards something more modern, such as some of the progressions in the slow section. I notice that it is treated mainly as melody plus accompaniment, which is quite light and with little emphasis on the counterpoint. All in all, it works wonderfully.

That sounds very pleasant. I always think these types of buildings are wonderful.

Here.

This is present because I tried to include the harmonic characteristics of both Carol's at once which didn't always result in nice consonances. Thank you for your review!

Pretty awesome how you were able to seamlessly merge the themes together. Fun dissonance sprinkled in every so often, which could very well be hints of a Bad Santa making his way through town. Or perhaps the Grinch is waiting nearby to cause mayhem. But overall the themes are pleasant and you changed them up to incorporate your own voice. The ending is very pleasant and have fun harmonies. But I do hear a tiny bit of sharp dissonance hidden in the passage. It sounds like something didn't quite go as planned, but it was too subtle for Santa to notice.

Here is my first submission!

I like this -- my 1st ends with the melody on Ab, so I will probably start the profession from the Ab instead of the Eb.

Thank you!! This sounds great Both songs are slower, slightly hymn-esque pieces

I think mozart 25 is great too!

Another way would be to move to Abmin for a moment and then, from there, to its parallel major of Cbmaj (enharmonically equivalent to Bmaj). I think it could be quite smooth specially if you go through the V64 --> V progression (B/F# --> F#). For example: I guess this couldn't be considered a lush progression, though. As @Monarcheon suggested, for a lush progression it might be better to start with some line (maybe melody, or a strong bassline that you know points towards B major, or both) and start filling in the remaining voices in any way that sounds good.

Hello folks! Been a little bit (always is a little bit between when I talk on here it seems) I've been hard at work at college writing all sorts of stuff, but amid all the music I'm writing and playing for school, I've also been working on a personal piece for solo piano. Dedicated to someone I love very much, the piece is an exploration of love. Movement 1 is the only movement written so far, and it is about passionate love (maybe I'll call it Eros. Still figuring out names or if I even want names for the movements.) I'll explain the movement's structure so you can maybe understand what I'm trying to do. Intro: It starts floating on an A dominant 7 chord, overtop of which soars a delicate but sometimes dissonant melody with huge leaps. It remains in this uncertain space a little while. Then it bursts into arpeggios and a fanfare-like triplet motif in F Major, gradually building more and more, before collapsing into the exposition. Exposition: The first theme in F minor is fiery and built from two motifs, the passionate right hand and the rumbling left hand. Cadencing in the relative major, the motifs then set off to transition to the next area. The second theme is in the distant key of D major and is a beautiful transformation of the melody from the introduction. A recurring turn motif brings the melody to its PAC and the closing theme commences with triumphant arpeggios (you will hear the inspiration from Chopin Ballade no. 4) but is suddenly overturned by D minor with the rumbling left hand motif of the first theme, ending the exposition dramatically in Bb Major!! Unlike I think literally all of my other sonata form pieces, there is no exposition repeat before the development. Development: In the soundscape of the exposition's closing chord, the developed introductory melody quietly emerges, again unsure, interwoven with fragments of the first theme. Eventually the second theme's rumbling motif takes hold, and a series of violent sequences commences. At its climax, it collapses again in a whirlwind. Out of the bleak, emerges now the second theme, in a hopeful manner, modulating from Ab Major to E minor, and finally culminating in the most passionate and beautiful variation in G Major, with repeated chords and heavy rubato. It reaches its turn motif and PACs in G Major erupting into the closing theme arpeggios, but now being derailed again, even earlier than last time into C minor! And now we're at the Fugue, based on the same rumbling left hand motif that's been so persistent in the development. After reaching its peak, it sequences a little more and is now in C Major and has successfully set up the dominant retransition to the tonic F minor! Recapitulation: First theme is mostly the same as before. The transition is however different and more "bravura" than before. The second theme tragically is now in F minor, and doesn't get its old turn motif to cadence, and instead prepares to close the movement in the drama of the first theme. But it's diverged! We move away from that extreme low register now into the highest register as we hear one last time the full second theme in F Major, much barer and more suspended, but again with its cadence motif. But it doesn't finish quite yet. It repeats the motif, before slipping back into an A dominant 7 chord for the coda. Coda: Largely an exact repeat of the introduction, but what was before a solid dominant pedal, is now broken up by the tonic in the bass, giving a more resolved sound. With no more burst into F major, the movement closes on low D Major chords. Now the reason I really want your guys' feedback is because I want to play this for the dedicatee soon, and I just want to make sure it's perfect before I present it to him. I did show the piece to my professor, but he said it sounded too traditional and suggested I listen to Sciarrino for inspiration 🥲 Let's just say I have different taste than him lol. The performance isn't perfect, and the score is very unpolished! But everything should come across pretty well hopefully. Thank you in advance! 😄

This is quite an accomplishment, and intensely beautiful. I'm not qualified to say much more than that because of my rooting in Classicism, but you have my compliments. I hope the dedicatee appreciates it.

p.s. i hope you don't mind, I attached a one-shot sightread of this piece. obviously a lot of mistakes as completely unpracticed, but I like playing through scores I like as it builds my familiarity + understanding of the piece. I think I feel less strongly about most of my above pieces of constructive feedback having played through the piece, other than still thinking that page 2 is unnecessarily floral for what is kind of a simple theme and the fugue does feel a little underdeveloped. Warning in advance that there are lots of mistakes but I think there are also lots of parts which alright and you might appreciate hearing someone else play through your music 🙂 you can hear me get a lot more confident at the recap -> coda I think.

“Greetings, dear composers. And with this Allegro, my second sonata is complete, and I am very happy and satisfied with the entire work. This movement is like etude of modulations, but I believe I have refined it well enough for everything to sound natural and have the right balance. I hope you like it.”

Oh this is awesome 🙂 very full of life and joy, lots of humour in the modulation that never gets too excessive but remains very deft and fun throughout. Everything phrase feels very deliberate and rewarding! It is hard to pick any favourite moments given how well considered the whole construction feels. Entrance of the main theme reminds me a little of I think Stephen Heller's piano sonata no.3 in C major, 1st mvt. 🙂 edit: forgot to mention, final 2 bars are an absolute delight edit2: it's piano sonata no.3 not 4, i misremembered

Yes, I mostly write in a stream of consciousness. I often use either modes or pitch-classes. Although, when I have 3-4 different, contrasting parts, I often try to repeat some or all parts, maybe in another way, slower, faster. Just now, I'm writing something where I take the first theme, which was made in C aeolian, I repeat it with the first two bars in A harmonic minor, the next in B harmonic minor (not transposed just fitting the notes in the new mode) and then harmonizing in these modes. So I rarely use strict functional harmony, although I sometimes do. My ideas for harmony is also inspired by modern jazz-fusion as well as classical. Someone like Allan Holdsworth, that wasn't educated in music, but created his own weird harmonic language with complex chords that sounds great (IMO) but without functional harmony. If my choice of harmonies reflect that, it's an honour! My "stream of consciousness" are also inspired by Danish late romantic composer Rued Langgaard, especially his 4th symphony ("loevfald" - the falling leaves). Also, I try to go a bit further sometimes, like taking some ideas from "twentieth century harmony" by Vincent Persichetti, and using that as a starting point.

To be clear: this is a really awesome and impressive work. I have included a bunch of constructive notes in this since you seem keen for some 🙂 listening/reading notes: Introductory page is extremely beautiful. Love the improvisatory nature, spacious without feeling empty [Have to say I am not a huge fan of the F major melody on page 2, it feels a little straightforward to me] Modulation in bar 26 is very nifty 🙂 Love the bass motif in the main F minor subject, very characteristic and memorable Reappearance of the intro subject at 67 is great, everything up to the build and surprise Bb chord (fun trick) at 94 is awesome [95-108 is a little meandering for my taste] Modulations through 117-143 are very compelling and exciting 160-163: *chef's kiss* reminds me of some Rach climax harmonies here. Arpeggios at 165-180 are a little extravagant for my taste Fugue at 181-196 has a nice idea, you have a great subject, I just wish it had a little more time to breathe (4 voices enter on the subject without any development time between their entries). in this area bars 190-195 feel the most effective to me because they feel the most balanced; the voices here have rhythmic variety to distinguish themselves clearly and there's a little more negative space to guide the ear. I feel like the classic fugal structure of introduce voices 1 and 2 (maybe 3 if you're feeling brave), and then have some development time before introducing more voices, would work well here. It feels a little more like a gesture towards a fugue than a fugue (maybe it's a fughetta). Recap is great 🙂 i do like this theme a lot. The crunchy move in bar 229 is great 263-290 feels like it could be trimmed. We've just heard this theme in the recap a few moments ago anyway, and the straightforward dotted rhythm is not the most exciting thing to zone in on for several more bars. It feels the movement on top of the tremolo is a bit slow. But the exit out into 291 is very beautiful. I love the intro, so obviously I love the outro too 🙂 And to be fair, the F major theme from the start pays off pretty well in bars 317-318, great way to finish. (Maybe just something a bit briefer / less extravagant than page 2 would suit me.) I really like this piece! I think there is possibly a 12-13 minute version that I *love*, but it is not my place to play editor haha

Hi Stig. Just listened to "Evening Sun" It seemed like a stream of consciousness; rather than something with a fixed structure (such as Sonata form, Rondo form, etc...). I found some of your harmonies quite interesting and unexpected. Perhaps this is your unique was of composing. Have subscribed to your You Tube: so will try to listen to more of your work in the future.

harmonies in bar 3 (loove the surprise Csharp) and 34 (yay raised sixth!!!) are my faves 🙂 whole thing has a wonderful melancholy vibe. the tresillo rhythm of the middle section is a fun vibe to bring into it

It is well-constructed but reminds me too much of these semi-atonal things I wrote in college, like my monstrosity of a clarinet sonata! So, I love it, but do not like it.

Very nice! It sounds to me a bit proto-impressionistic, like a young Debussy.

Interesting...I might look into it if life gets a bit less crazy, as it has been for me this Fall!

@Churchcantor Almost nobody is familiar with Jommelli, and more is the pity. His Requiem is in E-flat major, yet it still sounds appropriately sombre. There are several good performances available on YouTube. Here's a link to my favourite:

Dear friends, hello everyone! I'm Zhang Wenhao, a singer-songwriter from China. Today, I'm here to share with you an inspiring rock song called "Unextinguished Spark". The style of this song is inspired by many classic Japanese anime theme songs, encouraging everyone to hold on to their dreams and never give up easily. 亲爱的朋友们，大家好！我是来自中国的创作歌手张文灏。这次来跟大家分享的是一首励志的摇滚燃曲，名字叫《不熄的火花》。 这首歌曲风格的灵感来源于很多经典的日本动漫主题曲，鼓励大家坚持自己的梦想不要轻易放弃。 歌词如下/The lyrics are as follows： 《不熄的火花》/《The Spark That Won't Go Out》 作曲/Composed by：张文灏 Zhang Wenhao 作词/Lyrics by：张文灏 Zhang Wenhao 一次命运 偶然眷顾的微笑 让他从此 将毕生热爱找到 踏上了一条 漫长的跑道 微弱的火苗 在冷夜里不熄灭地燃烧 失意常常在他身边围绕 也偶有微不足道的骄傲 前路多糟糕 身心多疲劳 他都没想要 放弃奔跑 理想和热爱就像不熄的火花 哦 他想 总有一天能燃起滔天的热浪 哦 他想 每一个人都会有 为理想战斗 奋不顾身的时候 每个人也都会有 看不到尽头 想要放弃的时候 请继续坚定地走 别太过担忧 再耐心等一等 你想要的一切都 在不远处 在向你招手 失意常常在他身边围绕 也偶有微不足道的骄傲 前路多糟糕 身心多疲劳 他都没想要 放弃奔跑 理想和热爱就像不熄的火花 哦 我唱 就在今天燃起了滔天的热浪 哦 我唱 每一个人都会有 为理想战斗 奋不顾身的时候 每个人也都会有 看不到尽头 想要放弃的时候 请继续坚定地走 别太过担忧 再耐心等一等 你想要的一切都 在不远处在向你招手 每一个人都会有 为理想战斗 奋不顾身的时候 每个人也都会有 看不到尽头 想要放弃的时候 请继续坚定地走 别太过担忧 再耐心等一等 你想要的一切都 在不远处在向你招手 你想要的一切都 在不远处 在向你招手

I tried to make a song based off early internet viruses, even from before I was born using my notations software's transistor bass, made in 1988 with it unchanged since. sorry for the audio being absolutely chopped and laggy, i just might of went a bit crazy with the drums😅

@Thatguy v2.0 Here's my review on your prelude: 1. Harmony: The harmonic language throughout this prelude is lush, and beautiful. There are moments of chromaticism that create a sense of romanticism and yonder. Ex: b 26. I love how that sonority sneaks in and breaks the diatonic harmony. 2. Melodic material: You have established clear melodic motive the flows nicely with the harmony. 3. Character and tone: I feel that this piece is a romantic style prelude. Either chopin or Rachominov would have wrote something like this. 4. the score is readible and playable. Overall i enjoy it. 🙂