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So this is the final draft of the entire 2nd movement of my String Sextet. I can confidently say this is my best movement of music ever written up to date. The movement is divided into three parts: Lamentoso, Fugue a6 and the Return. The first two parts of the movements have been posted before in below links: Lamentoso: Fugue a6: If you want to skip to the newest content I compose, you may skip to 20:16. The musical analysis of the Lamentoso and Fugue have already been done in the link posted above so I won’t repeat it here. Here is the YT link and score of the movement: (Final Draft) String Sextet 2nd mov with last page.pdf Here is the YC post to the first mov of the same Sextet: Here is the structure of the movement: 00:00 Lamentoso The Eden in the 1st mov is great but man, come on and live in the real world. All sorts of tragedies happening and what ground do you have to claim the transcendence? I especially love the outburst in 4:59 and the passage starts from 8:53. 11:47 Fugue a6. This part is totally inspired by Vince’s @Thatguy v2.0 comment on my first movement “to write a dense fugue”, also to further explore the fugato in the 1st mov. Like @Giacomo925 said, this part summarises the sadness of the first 20 minutes of the movement. It always leaves me in awe that my favorite C minor passage, the absolute climax of the whole piece, lies in minute 30 exactly. The fugue aims to end on desperate terms but I won’t allow it. I try to give it a fight by recalling the pentatonic ideal even though in the wrong key of the tritone C major as hinted in the pentatonic section of the fugue, but the power is diminished. I need some purification for the paradise regained. Thx to @Luis Hernándezfor introducing me to tritone substitution in this part. The chant (22:01) begins with self murmuring of viola, occasionally inviting mysticism recalling 7:55 in Lamentoso and sadness of the 1st subject of the fugue. Two violas play together with the texture of a parallel organum. After a sad cry some more primitive power comes in to recall the passion and good of human beings, the theme is from b.27 of 1st mov. It gets agitated and experiences an epiphany in the form of Bartok Pizz. Both the chant and the folk melody is built around the 025 set! And the 025 set is the essence of the pentatonic scale! Furthermore a quartal chord is the further essence of 025 set, and hence the core of the whole pentatonic scale! Discovering this, the fury cannot be stopped. It leaves me in wonder how on earth can I write this thing out. After returning to the tonic key in 27:00, I decided to conceive it as a one off climax with build up. The idea is inspired by my playing of Beethoven’s op.110 when he did the same thing in the last movement as well. There is no “development” but only realisation of Tao in this imperfect world. There are appetizers to the ultra climax, first introducing the two most important themes sparingly, then in 27:16 theme in b.35 of 1st mov which is in fact inspired by my own Clarinet Quintet in C minor, and then an appetizer fugato responding to the lament in b.148 of the Lamentoso which is based on the opening theme. The entrée of Ultra Climax appears in 28:38, first is the first theme in tonic by first violin, viola, and cello, then second theme in C major by second violin, viola and cello. The playing of tritone is to prove Tao‘s omnipotence, also respond to the first mov and the fugue with the F# and C minor relationship. Using all 3 instruments for me is the resonance of Heaven, Earth and Human when they finally sing together the Tao they shared. I think I really feel the Chinese philosopher Tang Chun-i’s Realm of Heavenly Morality here. The modulation to Ab major, responding to b. 294 and 644 of 1st mov, complete what’s left undone there and finally Gb major is in triumph. A pedal point on a tritone is funny for me. The cello overlapping the violin is signifying earth and heaven interaction which is considered auspicious in Chinese classics I-ching. I am always in awe of the power exhibited here and wonder who’s actually the composer of this passage. The next passage in 30:07 is the heterophonic version of the 1st theme, which is where I was inspired miraculously by a Chinese music group. Next is the in extremis passage in 30:57. It’s the immanent version of the 1st theme. I was imagining what my friend’s thinking on his last day of life. The texture is probably inspired by the film music in Kurosawa’s Ikiru when the main character was swinging on the park’s swing to await his death. I quote Bach’s St. John Passion here for my friend’s name, and I find out that the lyrics fit too. I wish him to rest in peace and return to Tao. The final ending is probably inspired by the ending of Chopin’s Fantasie in F minor. I can never believe I would end the whole thing this positive in an absolute way. The whole passage always leaves me in tears. After writing the Lamentoso in May 2024 I had no power and inspiration at all to write anything in the Sextet since I was suffering in my full time job. I started picking up by working on the C# minor Piano Sonata first. After finishing that in Jan 2025 I felt like my negative power was expressed out, leaving the goods for this Sextet. I then went for a walk on 10 Feb 2025 and had a miracle, inspired by a Chinese music group, which turned on my creative power and I fervently completed the entire thing in just 18 days, when I had zero notes written in the past 9 months. It’s such a miracle I could have finished this piece this quick and good. My dedicatee Mr. Johnson Ho had already passed away last year. It's a shame that this piece couldn’t be completed when he’s alive, but I would be forever thankful for his inspiration. Special thanks must have been granted to my great friend Mr. Vince Meyer @Thatguy v2.0 for making this perfect audio and many ideas, and being a great friend, but I will leave it to the final version of the whole Sextet. Also a very special thanks must be given to my ex-boss. Thanks to her mistreatment, I have the pain to reflect on my own, the drive to finish the whole Sextet in a fury and the time to complete it when I was forced to resign for my own mental health. Foremost of course I must thank my dearest mum. But lol, the whole acknowledgement will be left to the post of the final version of the whole Sextet, including the first movement and this movement. This is a very long movement and commentary and I don’t expect anyone to listen and read till the end. But if you do so, here is my deepest gratitude to you. Feel free to comment as well, I would be very thankful to have received them. Thank you!!!!! Henry

ghost-town-requiem-kyle-hilton-2025-ycf-comp.custom_score.mp3 I had NO Idea what to name this piece. The score's name has been updated to "Ghost Town Requiem" 😉 But I've worked diligently on it, and I feel that it's as good as I'm able to make it. Really just shot for the Halloween/Spooky vibe with both the Instrumentation, key, and rhythmic inflections. Hope y'all enjoy my fun lil' sextet quintet (sorry my brain wasn't all there when I posted this) piece 😉 Score has been updated; @MK_Piano so kindly took it upon himself to download my score and edit the engraving to make it look purdy 😉 ... I have also had a change of heart on the timbre of the score being in C minor, and have transposed it to B minor, one half step lower for a slightly more rich tonality. I also took some advice from @Omicronrg9 regarding the visibility of the Dal Segno mark early on in the score. YCF Halloween Composition .pdf

Hi all! This is the second movement of my Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor. It is set in the relative major E major to act as an (apparent) counterpart of the furious first movement. Pentatonics and Locrian scale are added in the movement, but the motive of fourth from the first movement is important here as well. Here is the Youtube video link: Here is the pdf and audio of the score: Final Draft Piano Sonata no.3 in C sharp Minor 2nd Mov.pdf Piano Sonata no.3 2nd Mov.mp3 The movement is set in a rondo form ABACA. Here is the structre of the movement: 0:00 Introduction & 1st Refrain: The Locrian scale is used capriciously at the beginning by a confused Henry right at thr start of composing the movement when he didn't know why he used it but still retained it to see what would happen. The main theme (00:23) begins in a quite beautiful pentatonic E major. I love the German Sixth used in 00:53 and I absolutely love the C-sharp minor contrasting theme, as it's beautiful but at the same time coherent by using the falling fourth motive from the beginning of the 1st movement! (Btw it is quoted in parody in my joking fugue) It then unoriginally modulates to dominant B major. 01:32 repeats the whole process apart from some embellishments. 2:34 1st Episode: The beautiful (I think) 1st episode is actually composed the second last one, only before the last refrain. It's Chopinistic here, but I think it's quite beautiful! The theme is roughly the inversion of the 1st theme. I had the inspiration of this beautiful theme when waiting in a queue in my ex-company's canteen LoL! I love the counterpoint in 03:43 as well, again using the falling fourth motive. The C-sharp minor is never solved and merely forced back to E major with a quite beautiful G sharp major transition to the 2nd Refrain. 4:29 2nd Refrain: The first theme is turned to a bell texture which I must have taken inspiration from Brahms's op.117 and Prokofiev's Sonata no.6. The serenity proves short-lived as the mood starts to become agitated and the falling fourth motive starts to attack. 5:12 2nd Episode: The Locrian scale starts to disturb and the keys start to moving all around, again in 05:30 the agitation proves itself it is not going to be covered at all, and with octatonic modulation it ends on G minor which sounds like the beginning of Chopin's 1st Ballade in 05:41. The first theme enters in 05:53 but is only a false recap as the stirring continues once again in a semitone higher in a Schubertian fashion. The first theme re-enters in 07:07, this time in C-sharp major, the global tonic major but with undercurrent underneath. F minor disturbs once again as in earlier as well as the development of the 1st movement, and the Locrian mode is finally forcefully purified to a pentatonic. I think the retransition here is slightly abrupt and forceful. 8:16 Last Refrain: First theme appears with the purified locrian scale turn to pentatonic crystal in the upper register of the piano. The contrasting theme is set in F-sharp minor this time for the E major confirmation. The C-sharp minor is not answered at all again in 09:17, and only forcefully shut up, and the piece ends in E pentatonic. At least a momentary serenity can be achieved before facing the disasterous 3rd movement. This movement starts in 2023 June right after the completion of the 1st movement, but was abandoned since I had to focus on composing the 2nd movement of my Sring Sextet. Then after a personal crisis in 2024 I had no energy at all to compose, and I hoped to use this movement to pick up my creative energy. It succeeded and the movement is quite beautiful in my opinion. I expanded the movement from a ternary one to a rondo with the addition of the 1st episode and completion of the last refrain. The movement may sound too Chopinistic and less original, but I definitely pour my heart here. I just maintain the “write-what-I-want approach” in the whole Sonata without much thinking, planning, or trying to be original. I just don’t want my emotion disturbed by the chasing of originality when expressing my feeling is my ultimate concern in the whole Sonata. The recording is played by myself. I buy a new microphone I hope the recording quality will be better and not to be roasted by @chopin anymore! Feel free to comment or critize this piece below! I will be more than happy to hear any opinion whether it's positive or negative! Hope you enjoy it! P.S. Here is the link for the YC post of the 1st movement from the same Sonata: And here is the 3rd and ending movement of the Sonata! Henry

ello everybody, I've spent many months working on three short new piano pieces for beginning to intermediate students. These are originally intended for children to play, but could also be for beginning adults. In these pieces, I've also tried to discover my own voice and style, do let me know how I've done in those areas. Other feedback related to technique, harmony and playability would be much appreciated. Poem 1: "based on a theme by Beethoven", updated score Poem 2: "the quirky detective", updated score Poem 3: "the crazed capybara", score

Dear all, Wow - that's an interesting topic for me - Halloween - never wrote a piece for an festival. To make this work more relavent to the work, I did some research to understand more about Halloween. Anyways, here is my thoughts writing this work: I have always known very little for the Halloween festival. To many, Halloween is a festival that focuses on pranking, customing and candies - but there is a long history with mysteries around Aos Sí, the Irish name for a supernatural race in Gaelic folklore, similar to elves. Here are some information from different sources: - Every year, Samhain is celebrated on 31 October – 1 November. During this liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld thinned, Aos Sí could more easily come into this world and were particularly active. Aos Sí were appeased to ensure the people and livestock survived the winter. The souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. From 16th century, there is a tradition in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales, where people going house-to-house in costume reciting verses or songs for food. Some impersonated the Aos Sí, or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf. Often, a man dressed as láir bhán, a white horse, and led the younf people for the activity. If the household donated food it could expect good fortune from the 'Muck Olla'; not doing so would bring misfortune. "...In 19th century Ireland, "candles would be lit and prayers formally offered for the souls of the dead. After this the eating, drinking, and games would begin"." These history and myths formed the basis for the plot of this work. HoYin

Here's my submission to the Halloween competition, written for piano quartet. I thought a lot about demons and possession, abandoned houses, what's down the cellar, all that 😄 It was a lot of fun, and I hope you enjoy!

.animated-text { font-size: 16px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: linear-gradient( to right, red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, violet ); background-size: 400% 100%; -webkit-background-clip: text; color: transparent; animation: colorMove 5s linear infinite, bounce 1.5s ease-in-out infinite; } @keyframes colorMove { 0% { background-position: 0% 50%; } 100% { background-position: 100% 50%; } } @keyframes bounce { 0%, 100% { transform: translateY(0); } 50% { transform: translateY(-20px); } } Hi again! Here, as promised, I submit this small piece for the Halloween... Competition! Is it Halloween-ish? Dunno, probably not so much... But this is for you to judge. Do NOT expect anything bombastic though. It's a trio for flute, piano and violin so it's 3 instruments. ✔️ It's more than 3 mins, lesss than seven! ✔️ It's somewhat submitted before the deadline! ✔️ And it should definitely be entirely playable. Since here everyone has its own preferences, I am submitting the complete pdf (attached in this very post)+ the mp3 + a YouTube video with the typical (or not that typical maybe) way of showing sheet music. Now, back to more composing. I heard that the competition is strong between the contestants. MP3 Right here (or at the end of the post, one never knows). Bagatela Nº6.mp3 YouTube video HERE. And if you haven't done it yet, what are you waiting for? The deadline for this competition is still a week or two ahead! Look at the rules and drop your piece!!! Kind regards! Ø Thanks to @Kvothe & @MK_Piano for his reviews in the engraving, layout, and instrument-specific feedback. I have attached here the second edition of this piece, released today 28th of October 2025 (first edition was released on 25th of October 2025) . It comes with a Piano+ score that has reduced parts & system separators. Now all parts have rehearsal marks on top the usual measure numbering I commonly use in all pieces. Maybe a bit redundant, but better to be safe than sorry. 101 - Bagatela Nº6 [Completo, 2Ed].pdf Thank y'all for your kind reviews. We'll read each other in the forums!

I finally present to you a movement from my big variations project that I've had brewing since early 2024! Emboldened by the success of my "Deck the Halls" Variations I sought out more popular themes that I could write variations on. Originally I only intended to write variations on the Returner's March, but it soon grew out of all proportion when I started noticing all the little motivic relations between different themes so I had to include more. This is meant as a hybrid variations fantasy, medley, and mash-up of the themes that you can listen to here: The original themes were written by the great Nobuo Uematsu so my variations retain a certain Japanese flavor. In fact the first half of this Scherzo is subtitled "Asiatic". The Scherzo proper doesn't start until 6:01. I welcome any of your suggestions, critiques, comments or just observations. Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy! P.S.: I'd like to thank my friends @chopin, @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu, @Thatguy v2.0 and @gaspard for their time, advice, and support throughout the composition process!

The final piece of my four Piano pieces set and just a lame joke. Can be developed into a postmodern minimalistic masterpiece by repeating the joke forever and forever...... Joke in A flat major.pdf Hope you enjoy this one! Henry

The Image in G major is the third piece of the four piano pieces I wrote for relaxation after writing the very heavy String Sextet. I try to do something a bit different than the previous two pieces, as I actively use more quartal chords and pentatonics in the whole piece, and also invite a bit of impressionistic chords. This is my personal favourite of the set. Here is the score and YT video: (Final) Image in G major.pdf Like the previous pieces, this one also comes from recycled materials. It comes from an unfinished Piano Suite I composed in 2016 Jan, but only with fragments of it including the first few bars, b.35-38 LH melody and some parts of b.58-72. Don’t know why I went for pentatonics that long ago LoL! One thing to note: b.43-46 is probably inspired by @Fugax Contrapunctus Pabio’s mention of Joe Hisaishi in his review of my Sextet, plus my recent listening experience of his music while watching Miyazaki’s films. Hope you enjoy this small piece! Henry

Hello all! I am classical pianist based in the United States and have been composing in my spare time since 2023, mainly hand writing and using MuseScore as my notation engine of choice. This post marks my first ever post and submission here on the Young Composer's Forum. If you would like to know more about me, both my website and short biography can be found on my profile! __________ YCF HALLOWEEN SUBMISSION: For this year's halloween competition, I created a ~5-minute long work for a Piano Quartet (Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano). This was my chamber of choice as currently, I am learning, and will be performing, Beethoven's Opus 11 Piano Trio in Bb with two other peers, and felt inspired to write something more traditional. Composed in C-minor, this work is set into Ternary Form (A-B-A') and aims to cast music for the time of Halloween. If you would like to know more about the piece, you can find more information on Page 3 in the "About" section. Thank you for taking the time to view my score and consider this work for this event! __________ (DISCLAIMER: The Midi playback from Musescore Studio sounds a little skewed in the solo violin part, however, this setback does not object to the playability of the part.)

This is the third and final movement of my Piano Sonata no.3 in C-sharp minor. It’s probably the most perplexing movement of music I have ever composed. For me it’s a struggle between Beethovenian heaviness (Es muss sein!) v.s. Unbearable lightness of blues (trying to imitate the style). Even though the first and second movement of the same Sonata has been commented as “random” before, I believe this one the most random of all haha. I once challenged myself whether to keep the eclecticism of the movement or not, but decided to leave it unchanged since all the styles were what I was thinking of and feeling at the moment. Here are the previous movements posted on YC before: 1st mov: 2nd mov: Piano Sonata no.3 in C-sharp minor 3rd mov.pdf The structure of the movement is a bit weird for me. It’s in Sonata form but the exposition and recapitulation never leave tonic key C-sharp minor at all, as the contrast of the 1st and 2nd subject is not achieved by key, but by style. In fact I only realized I was going for a Sonata form only when I almost finished the development section. Here is the structure of the movement: 0:00 Exposition, 1st Subject, 1st Theme: The falling fourth motive attacks immediately at the start of the movement in a passionate fashion, reminding himself of the pain he suffered after the more serene 2nd mov. It cools down in 0:31 and even keeps denying (or rather me denying my own sadness) by German sixth harmonic progressions, instead of normal dominant-tonic progression. 0:59 Exposition, 1st Subject, 2nd Theme: A deliberately repressed theme consisting of the inversion of a fourth, i.e. fifth, later gets more agitated with the Chopin Revolutionary Etude like L.H. accompaniment. It keeps on boiling until reaching the transition. I got crazy there thus I wanna try escaping… 2:28 Exposition, 2nd Subject: This section is made of 12 bar blues elements, thx to Arjuna’s @expert21 suggestion, although I already originally wanted some nihilistic jazz elements to contrast with the heavier 1st Subject. The pattern is repeated thrice, first just the “accompaniment”, then with the falling fourth motive theme added, and lastly an “electric-guitar-like” melody thx to of course my buddy Vince @Thatguy v2.0, as I won’t ever try to write something in jazz without his piano preludes. The locrian melody of course is a quotation from the 2nd mov opening! 3:46 Development, 1st Part: The opening falling fourth motive attacks again and modulates to keys I didn’t where it would go when composing lol, and finally reaches C# Locrian which confuses even me! It ends with a bridge of the locrian in L.H. quoting a little of the blues theme to the next part. 4:48 Development, 2nd Part: This part first develops the 2nd theme of 1st subject, then ends in confusion again. Suddenly a new theme emerges in the distant E-flat major and repeats again in relative major E major in a more passionate manner, until it boils down to a marvellously passionate retransition in 6:39 which I believe is the most beautiful section of the entire movement. It’s by composing this passage that I knew my creative power had finally come back. The passage ends in a desolation which leads back to the recap. 7:17 Recapitulation, 1st Subject, 1st part: A weird section. I finally could not refuse to admit my sadness by having a normal dominant-tonic progression, but still tried to escape by quoting the reminiscence of the blues themes like in a film montage jump cut in a Godard style (or, Stravinskian juxtaposition). 8:40 Recapitulation, 1st Subject, 2nd part: The 2nd theme of the expo 1st subject reappears in the L.H., and then a beautiful variation which I was probably laughing at myself for my weakness. The music goes on and gets more agitated until going to the 2nd subject. 9:32 Recapitulation, 2nd Subject: The previous “light-hearted” blues theme is transformed to an enraged Rachmanioffian roar. It subsequently cools down and tries to go for hope in the coda. 10:18 Coda, 1st Part: I tried to find peace by quoting the beautiful theme in the development plus 2nd mov’s 1st theme in counterpoint, repeat twice, 1st time in major and 2nd time pentatonic. The Locrian theme in the exposition is then transformed to a pentatonic plus the blue note of flattened sixth, signifying my attempt to find peace… 11:16 Coda, 2nd Part: However it’s futile. I realized that my sadness could not be “transcended”, at least not here, and finally realized my pain. The heavy falling fourth motive keeps attacking, and finally I was able to make a simple dominant-tonic chord progression to admit my pain, when the question is laid unanswered from the beginning of the entire sonata. The movement and the whole Sonata ended in utter desolation, as I had no energy anymore to fight as in the 1st mov and 2rd mov, nor create an imaginary utopia for myself as in 2nd mov and 3rd mov… The movement was primarily composed from Dec 2024 to Jan 2025, under a state of depression and confusion, due to what I had suffered in my full time job. I struggled a lot whether I should have a happy or sad ending for the whole sonata, but my mind gave me the answer. I could not pretend to be happy or hopeful at that time by forcing a meaningless Picardy-3rd at the end as in many of the Romantic Sonatas or pieces. I had to admit my sadness then. Paradoxically by doing that, I left all the negatives here so I had the 200% positiveness for my Sextet, which is my best piece and probably the most optimistic piece I ever composed. I tried my best at playing the movement already despite some slips haha. Hope you enjoy the movement and even go back to the 1st movement to listen to the whole Sonata! Thank you for listening,and possibly reading through this and commenting!!!!! Btw, here's Vince Preludes which inspire me: Prelude no.7: Prelude no.9: Prelude no.3: Henry

Hi long time for no posting! I decided to post an old work of mine.This Nocturne in C-sharp minor is a juvenile work of me as a 16 year old. I didn't think much at the time of composing, but I did write in the style of Chopin Nocturne then. And then a sudden thought caused me to have a 1st try in fugue in 2:35! I revised the work recently to improve on some voice leadings and transitions except passages after the fugato, but retained as much the original intention as I can as a 16 year old then. The work, even though as immature as it is, does reflect some of my feelings then. Here is the Youtube video and the score of the piece: (Final Draft) Nocturne in C sharp minor.pdf This work can be regarded as in a rondo structure: 0:00 1st part(A), typical Chopin Nocturne texture. Don't know why I modulated the music to F major but the music did so himself... 0:58 2nd part(B) Main melody in F major, but with a new b motive in b.31-32 1:35 3rd part (A') The main melody in the original key can't wait to enter... Gets more agitated and cools down. 2:35 4th part (B'). A fugato using motive b as subject and main melody as episode, modulates once more to F major 3:57 Last part and coda (A''): The A section returns with some registeral change, then gets more agitated. 4:29 is the climax of the piece which is my favourite too, I like the agitation in it. 4:47 starts the coda and finally the mood cools down and ends in tonic major. I played the recording myself. I do make one major slip in 3:22 but the recording is otherwise good enough for me. Feel free to leave comment below! Henry

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!

Please submit links to your Halloween themed competition pieces here! (Please don't submit your music directly into this thread - rather, create your own dedicated thread where members will be able to review your music there - Upload Your Composition for Analysis and Feedback and then copy and paste the URL of your topic into a reply that you make in this thread). Thank you for your participation! To read the requirements/specifications of the competitions and declare your intent to participate go here:

Hello everyone. Here is my official entry of this contest. It is for string quartet (2 violions, viola, a cello, and double bass). The idea behind it was: how can i use the following atonality, bitonality, and sprinkle of halloween fun.

Hi, I'm new so not sure if I'm supposed to comment here, but I wanted to say I'm amazed by this work. Really impressed with the natural dramaturgy of music flow as well as usage of contemporary harmony, rhythm, melodies. Glad to hear something new and exciting like this, keep it up ^^

Awesome music, and welcome! Dude, you're fantastic. I almost went this route, kinda the dancey macabre but fun way. Loved it Your music is very well thought out, score is clean and neat, you obviously know what you're doing. Lovely playback too, the rendering is really smooth and polished. We'd love to hear your feedback on some of the entrees, you sound like you have a lot of knowledge for a young age. Well done! 🙂

Hi Kvothe! This is nice material. Solid at the beginning, but I kind of lost trace towards the final moments of the piece. Sound-wise it does its job very well. The very end felt uncalled for. It was everything but conclusive to me, which can be good at some places but I'm not sure if this is one of them. There are also some unexpected transitions and effects that struck me like "let's experiment with this". Nothing wrong with that either, this is a relaxed and informal competition afer all but... Dunno, I'm quite sure that if you let this material mature it would become way more interesting than what we already have here. Like, from 1:05 to the col legno sections, damn, epic transition. I also like how the col legno blends with the upper string voices, but to put a contrasting example I don't like how the first very strong phrase that sounds again on ~0:30 gets dissolved and transitions to some sort of uncanny fanfare that if extended it could prove to be a worthy piece on its own. Another thing I would like to point out at least superficially: dynamics. There is always room for them, and while abusing them can be a pain for performers, underusing them is not very good either. I think this piece suffers a bit from the latter, but not so much anyway! I notice marcatos, accents, and other articulations, but say, for example: do you want the same strength/volume in the stacatto-pizz. hits in the intro and just after the beginning of the A section? And yeah, let me be honest: I get that sheets are not usually overlooked much but since I myself try to take care I cannot avoid commenting you there are a lot of details that this score needs improvement on. Some examples right here: overlapping rubato, tempo marking —intentionally?— microscopic, and a very minor one that could legitimately be brought up by some nit-picky performer: where does the rubato at the first bar begin? First note? Third? Second? You also have 2 rehearsal marks with "B" at M40 & M45, plus a "C" elsewhere near the end. Finally, let me be that guy and tell you: your piece has not reached 3 minutes, and according to the rules: Not that in this case anybody's gonna take that very seriously, but since it's still 23/10... Maybe this is enough of an excuse to revisit this piece and give it another go? And if it doesn't work, you already got a solid submission posted! Just as a suggestion 🙂 At the end of the day, if what you got is completely of your liking, to the sky with it! May any of my points prove useful to you 🗿 Kind regards, Daniel. P.S: I subscribed to your channel, maybe you could post the video here too!

This one was intended as a kind of character piece. Honestly, I was watching the new season of Wednesday Addams and the music from the show inspired this. LoL There's dynamics in this that hopefully a Clavichord would be better able to perform. Thanks to @Alex Weidmann for his input about how to get the Violin to play classic phrasing rather than portamento! I would appreciate any kind of feedback, comment, critique, suggestion or observation that you may have. Thanks for listening and I hope that you enjoy!

@Maxthemusicenthusiast has also submitted music!

I do hereby proclaim mine intent to partake in this noble contest.

I declare my intent to participate in this competition.

LoL what are all these Spanish!

In response to some recent low-quality low-effort posting in the forum the staff have decided to form some rules about proper forum etiquette and what constitutes fair and reasonable use of the forum: 1a) If you suspect that something might have to be deleted by a Reviewer, Moderator or Administrator, don't post it. 1b) Or if you suspect that your post might not be appropriate for some reason consider if it might not fit better in a different section of the forum. The forum has many sub-forums in it that are meant to be flexible and allow users to post all kinds of content, as long as it has its proper place. 2a) Keep threads on topic. Although the forum is meant almost exclusively for music discussions, there are sub-forums which are dedicated to any topic which can be used, if users so desire, to "shoot the sh*t". 2b) But if a thread is meant to be about a specific musical composition posted in "Upload your Compositions for Analysis and Feedback" please keep the thread about the music posted in question. If you want to post a new piece of music as a response to someone else's post, please create a new dedicated topic for that piece. 3) Please refrain from talking about inflammatory topics such as substance use or abuse or sexually explicit topics considered NSFW. And if you must talk about religion or politics, please create dedicated topics in appropriate sub-forums rather than flooding the musical forums with unrelated conversation. Also, please try to keep talk of religion or politics related to music history. Disregarding this etiquette will cause the member in question to be penalized with a warning point and the following penalties: 3 warning points - member's content will be manually moderated by the staff 6 warning points - member will be temporarily restricted from posting content 9 warning points - member will be temporarily suspended from accessing the site 12 or more warning points - member will be considered to be banned from the site permanently Editing of inflammatory posts in question will potentially reverse warning points.

Getting back into composition from a long hiatus, I decided to orchestrate a piano piece by Claude Debussy. The piece is a movement from his piano suite Estampes titled La Soireé dans Granade (Evening in Granada). I'm still not too familiar with Debussy's piano music as a whole, but this suite definitely piqued my interest in that genre. I wasn't aware at the time, but several high profiled figures have orchestrated this movement (and other movements of the suite), and I did avoid listening to them so I don't copy them. Link to the original piano composition: The audio quality is a little meh...this is the last piece I wrote before I switched out of Finale/Garritan to Dorico/NotePerformer. Any feedback is appreciated!

This Moment Musical in A-flat major is the second piece of the four pieces I intend to write for relaxation after finishing the very heavy String Sextet. As the title suggests, I only want to achieve Schubertian simplicity with some contemplation here. The result is somewhat a bit beautiful and contemplative for me. Here is the YT link and pdf for you: 5-4-2025 Moment Musical in A flat Major.pdf This piece is the opposite with the Intermezzo in A, the first piece of the set, as it uses the theme from the 1st movement of my First Piano Sonata and the key and texture of the 1st movement of my Second Piano Sonata. The recording and this video is again made in a rush so the quality may not be good. Hope you enjoy this little piece! Here is the previous Intermezzo from the same set: Henry

Hi everyone, this is my new composition, Autumn Leaves. I hope you like it!

It's time for the annual Young Composers Christmas Music Event! The Brief Same as ever year - write anything inspired by a winter celebration (e.g. Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa) or just Winter in general (or Summer for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere). If you want to participate, pop a comment below! You could have a look at last year's competition for inspiration if you like: As usual there are no prizes and everyone's a winner. You will however, be rewarded with a beautiful badge designed by our very own @PeterthePapercomPoser. Submissions are open now (8th December). Submissions will be included in this thread. There is no deadline, though preferably your piece should be done before Christmas or at least before the end of December. What are you waiting for? Get composing!

The members have voted and decided upon a Halloween themed competition! This is a just-for-fun competition without monetary awards. But I will be making badges to reward the participants and to give them kudos! I'm thinking I'll make a badge for "Strangest/Weirdest/Most Outlandish piece", "Spookiest/Scariest piece" and "Overall 2025 Halloween winner" which will all be decided by a popular voting poll. The participants will also be able to earn an "Ardent Reviewer" badge if they review all the other participants works! Please reply to this topic to declare your intent to participate in the competition! The competition has the following constraints: Instrumentation - Free choice of any of the following ensembles: Piano Quintet/Quartet/Trio String Quintet/Quartet/Trio Woodwind Quintet/Quartet/Trio Brass Quintet/Quartet/Trio Mixed Quintet/Quartet/Trio Additionally, the participants are allowed to include Harpsichord, Organ or any other instrument which they believe would facilitate a Halloween-themed piece, as long as they keep the total number of instruments used between 3 and 5. Duration: 3 - 7 minutes with a sweet spot of 5 minutes. Deadline: Friday, October 31st, 2025 Entrants thus far: @Thatguy v2.0 @Justin Gruber @Omicronrg9 @TristanTheTristan @Kvothe @UncleRed99 @sebastian Pafundo @Maxthemusicenthusiast @HoYin Cheung @therealAJGS @ferrum.wav @MK_Piano @Wieland Handke @Micah @Dima Here is the submissions thread for the competition where participants are encouraged to post links to their composition (rather than posting their piece directly into the pre-existing topic - make your own dedicated topic so the members at large can review your music there):

Hi, HoYin Cheung! Bear with me for a small while this time. Couldn't resist to quote this, I think it's a very good way to define the difficulty of some parts of this score. It doesn't seem to be an easy feat for neither the strings nor the pianist (perhaps the pianist has less trouble than the violin though!). I am in partial agreement with @MK_Piano here. I do appreciate the atmosphere you created in some parts (the piano solo w/pedal part for example), but after a couple of listenings, and while being true that "I wouldn't mind listening to it again" (and so I did, many times already), there is essentially nothing that makes or would make me gravitate towards this piece enough to listen to it much longer. At this point, I may have heard hundreds of these pieces, part here at YC or other forums such as free-scores, part LIVE, and while I honestly think you did a good job with the score and you probably took a while to write all of this... Truth is, that after the less and less likely initial surprise/shock it went directly to the same far away place in my mind that I am no longer curious to explore or remember. It just melt, liquid; fused with an immeasurable and diffuse blob of notes, clusters and dissonances that are all different yet they feel the very same and which time has taught me to withstand but never to enjoy. Truth is, I very rarely enjoy "contemporary" pieces of this kind, more of a mesh of dissonances stained with interesting material than anything else. They almost always simply "go through", and this one was sadly no exception. However, I would say the ending of this piece was ok, which is five to ten orders of magnitude better than what I usually think of ending sections/passages/bars of pieces that more weakly or strongly (I guess that's again subjective) resemble your piece. And as a rule of thumb with all pieces that come with a description first, I tend to have a listen or two before I read it. Now it would be impossible to me to tell you if reading it beforehand would have influenced me enough to be in agreement with what you claim to portray with your piece, but by having done the opposite process I can guarantee you that from my humble and maybe very wrong opinion (not only because I am not familiarised with Gaelic culture but because I am familiarised with the particular sound of this particular style of contemporary music) this piece did not evoke anything related with the story, not any more than other pieces or parts in pieces like...Dunno: • String Quartet No.1 - Javier Torres Maldonado • Ligeti: String quartet No.2 - Arditti quartet. Just in case, I am not sure if these are composers of reference (they ain't very famous but they ain't precisely unknown either) or that they do mimic your work, this is not what I tried to convey here. Finally and despite my not very benvolent words I would still judge your piece at least one or two orders of magnitude above any section of these two examples I have provided had they been brought to this informal cozy contest, so they may not do justice to the work of yours. All in all, thank you for your submission! Best regards, Daniel–Ø.

What a wonderful piece of music. Musically speaking, I greatly appreciate your abilty to develop the motif over the course of the work. It was entrancing and even went it felt dissonant, I was listening with intent. I do have specific critiques on the engraving/ format of the score: I think it would be a better decision to increase the margins of the entire score. All printers have a margin where they will not put any ink on the outside of the paper (This is called the bleeds). If you were to view your PDF and hit the print button, it will automatically update the margins. (I have attached two screenshots to show this). I also think you can space out the measures more in certain spots (mm.31-58) even when instruments are playing. A pianist would read a part with all 3 instruments on there to help with coordination and having it spaced out may be a nice convenience. Lastly, I recommend adding system dividers to separate the score and to add rehearsal marks so one day, a trio can actually rehearse and use specific places in the score to practice. Lovely video to accompany this as well! 🙂

@Thatguy v2.0 Entry: From Above, not below Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 10 9.5 9 9 10 10 10 8 Average Score:9.4 Review: Melodies Themes Motives (10): I truly felt you have achieved the top tier of what atonal writing should be. Like the unsettling of high winds, the melodic materials take on whirlwind adventure. I have nothing else to say on this matter. Harmony, Chords, and Textures (9.5): The tonal clusters of this piece truly blew me away. Nice touch. Form(9): Free form is excellent choice. Organity and creativity(9): you truly were pushed creativity to the mast here! Score (10): The score was readable. However, the only might I suggest is: the pedaling in the piano. instrumation (10): As I meantion before, Pianist like to change the pedal every now and then. If you hold the pedal too long...the notes become blurry. Execution: perfect! Taste: I am giving this 8 because is not for everyone, but it is for some.

And here is @MK_Piano's first submission both to the contest and to the forum!

Cool man, I love the dark style of this. That quarter note bass line at the end sounded like it was building up to something faster, maybe movement 2 eh? 🙂 For some reason I got metal vibes hearing this, which is good, because metal owns. Love your music, but we gotta update your program... you deserve better sound samples! Thanks for sharing!

aight im in

Hello Here is another piece of the cycle "a la lune" according to Jules Laforgue. I didn't count. I must be at 4 or 5 on the same theme. Here is a kind of little song that looks like a waltz. Sweet bitter, of course, since it is lost love... Translation in the video in subtitles. Thank you for your criticism!

i'll join i guess.

@Justin Gruber is the first participant to have submitted music! Listen to it here:

Hi Vonias. First of all: Do you use that formatted text intentionally? It's so difficult to read in dark mode though it's hardly an issue cause I may be the only one using it. Still, it's strange I don't see any filler in the usual mode. Anyway, the soundscape you created is indeed eerie, a bit repetitive but that's —more often than not— a definining aspect of many ambient music. I don't dislike it, and now that I am done with its first listening I can almost guarantee that I got used to it. It's not very tense, I think I cannot find any better term other than "eerie", really. Not even the high frequencies at the very beginning bother my ears. I like the —perhaps tiny— detail of music dying itself and not getting choped with a stop button. Finally, and reviewing my own brief commentarry, I am not certain if my notes could just apply to abortion 🗿. But I can get what you mean. I don't get what you mean by "counterfact" though. Kind regards, Daniel–Ø.

We'd like to welcome a new member and Reviewer to the staff: @UncleRed99! Welcome! With his help as well as with input from the rest of the staff, @chopin, @Thatguy v2.0 and @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu we've come up with a little poll for the members to answer to help determine the form of our next fun competition/challenge. There are two questions in the poll: 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." To write a Halloween-themed spooky, weird, or outlandish and strange piece. This one is self-explanatory and was proposed by @Thatguy v2.0. 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? The poll has closed and the competition has now begun! To sign up and read about the competition specifications/requirements go here: To submit links to your compositions for the competition to the submissions thread:

This is the fourth and final movement of my Violin Sonata in B flat major, commissioned by and dedicated to Arjuna Clark (lately Archie) @expert21. This movement is in Variation form which is my first attempt on the form in a movement, though I already use quite some variations techniques in my old pieces. I choose the form because rather than another narrative sonata form movement, a variation movement exploring the possiblities of the ARJUNA motive is much more appropriate for me. Again, thx to @Thatguy v2.0 for making the audio. I try for some strict procedure in each of the variation, as I use Prime and Inversion form of the ARJUNA motive for the 1st half of a variation, then Retrograde, Retrograde-Inversion and Prime form of the ARJUNA motive for the 2nd half of a variation. Even though the motive itself is short and easy enough to achieve this kind of treatment, still I wanna use them for coherence. Because of this, this one is probably the hardest movement in this Sonata to write with. Here is the YT video and pdf scores of the movement: Violin Sonata in B-flat major 4th mov.pdf Here is the structure of the movement: 0:00 Thema: Allegretto Commodo. A rather simple and easy-going theme for later variations. 1:16 Variation I: Allegretto con moto: A funny variation. Introduces G-flat major for the 1st time in the movement. In the second half, each two bar phrase is the retrograde of the two bar phrase corresonding to the first half, e.g. b.26-27 correspond to b.17-18. 2:13 Variation II: Allegro con energico. A variation heavily inspired by the 2nd movement of Beethoven's Razumovsky Quartet no.1, which is also in the same key. End of the 1st part and begins 2nd part with variations begins in different keys. 3:03 Variation III: Andante Comtemplativo. A variation begins in D major and makes chordal usage of the ARJUNA motive. Briefly reintroduces the 2nd movement theme in 4:04. Ends with a dark transition to C sharp minor. 5:08 Variation IV: Adagio Doloroso. A variation begins in C sharp minor. I make use of the Beethoven op.135 theme again as in the 3rd movement, but this time in minor mode and all sorts of dissonances, since it reflects the dark mood I was having then. The use of ARJUNA motive is saturated here; I even use all four forms of the motive together in b.110. Ends in Picardy third and modulates to the next variation. 6:44 Variation V: Andantino con moto e tranquillo. A variation begins in G-flat major and modulates through D major before returning to tonic B-flat major. I quote a lot of pentatonics and quartals here to show the influence of my String Sextet. 8:10 Variation VI: Fugato e Coda: Allegro Vivace, con brio e energico. Even though it 's a cliche to end a variation in a fugato, I still use it here nonetheless. The fugue subject makes use of the prime and inversion form of ARJUNA motive, while the countersubject the retrograde and inversion of the motive. The episodes also make use of the motives too. I even quoted my Clarinet Quintet main theme in 8:47. Waltz rhythm gradually returns and polyphonic texture changed to a homophonic one, just like the ending of Beethoven's op.110 Sonata. More affirmations of the ARJUNA motive comes and ends the music in a high energetic way. I quite enjoy the ending not to lie. Thx for listening and hopefully you will leave some comments here! Henry P.S. Here are the previous movements posted on YC forum: 1st Mov: 2nd Mov: 3rd Mov:

This is the final draft of my best work up to date in my life, String Sextet in G flat major. Posts of seperate movements have been posted before and I'm not gonna repeat it here. If you're interested in the music details, pls check the following YCs: 1st Mov: 2nd mov: Here is the score and YT link of the work: String Sextet in G flat major.pdf Here is the structure of the work: (*denotes parts I love). The two movement structure is inspired by Mahler's 8th Symphony, so the second movement is proportionally much longer than 1st movement: 0:00 Opening credit and structure 0:11 1st Mov, 1st Part: Tao Primo (*3:35-3:47 nice bridge, **4:40-5:26 nice chromatics) 5:34 1st Mov, 2nd Part: Minore, a fugato, some little challenges (**9:40-10:10 nice retransition) 10:10 1st Mov, 3rd Part: Tao Return, a triple fugue and ending (falsely) (*11:45, **12:46 till the end) 14:48 2nd Mov, Lamentoso: Denial of Tao and realization of the realistic World full of tragedies. (*16:54, *19:11, ***19:44 sounds like my version of Bee's op.131 finale!, ***23:38-25:15 most emotional passage for me) 26:33 2nd Mov, Fugue a6: Objectification of emotions and reason. The most difficult passage for me to write technically but easiest emotionally. (**28:10-28:42 includes a 6 part stretto of 1st subject and a nice C minor modultation quoting my own Clarinet Quintet, ****30:07-31:27 a 6 part stretto of 2nd subject and one of my fav. section in the entire work with the very beautiful C minor passage, ***32:58-34:31 nice turn to pentatonics and nice disappointment) 35:03 2nd Mov, The Return. Start picking up the real self and soul and connect oneself with Tao, finding self equals to finding Tao. “I Six Books explain me and I explain Six Books (Lu Jiuyuan)”(*35:03-35:36 try to regain energy, **37:05,37:37,38:11,38:43 Nice color, **39:12 nice folk melody, ***39:15-40:15 Nice pizz.! And a very nice snap pizz! **** 40:46-41:46This passage leaves me in wonder. I don't know how do I compose this, **42:17-43:23 Nice appetizer fugato, ****43:24-44:53 Grand Climax!, ***44:54-45:41 Nice heterophonic passage which ignites my creative power for this movement, *****45:42 till end Pefect ending) This work was first inspired by Chinese Philosopher Tang Chun I's Realm of Heavenly Morality in his monumental book, The Existence of Life and the World of Spirituality, in April 2022. I wanna felt and descibed it hence I finished the whole 1st mov. I thought it's enough, until I met with my dedicatee Johnson, my respected philosophy professor Dr. Tao and my friend Merina in April 2023, and I knew it's not enough since without pain Tao isn't possible at all. After some painful incidents in 2024, I am finally able to finish the whole piece in March 2025. For me this work is about Tao, Tao lost and Tao regained. Since this would be the final post on the Sextet, please let me acknowledge people I would like to thank along my way of composing. This work is dedicated to and in memoriam Mr. Johnson Ho https://youtube.com/@beingintheworld?si=9Ch3hnk1UtluHTRF who sadly passed away in July 2024, and it's a regret the work couldn't be finished when he's alive. I would like to thank him for his great inspiration especially his postive way to deal with his illness. I would like to thank Dr. Tao, without his teaching esp. the one on the book Buddha-nature and Prajñā (?) did I realise the importance of pain and human suffering to morality and humanity, and probably won't have enough philosophical basis for this work. I would like to thank Mr. Vince Meyer @Thatguy v2.0, who acts as my musical Virgil, providing so many inspiration particularly in this piece's fugue and different motivic usage, and also make this great recording. Also, thank him for his encouragement when I kept saying I could never finish this piece. I would like to thank Dr. David Goza http://www.youtube.com/@David_Goza⁨⁩ ,without his videos on YT I would never able to improve my own writing. I would like to thank Merina, Yvonne, Arjuna @expert21 and Peter @PeterthePapercomPoser for staying with me in my difficult times. I would like to thank Mike @chopin for his idea to go back to medieval texture in the Return. I would like to thank Luis @Luis Hernández which helps me solve the harmonic progression btw tritiones. I would also like to thank my ex-boss's mistreatment, as she teaches me a great lesson and the pain helps me reflect a lot which shows here. Also, thanks to everyone who has listen to this piece before and comments, as they help me a lot. Thank you Young Composers Forum and @chopin for giving me a chance to grow musically. Thank you for everyone who has commented on the work's parts before, I especially love the comments by @Fugax Contrapunctus @Giacomo925. Last but most importantly, I would like to thank my mum and family. Without their love I would probably fall much deeper and won't be able to finish this piece at all. Thank you!! P.S. One interesting fact on the piece is that it stays longer in F sharp minor then G flat Major….. Henry

Thought I'd join in as well!

@gaspard has asked me to orchestrate another one of his Clavichord pieces and I was happy to oblige! You can view his YouTube video here: Character Select Screen And you can view his score here: It took me about 8 days to do this orchestration and I am presenting here two versions - one that repeats the piece from the beginning and one that doesn't. I hope you enjoy and I'd love to hear any critiques, comments, suggestion or just observations that you may have! This is the 2nd time that I've orchestrated one of @gaspard's Clavichord pieces.

Update: Live Performance + Score of this piece:

If I had the amount of followers on YouTube these audio engineers do, I'd honestly make my own video tearing these apart. The irony of these videos produced by audio engineers stating "the real reason today's music all sounds the same!" is that they are all saying the same things every other audio engineer is. and they're all wrong. This is a subject that really needs an experienced, old composer's perspective on. To his credit, Billy does passingly mention things like 120 bpm, loop packs and a lack of key changes, but his arguments are still mainly "Everyone is recording the same way." like what Rick Beato and Glen Fricker talk about. "No one is recording guitars with real mics! They're all using Superior Drummer! They're quantizing!" etc. Yet they cannot explain why so many different-sounding albums in popular music used and still use the Shure Sm57, Marshall JCM800, Celestion Speakers, 6L6 tubes, and a Gibson Les Paul or strat with DiMarzio super distortions. How come everyone who writes for an orchestra doesn't sound the same? It reminds me of how, back in my electronica phase, guys said not to use presets because "You'll sound like everyone else!", and then proceeded to plop down a four-on-the-floor (the only beat they know) with an offbeat or side chained, straight 16th note bassline just like everyone else. Guy...I don't think it's the patch you chose for the bass that is causing you to sound the same. Stuff sounds the same now because everyone is WRITING THE SAME MUSIC I don't know why this isn't obvious these guys; it should be obvious even to a layman. Like I said in the thread about "what makes a chord move poorly": This thinking in terms of "chord progressions" is one of the things making everything sound identical, as is the dominance of "ostinato". It's just crazy to me that someone out there is laying down "epic" drums and plunking in that "root-third" 8th note ostinato every trailer piece plays on the violas and thinks to himself "...I'll bet if I had my own string library, I'd sound unique!" Granted, I do think that it helps to an extent. I don't think anyone else's mockups sound quite like mine due to me having a rather unique collection, but this by itself would not be enough. I like to lean into genre tropes, but as @PeterthePapercomPoser accurately noticed in my latest cinematic-metal track, the guitar riff is a seamless mix of Phrygian and the diminished scale. Most metal bands today would stick to the Phrygian the whole way through the song. Curious to hear your thoughts. In my opinion, it is a more damning report on the current state of the music industry that everyone seems oblivious to the obvious decline in craftsmanship at the songwriting stage than it is that everyone is using Superior Drummer.

I'm stil not done with my orchestrations, I will probably come to this section a bunch of times this year haha. What do you think? I believe I managed to portray a dark aura. I still don't know how to assign dynamics to the instruments, any advice for that so I don't have to rely on "mp" and "ppp" so much?

Revisited this piece, after a few weeks off of messing with it. That always seems to give me a fresh perspective on things I've written, and helps me to identify areas where improvement could be made. I feel confident in saying that if I were to forget this piece, and return to it again, that I'd be happy with how it is in it's current state. As always, if there are any areas where someone with more expertise than I have is able to identify an issue or mistake, I'm all ears for the feedback! 🙂 Thanks, and I hope you all enjoy my little heartfelt piece of music Lamentation_-_Kyle_Hilton_UPDATED_with_Spitfire_Labs_VST3_Audio (4).pdf Lamentation_-_Kyle_Hilton_UPDATED_with_Spitfire_Labs_VST3_Audio.custom_score (1).mp3

Hey @Thatguy v2.0! A lucid, absorbing piece of orchestral music! The introduction of the melodic material is cleverly interwoven with counterpoint from multiple different solo instruments. And there's also some blues elements in the use of the b3 in a mostly major context. I love the effect at 2:40 and 6:26 where the trombones very slowly glissando up to the next chord. It really makes the harmonic changes so apprehensive. The piece is thematic and motivically driven. Only after multiple listens can I now really appreciate all the thematic and motivic elements and how they're developed. I like how the Piccolo brings back the main theme near the end at the 14 minute mark. The flourishing and cycling through various keys before the end is also very effective at bringing the piece to a satisfactory conclusion. Perhaps my favorite part is around 4:40. I also really like the pizzicato part at 8:38. Throughout the piece you overlap the entrances of various motifs in the different instruments. And they're all nonetheless clearly related to each other and to the main theme of the piece. It took a lot of work and dedication to write this 16+ minute orchestral piece and you should feel satisfied with your accomplishment! Congratulations and thanks for sharing!