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This is a concertino I wrote specifically for a youth chamber orchestra. Although it's not a perfect performance, I was very pleased with the results considering the amount of rehearsal time they had. This is my personal recording of the piece from my place in the audience, so I do apologize for the fuzziness and the whispers going on around me. The name means 'Boreal Song' or 'Song of the North.' Though I generally prefer to convey my musical ideas through chord structures, this piece is more lyrical than my normal wont. There are 2 major themes and a number of motifs throughout. The piece was designed to represent the struggle of spring overcoming winter, so I hope you can hear that in the tense passages and deep yearnings of the solo cello. As always, feedback is welcome! Edit: @Maarten Bauer I just saw you put up a piece performed by a youth orchestra, too, so now it looks like I'm trying to one-up you! That wasn't my intent at all, so everyone please go listen to Maarten's piece, too!

Composition completed on 10/24/2015 You also can watch this piece here -

Composition completed on 11/24/2015 You also can watch this piece here -

I don't know how much music history you've studied up to this point, but this whole notion of material-based originality came from the genesis of the Romantic era, where the advancement of middle-class music making along with the general advancement of music printing/publishing combined. Composers started using super fancy/exotic-sounding titles and used increased harmonic changes to be more expressive and have their pick at the newly free market. I'll elaborate on my own opinions/answer more of the proposed questions if this discussion gets more lively, but I'm more a fan of the way the Classical era dealt with originality, where quality was based upon how well you could use old forms and conventions in your own style/ways. It doesn't sound very modern to us because it was their styles, but Haydn's and Beethoven's music were pretty novel when they were written. The modern era has taken this Romantic ideal of expression and newness to its extreme, trying to push progress without having the patience for it. The elitism and high-artness of modern classical music generally glosses over the music most people will listen to; how subtle its changes are to formulas, but how effectively catchy the songs are. Maybe my thoughts on this will change over time.

Surviving the Snow - Full Score.pdf

I wrote this little piece....

Here I have one of my composition assignments. The task was to use a famous musical quotation; here, I use it rather transparently, but if unfamiliar it is Erik Satie. Moreover, it had to be about two minutes long. I plan on writing multiple miniatures: this, the first. Much of the inspiration for the name -- sculpture -- is in my own paradigm toward composition; I think of it as like the act of sculpting and in very visual fashion, associating music with color. Enjoy! (I left it in concert pitch for ease of reading)

hello guys this is my new song i hope you like it! any criticism is welcome

After a long hiatus without writing much music or being active on this site due to both professional and personal reasons, I've trying to get back in the swing of things. I've been revising older works and this piece in particular I've come back to off and on for awhile. It is the second piece in a set of six solo piano pieces dedicated to my daughter (the keys loosely spell the first 6 letters of her name) and I've always considered the least polished as while there are individual parts of it I liked, it never sounded quite right to me. This is the latest revision and I welcome any comments.

Hi, I'm new. I'm currently composing a soundtrack for a video game in early development, and I've started a new composition and completed the rough draft for the climax of the song. If there are any suggestions of anything I should tweak, I'd gladly hear it. I plan to add some sort of percussion

Hi guys, would like to now what you think about the composition. Its hard to say in which direction it realy fits, I would say ambiental-classical. DAW: Cubase 10 Elements VST Instruments: Arturia V Collection, EW Steinway Piano VST Effects: Fabfilter Cheers!!

Hey there, I'm new to this forum ☺️. I just wanted to put my latest work/composition "The Door Beyond" here. It is a mixture of a few old compositions of mine edited with logic pro to one big song. I am excited what you think about it.

@Tónskáld covered some foundational stuff, so I'll just focus on engraving... You need to make sure that when you're putting rhythms in that everything is sectioned off in their own beat, and since you're using 5/4, that everything is in some sort of grouping. The very first soprano line, for example, has to be dotted eighth, sixteenth tied to another sixteenth, then the remaining 3 sixteenths.

Juan, these are so fun! Thank you for sharing with us! Just a couple notes: In Écossaise 1, you have some notes in the right hand with an accent and a marcato. I would clean that up—just use the marcato. In Écossaise 4, you have some quickly repeated notes in 1/32nds... are those playable that fast? It seems a shame that the piece's playability could be ruined by just 3 passages. In the postlude you have the tempo marked as Larguetto (which is arguably the Spanish rendition), but the Italian spelling is Larghetto. I loved how they were all different moods! Great job, friend!

There are so many accidentals that change so frequently, it's probably best just to leave it as is (no key) so the singers can read the notes more quickly. Lots of great chromatic passages in here that I really liked! There is quite a bit of doubling going on (the difficulty with SSAA choirs, I know), and I wonder if things wouldn't sound better if the S's and A's sang in unison with their respective parts until somewhere later in the piece. The harmonies were strange but that's a matter of personal taste. I also didn't hear much thematic development, and the quarter-note/half-note passage at the end seemed rather abrupt—maybe that was on purpose? Overall, nice piece of work. Keep up the good work!

This is a good topic for discussion; thanks for bringing it up! I think each of us creates "original" music in the sense that we as composers create works of music that are uniquely our own. True, they may resemble certain styles and forms of other composers—I'm not sure one can ever escape that since all of our musical ideas are built upon stuff we've heard before and internalized. As we become more experienced, we're able to remove ourselves farther away from those influences, so our music slowly takes on its own voice. As to the "style" of originality as defined by the classical music elites, I'm stumped there. The style of music heralded by the elites as "purely original" is, as you mentioned, atonal. Proponents of atonal music posit that it's a musical era just like Romantic or Impressionism, but I disagree; up until the Modern/Postmodern era of classical music, composers followed the natural "rules" of music. Debussy (an Impressionist for those following along at home) did some weird things with tonality but he obeyed the rules. The human ear is wired to interpret certain pitch relationships as consonant and others as dissonant—and these days, some as purely chaotic. Modern/postmodern classical music, with its strong atonality, is the first musical movement to actually rebel against this natural rule, or at least disregard it, in the hopes of staying original. So, all this to say that modern composers have abandoned tonality because they believe there's nothing "original" left to be had there. Again, I disagree. It takes a lot more work and creative thinking to find an original voice in the world of tonality, but it's entirely possible—and very satisfying! I've a hunch that the great composers of our generation remembered 100 years down the road will not be the progressive, 12-tone serialists churning out mind-boggling, gut-wrenching cacophonies; rather, it will be those who continued to tinker with tonality and made music that meshed with the human soul. My goals are rather simple: write music that I like. I'd much prefer to revolutionize music than reach a big audience, but (for reasons mentioned above) I don't feel like that's going in the direction of the current avant-garde styles. There's still hundreds of years' worth of exploring to do in the world of tonality! So how original do we need to be? Well, be as original as you want to be! Some people create amazing works that sound like Beethoven or Mozart could have written. Others' sound like something from an outfit from Mars. The problem I find is that composers are either cliché tonal composers (little musical training) or else they're atonal. This probably has to do with the fact that atonal music is the prima donna right now among the elites; atonal music will receive the most praise (and it's difficult to criticize since it doesn't follow a lot of rules), so "serious" composers seek originality via that route. If there are atonal composers reading this, please don't get the wrong impression! I respect your compositional styles 100%; my point is that atonal music is not the sole arbiter of originality. As you might have guessed, my music is strongly tonal. However, I use a rich combination of chords throughout so it doesn't sound too cliché. In fact, I hate having to use conventional chord progressions; I strive to avoid them when I can. My works have a strong thematic element to them but are rarely melody-driven (in other words, not like Tchaikovsky and other Romantics). I also use a lot of unconventional modulations that loosely tie to the previous key. And I love counterpoint—I always try to use it when I can. It helps ensure that all players have "interesting" parts to play! I guess I'm describing Impressionism, and maybe that category best fits my musical style. Anyone is welcome to take a listen to some of my stuff and give their own opinion. 🙂

Wow, is (sorry for my words) fking beautiful... Incredible piece

Hi all, I've not posted anything here for quite a while, been busy with other things, but I've also been working to finish my first fully orchestrated piano concerto. The first movement was posted here about a year ago, but the second and third movements are new. The first movement has also been edited and hopefully improved as I added a short cadenza that I felt was missing from the first movement, as well as changing the odd passage here and there. Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with the final edit. As always, any comments are welcome and gratefully received.

Yes, you deciphered that correctly. I am entering a competition that I checked all my instruments with, and they said that all the instruments and the two extras (guitar and panflute) are "perfectly acceptable for the competition". I have quite a long list of competitions that are very equipped for orchestra (including some for younger composers), but I'll be sure to check that everything is acceptable first. I do also have a piece for piano, two violins, a cello and a flute which would be easier to find a competition for. I don't think I'm good enough to get a placement in anything, but I do love the idea of it. To be honest, I just wish for feedback. For someone to tell me whether I'm doing o.k for where I'm at; 5th try and never had a single line of advice from anyone. But I'm too scared to ask anyway for fear the answer will be horrendous. Anyway, thankyou for your advice. I wish you all the best for the future. Layla tov

Composition completed on 10/23/2015 You also can watch this piece here -

I like this one too, lovely melody, well done.

Bravo, this is a lovely prelude, I like it a lot, great work.

Also check Bruch's double concerto for clarinet & viola.

Ligeti viola sonata Kurtag games

Telemann wrote a concerto for two violas and for solo viola as well as many for violin. You can find them on IMSLP.

Very nice melody. I have no words.

I don't think so. Duets rightly have their place in the Chamber Music section.

Amazing! I like the melody, especially the chords.May I ask what software you are using to create the mp3?

Thank you all for the responses! I'm glad to see differing perspectives on the matter. @Luis Hernández : To briefly comment on your point, I rarely (intentionally at any rate) use a well-defined form in my music writing. I'm not really opposed to them or anything, it's just that most of the ideas I've had that I've been able to expand on haven't fit into a proper form. @Guillem82: I didn't post any examples at first, since I didn't want to taint people's answers with reactions to anything specific. That said, now that I've gotten a few, I'll add some examples to my first post. I'll probably post a few more in the 'upload your compositions' section as well; I've finally managed to get myself to go and join one of these communities, so why not make good use of it?

Very beautiful. Sometimes the time signature is a bit odd. Why isn't the beginning in 6/8?

You're right, TSTwizby, that there is no one answer to the question, but it's worth thinking about it from the point of view of the performers, listeners, and the conductor/director/teacher, and you, the composer. If you wrote a piece for full orchestra that was two minutes long, it wouldn't be enough of a piece to be worth an orchestra's time. They tend to have concerts built of symphony or concerto-sized chunks of music, so adding a two minute piece would feel odd. If you wrote a two minute piece for high-level solo pianist, that would also probably be too short to be worth someone's time. Recitals by good pianists are also generally composed of a few longer pieces, giving the audience and performer time to lose themselves in the music in between breaks for applause. But two minutes for a beginner pianist at their recital is a great length. It's about the limit of what they can prepare well and an audience of parents and grandparents can sit through if there is some fumbling. Two minutes is also great for a musical interlude in, say, the middle of a church service, where the music isn't the main event, but it adds to the emotional content of the message of the day. From your point of view as the composer, it's worth thinking about what kind of music you can write right now that will help you grow and keep you encouraged as a composer. Writing something too long as a beginning composer makes it harder to get feedback, because the number of casual friends willing to sit and listen dwindles with the time commitment. Long pieces can also get frustrating for you, because they may just be too much for you to handle well. Better to write something short and polished than something long and ragged. If you spend a few weeks working on a piece, and it's just okay, that's fine, and you can enthusiastically move on to the next piece without looking back, but if you spend 6 months working on a piece, and it's just okay, you're likely to feel like you have just wasted 6 months, and wonder if you should just give up on composing. There is a reason that creative writing classes start with poetry or short stories, not novel writing. Larger enterprises tend to expose the holes in our education quickly, and then we get disheartened. So keep it short for now, and you'll be able to polish each piece more, experiment with a different musical concept with each one, and all that effort will help you build larger structures on an increasingly sound foundation as you go along. Mainly, do whatever you need to do to keep composing exciting. To learn and improve, you have to keep going, so whatever gets you going is a good thing.

Another lovely piece! This was beautiful and delicate. Although, I was thrown off a bit at measures 24-29. I'm not sure I'd have been able to correctly interpret the dramatic changes in tempo on my own if I were reading it without having heard it. Not sure if thats just my inexperience with sight reading/interpretation or if there is a clearer way to communicate that on the page. In any case, it's really delightful and I think I'll try to learn it!

This is awesome! Looking forward to checking out more of your stuff!

I got to spend a couple of rehearsals with them, and really the only direction I had to give was to pull out the violas and cellos a little more so they weren't overwhelmed by the sheer amount of violinists. I'm sure you know how many violinists a high school orchestra tends to have in comparison to the other strings... And thanks for the kind words! It was a challenge trying to balance emotionality with simplicity, but if there were never any limits to creativity... I don't think we'd create very much. 🙂

They managed to get a nice warm sound and a good amount of line out of their performance for a youth group. Nice job to them, and to you for writing something emotionally engaging, but within the capabilities of a young musicians! Did you get to spend any rehearsal time with them, or just attend the performance?

Hello, I wanted to write som court music, so here is my little fugue for 2 trumpets and 2 trombones in c major. Please telle med what you think! SimenN

I reminds me the soundtrack of an epic movie. I love the main theme played by Frensh horn at the begining and then by the cello, which actually are my two favourite instruments. Well done Samuel!

I love it! the feeling of threat and restless I all through the piece, full of dissonances and then the great explosions of rage...it's captivating. You created a great atmosphere here, congratulations!

Nice solo Silver, thanks! Me favorite solo violin is the well known from Mendelssohn's violin concerto in E minor...

I wrote this piece with a 2 page limit, which is the reason for its short length. Also, this is a midi recording and I wrote the tempo as slightly faster than what should actually be played because players always slow it down a bit. With that in mind, enjoy!

I think you may look at the Caprices and Violin Concerti of Paganini if you want to see the (rather extreme/nearly full) capabilities of violin, e.g. the use of harmonics, double-stops, different bow techniques. Ysaye's violin sonatas are great too.

@Tónskáld has suggested many great concerti from the Romantic era. I also recommand the following works, Wieniawski (All Violin Concerto) Ernest Chausson - Poeme for Violin and Orchestra Ravel - Tzigane For more modern choices, my list will be as follows, Bartok - Violin Concerto No.2 Bartok - Romanian Folk Dances Stravinsky - Violin Concerto Aram Khachaturian - Violin Concerto Berg - Violin Concerto Kabalevsky - Violin Concerto Martinu: Violin Concerto No.2

I love that idea! Just keep in mind that the viola is one fifth lower than the violin, and therefore can't play quite as quickly as its higher-pitched cousin. The violist has to strike the string a split second faster than the violin in order to play at the same time.

For more modern tastes, I would suggest the Barber Violin Concerto and Ligeti Violin Concerto. Tchaikovsky's is pretty mandatory listening.

Ah yes, 'tis a good one, too! Dvorak also wrote one that isn't too shabby:

The Brahms Violin Concerto is one of my favorites:

Violin solos are plentiful! Some of my favorites are the Sibelius violin concerto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITTbY1n3Iz8, the one by Bloch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTEnPximays, and the Tchaikovsky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbJZeNlrYKg. Feel free to check out Mendelssohn's and Beethoven's if you're looking for a more classical feel. For viola... good luck! There isn't a whole lot for viola + orchestra in the repertoire. The Stamitz (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaHRWcEfroU) is popular among violists but it has that purely classical sound. Harold in Italy by Berlioz (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4NC4E5RXik) is about the only great Romantic-sounding orchestral piece featuring viola out there... unfortunately, this piece isn't very virtuosic. Hindemith wrote Der Schwanendreher (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkFbrUEhSCc&t=7s)—not my favorite but I guess it's worth mentioning. There is, of course, another viola concerto written by someone you might know. 😉 It hasn't been performed yet but it was composed by a violist! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYW8K6N4FEE)

J Santos and Ho Yin Cheung, Thanks a lot for your very kind comments, I really appreciate them and I'm glad you liked it. Kind regards Mark

What a great job!! Keep it

Here's in the slightly lower audio quality the Overture from the musical! :)