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The Ballade in E-flat minor was written in 2021. Though it is written for solo piano, I had intended to write it for piano and orchestra, and may make a version of it for this ensemble in the future. The piece is about 8 minutes long. I hope you all enjoy it 🙂

Sometime, my teacher called something I wrote "abstract music" because it was not written with instrumental voices in mind, but rather as a compositional exercise(in counterpoint). Having no better term at hand, I tried to express that your composition is abstract from the guitar and its playing style(what I also called "unidiomatic"). I also partially listened to your Soliloquy No. 33 for Violin and felt like it was certainly playable on violin, but did not make use of its special techniques. I am no violinist, of course, so I am inclined to trust your experience as a cellist. Maybe a few not

Yes! And your examples are on point, (mostly) deliberate on my part. The story is that I was a music student (piano) many many years ago (I guess I am a *young* composer only at heart 🙂 ), and part of the curriculum was a "elementary harmony" exam whose topics correspond, by and large, to CPP (four-part harmony, modulation, some chromatism). About a year ago, in lockdown and a little bored I brushed up on the harmony textbook and started reading it, doing exercises etc. I figured I could write the exercises on the computer, and then realized I could have fun arranging them for the orchestra, a

I wrote this some time ago but only recently bothered to create a graphical score and put it on YouTube. So I'll also share it here while I'm at it.

CPP - Common Practice Period: traditional harmonic practices. You've done well, taking it into a slightly more modern setting and adding a few "accented passing notes" and allowable dissonances here and there. Examples. The bassoon part in bars 3 & 4 moving from the G to the Bb. The Ab is an unaccented passing note so it's clash with the piano G is fine. The A natural in bar 4 effectively forms a modulation leading to the Bb chord, an imperfect cadence. It turns an F minor chord into F major. Bar 13, 3rd beat. The bassoon F is an appoggiatura (as they call it, an accented passing

Thank you for listening and commenting and for the kind words! Maybe since we are opposites we should try and collaborate 🙂

I actually thought it was fine and well formed. Interesting harmonic progressions and harmony. Seems you're fairly practiced in CPP. It has a late 18th century feel to it, at times reminding me of Cimarosa. (His Oboe Concerto is roughly the same length.) I don't know if it's a live performance - it could be but there are giveaways that it isn't, like the long phrases for the bassoon without a breathing space (in the opening bars). The dynamic range is pretty good anyway. My only crit is that the Bassoon could be just a tiny bit more to the front. It sounds as if the piano is nearest the mike (

Hi again! Sorry about not replying sooner, I didn’t see your reply until this afternoon. I’m happy that my advice was useful. I like the second and especially third movements a lot! I find them more natural than the first one. You seem to have your own style, you writing seems quite personal and there are a lot of very interesting moments. I especially like the way you handled the middle section in the third movement! When it arrived, I thought “oh, his inspiration ran out at this point. I’ve had my share of pseudo-tango sections nowadays”. But the simple runs in the right hand of the piano ke

I like the 2nd movement! It's quite effective as a slow movement and I don't usually like slow movements. Everything, including the piano accompaniment stays pretty simple for the most part. You attempt to introduce a more virtuosic variation of the material in the bassoon at meas. 54 which I feel could be brought out more and elaborated upon more. If it were my piece I would probably have subjected the material to a theme and variations treatment but that's just me. Your phrases are quite unusual in this and end up in unexpected places. Also it seems like the melody line should be more

Hi, I listened to it and I'm not good with positive criticism so sorry if I hurt your feelings. I don't mean to. The main problem I see is that there's no clear sensation of movement, or of anything else. The texture changes sometimes, but harmonically as well as melodically, it's extremely complicated to understand what's going on. At times it seems like you're roaming about without really knowing where to go, and at times a nice idea pops up, or a lyrical moment, and you (meaning I) think "oh, there's something", but then you (still talking about me) get lost again in all the notes and

This is a short piece in the tradition of 19th century fugues with harmonies and textures a bit more adventurous than Baroque ones. You may recognize the subject from memes LOL. I also made a string trio version (which some people from Brazil asked me if they could play, but I never heard from them anymore).

Hi! First post with my new account. I posted a few little ditties here around 6 years ago, but someone ripped me a new asshole and decided to take some rest. I see Luderart and Austenite are still here (edit: this could be misunderstood: these weren't the ones that tore my work apart, and after all, it deserved to be criticized). ... Anyway as an introduction, I'd like to share one of my most cherished compositions, my Symphony. This was my first original orchestral work (i.e. not an arrangement). I wrote this in one month in 2019, even though some basic ideas date from many years

This is an ancient melody, spread from East Europe to West Asia. I love armenian chant, and I suppose I only know it in its "modern" version. I took this melody, which is, in fact, a monody, arranged it, added transition parts, harmonized and orchestrated it fully.

Double fugue in gminor scored for 2x oboe, 2x bassoon in g minor. I think i will rearrange the fugue for two pianos... Written in the mid baroque style, so dont exptect those bach episodes 😉 Please telle me what you think. SimenN

The piece starts off with an introduction before breaking off into a fugue with a highly chromatic subject. This piece was an experimentation in contrapuntal writing, tension and rhythm. Any feedback would be highly appreciated!

If it were my piece I wouldn't mention the key and maybe come up with some kind of unique naming scheme like a combination of two words that describe it or treat it as a tone poem. To distinguish it from other pieces that are similar to it you could just slap a "No. 1" to the end of it.

Really nice! Personally, I would have loved to hear more contrast with the staccato which you only briefly hinted at measures 63-64 but otherwise a beautiful work.

Great piece! The waltz movement reminds me of "La Valse" by Ravel and the last movement gives me Leonard Bernstein vibes. I wish I had more time to look at the score in detail to maybe give more critical feedback - from what little I've seen though I have to ask whether the enharmonics that you've used in the harp part are really streamlined to help the harp player most easily play the part? Great job though - I enjoyed it thoroughly!

???? The piece is generally well-constructed, but to me it feels maybe a bit busy? There's obviously imitation and everything but it very much feels like a piece that was written to fulfill certain criteria. In other words, the middle section's texture is a little too consistent for me. Varying it up I think would help a lot and allow for more distant relationships of the mode to be explored. Just my opinion.

Thanks so much for the kind words! Yep there is the heavy Beethoven influence in the piece, and I decided to add the hints of chromatism and distant modulations to add my own flair to the piece. Unfortunately, due to the time constraints I was not able to add a coda, which I had really wanted to do. I think I may add one in another version that won't be performed. Thank you so much! Yea I can see the possible use for film! Yep I believe in the ability of my school's string ensemble! Yep, I will be more than willing to share the recording of this when it is completed! Thank you

Hi everyone! I finally completed my scherzo for the String orchestra in A Minor, op. 5. It was commissioned to be performed by my school's string ensemble in a community concert, where the proceeds will be donated to a children's foundation for kids in need. The maximum stipulated duration for the piece was 3 minute 30 seconds (hence the short nature of the piece) and it follows an A-B-B'-A' structure. It uses an overarching melodic motif omnipresent throughout the piece with numerous rhythmic motifs along the way. Feel free to provide some feedback! Scherzo for the String Orchestra, Op.

A superb piece. A little Beethovenesque but very well constructed and rendered. The instrumentation is excellent and the articulations are dead-on! Your school string ensemble must be pretty elite if they can cope with it. I hope they can and that you get a chance to record it. You're going to have a lot of fun at rehearsals!

That's just the way( that we have to make) It's the hardest thing i ever did Stop thinking about you You were my addiction More than anyone at all I wish you could see all of that But you have goned You were my brother And you left me with nothing Not even a goodbye I couldn't have survived, Without you, on my life (Huh, uhhh) Now i realize How stupid i was, letting you go And all the verses While i wrote Was hurting See you happy And I, sad But you

This is a piece I finished last year but have been tweaking a bit since then. The idea was to write a prog-rock piece in the form of a Classical symphony - the first movement a sonata-allegro with slow introduction, second movement is a loose set of variations, third movement is a scherzo, and finale is a modified sonata form. It's all done with synthesized/sampled instruments, which obviously don't sound as good as the real thing, but I'm not altogether unhappy with the way it turned out. I provide a score transcription as well, even though the piece wasn't really written with real players

some sections of a new song im working on today, since yall wanna hear what Ive been working on! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

I suppose you could say "con forza" or something when the accents start. I had a look through the score and all I can say is you'll get your money's worth from the players. It's a difficult piece at the tempi you demand. The Clarinet high G in bar 9 may be difficult to get the dynamic down to pp but from a performance perspective it's an aim so the player will get it as quiet as he/she can. Check through to see you give enough rests for trumpets and clarinets to grab a breath. The trumpet in bar 20 is a touch out of conventional range (for an orchestral player) but for the kind of pl

Great piece and video! It puts me in a really pensive mood. Just during that short time I had a whole debate with myself over the miracle of life and how it happened to be possible and the whole chicken and egg problem - which came first? Ultimately I convinced myself that since individual cells that are already alive in space already come with their own organelles and reproductive systems so it's only logical that when more advanced life came into being it already included it's own reproductive systems and organs also. Although it still seems like there's gotta be a miracle in there somew

Damn this is great! I don't have too much to say other than really well-written piece! I really like the waltz at 8:30, especially how it contrasts with the "heavier" textures surrounding it. I also really like the ragtime at 19:36, which has a triumphant broadway showtune march feel to me. A couple things caught my eye. I'm not a string player, but the col legno's on pg. 17 seem kind of fast, I'm not sure how possible they are? From some of your other comments it seems like you're a string player, so perhaps you know better than me, just thought I would ask. The other t

Oh my God

Here are 3 pieces that I think illustrate 3 different aspects/types of death well: Grief after death, no matter how long after the death, the pain will return Slowly dying Tragic death

I thought for sure someone was going to mention this Mahler Symphony No.5 movement here (I like this one too and it has a section labeled "Trauermarsch" which means "Funeral March" in German):

hello everyone, I am back, this is my new piece in Japanese traditional style, hope you like it. instrument: koto & piano koto is a kind of picking string instrument the video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1rA411s71K/

great piece. Like someone said, breathtaking to hear live people! BRAVO!

yep, friggin love ragtime

Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# minor. I remembering first hearing this and having such a sense of foreboding, as if it were the essence of an Edgar Allen Poe story set to music. I then later learned that it was inspired by a dream Rachmaninoff had where he was at a funeral and as he approached the coffin, he began feeling more and more terrified and anxious until he finally sees who is in it... him of course! So my initial impression was right after all.

I made this piano piece, it’s in Eb major. I believe that omitting the intro, it follows an ABABAB form. The B sections are each harmonized differently, but the A sections are pretty much the same harmonically. I was thinking of calling this a nocturne, but I’m not sure how appropriate that categorization is. This piece was meant to evoke a foggy atmosphere in the period where it’s not certain whether it’s really late at night or really early in the morning. It’s quite brief and repetitive, so I hope to expand it later.

oh, I thought you were asking for a list of the modes ranked by their brightness and darkness. I get what you meant now.

Hey! This is pretty good! A well constructed canon and it feels dance-like how a minuet should feel as well. It sounds like you played this yourself on your own harpsichord or something which is pretty amazing LoL. Thanks for sharing!

First of all I'm from Australia so I reckon GSCE is sort of comparable to HSC? Its clear you had a criterion for this composition, and as a marker, you'd be hard pressed not to give you a great mark. You've clearly and obviously marked out the goals for the piece. The piece is quite dense throughout, in terms of compositional techniques. Markers like this- it is an obvious way to give marks. You've been quite smart with your chose of contrasting motif (m3) its a smart way to balance the density. careful using sul tasto in high registers. This is sometimes

Aw thanks!

Hey - this is a really helpful way of thinking about it! I have been trying to understand negative harmony for a while and could never quite wrap my head around which tone to "flip" over. Apparently it does work if you think of the axis as being half way between A and Bb or E and Eb like you said. Thanks for clarifying things for me!

The music of Castlevania has long been an inspiration to me, and I think in this tune I really channeled that energy. Hope you guys like it!

This is my "Soliloquy for Duduk No.1", composed "in Memory of the Victims of Artsakh and Armenia in the 2020 War". It is my first ever soliloquy composed for the Armenian folk instrument called "duduk", a double reed woodwind instrument. My soliloquy is for the duduk in A. I dedicated it to the memory of the victims of Artsakh and Armenia in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan, a bloody war that lasted from September 27 to November 9, 2020. May the memory of those innocent victims and of those of all unjust wars be blessed.

The Lacrimosa for piano quartet was composed in 2019. It was written in reaction to the April 2019 Notre-Dame de Paris fire, an event that shocked me to such an extent that I felt compelled to put my feelings about it into music. The fact that one of the greatest architectural monuments in European history was suddenly getting destroyed was horrifying to me, especially considering that at the time, it was unknown how much of the building would actually survive. This performance is a remote recording - that is, a recording where the musicians involved record each track separate

Hey everyone! I'm a novice composer, so critiques are much appreciated! Thanks for listening! Here's the sheet music for my composition.

I loved 0:47-1:15, absolutely beautiful. And 1:20-1:30, wow. I love your harmonies, and your use of accents is really impactful in his piece. I love how your piece feels like it's alive, it grows and moves. Beautiful work. I don't mean to disrespect you by saying this, but I could so hear this being used in a film. Keep up the awesome work.

Hello, Welcome to the forum! I hope you'll enjoy sharing your music and hearing others'. Although the forum might be mainly focused on classical composition, we're still open to other ideas! I do like this piece, although perhaps it works better as ambient background music than for 'active' listening. My main comment/criticism is that is feels almost a little too slow-burning. This is a feature of the style that you write in, but I think a greater climax could be reached. On a similar vein, perhaps you could explore the upper- and lowermost notes on the piano. More bass espec

Hi @bkho First of all, I find the structure of this piece really interesting. I think part of that is the way the episodes are so distinct from the main chaconne theme. Chaconne(s): I do like the harmonic structure, sounds very Baroque and is a solid foundation for the piece. I would comment that the keyboard writing is at times a little awkward, such as the 1st variation at bar 9 where the right hand has tricky movements of hand positions. Are you a pianist/organist yourself? If so, you'll be able to modify it quite easily. Also, the variation with the acciccature: pe

Hello everyone! I recently finished composing a fugue for brass trio as a second part to the canon for brass trio that I posted some time ago. Since I do think that both pieces belong together and sound much better together, I post both pieces as one. The canon is a strict canon at the octave for the most time, but on measures 15, 21 and 22, the canon is broken on the top voice in order not to reach higher than the high C. The fugue starts at 1:45. It starts in Gminor but finishes in Gmajor (in the same way the canon started). It has a theme (subject), two countersubjects and it cont

Hi guys, here's a pop/folk/rock (honestly I'm not sure what genre to call it) song that I wrote and produced called Listening Listening. I'd really appreciate some feedback on it, especially the production aspect, as while I have a decent amount of songwriting experience, I'm pretty new to producing. Thanks for any help!