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Showing content with the highest reputation on 10/08/2026 in all areas

  1. Hi @Markus Boyd , I really like what you have so far. I like the minor key fugue at the beginning, the string entrance at around 0:45 in the major mode is a welcome contrast, then I really like how the texture thins out around 1:05. The buildup around 1:35 is also very effective, and the succeeding string melody and arpeggios are lovely. Keep it up!
  2. Hi @Alex Weidmann , really great orchestration here! I thought your treatment of the voices was very good. And I really liked how you gave each instrument family (woodwinds, strings, brass) their own section, it really highlighted the piece’s overall structure. I think it would be a good idea to add the repeat, and maybe end with a more full tutti orchestration? That would give the ending more finality. Thanks for sharing!
  3. Yeah I think this was really interesting. For me I felt like it was really easy to distinguish the two parts, as my ear could effortlessly listen back and forth between them. It didn't feel like oil and water like a lot of bitonal stuff I've heard, but rather the two parts worked much better than what I anticipated. Very cool Peter, I'm interested to hear how all your studies acquiesce into larger works. Maybe something along the lines of blending two themes together at the end of a sonata or something.
  4. Hey Lithl Very cool piece! For some reason your piece reminded me of this: Know the composer? This may help if you want to keep learning about a style with "tape" playback (or whatever avenue you use) mixed with instruments. Your piece is more abstract, but I'm sure they're parallel in some ways. I'm not too familiar with the style, but I'm always curious how more abstract music could be developed further. Thanks for sharing, and don't ever be bashful about posting something against the grain of what's here :)
  5. = Short Piece for Cello / Piano / Granular Synthesis = = Background One day, I thought of a cellist and a pianist performing over a backdrop of electronic noise, and this piece was created based on that idea. As the title suggests, the composition features cello, piano, and granular synthesis. The composition process began with creating the granular synthesis textures, followed by adding staccato cello notes and piano. I imagine a space that looks like a compact design. = Note I don't have a specific message I'm trying to convey with this music, but I would be happy if someone found it enjoyable. To be honest, I was reluctant for a while to upload this piece; I felt a bit hesitant about creating something annoying when everyone else is composing beautiful orchestral / chamber or keyboard-based works, haha. Still, I decided to take the plunge and upload it. As for the score, since I don't know how to notate it, I can't upload it now. I’d love to hear your impressions, criticism, and feedback. Again, I hope you find it interesting and enjoy it. = Music / Artwork: Lithl = Finally If you know any pieces that are similar to this piece of mine, please let me know. I'd appreciate it. Thank you for listening, and have a nice day :) Short Piece for Cello : Piano : Granular Synthesis.mp3
  6. I have finished "The Occult" by Colin Wilson and have picked up the sequel "Beyond The Occult: Twenty Years' Research Into The Paranormal". Here is the very introduction that also delves into some discussion of music. Thanks for reading!
  7. So, wanted to expand upon this a little further. In my original comment, I did not mention your use of independent voices, instead focusing on the engraving of the rests, which in the score's current state, are inconsistent when an instrument is resting. Some measures have a centered whole rest, while others have a whole rest aligned to the left of the measure. Not necessarily an independent voice issue, but a score presentation one. In my opinion, Debussy and mid -> late romantic composers are a good reference for using independent voices and keeping it feasible for the keyboard. With baroque notation, like the C-major fugue you referenced, it can be pretty strict with establishing the 4-voices the entire time and always notating when they rest or sound. However, over time, the rules relaxed and today we can see a variety of notation for multiple voices on the keyboard. The main thing is to be consistent with your use. Check out Debussy's Suite Bergamasque. This score video is really great to see 4-part writing expanded. He uses independent voices, blocked chords, interchanging voices and from an engraving standpoint, is really nice to see how flexible/ advanced keyboard notation can be. I played this set and the way the score is engraved really helped my learning. You can clearly see melodic ideas, texture placement and more.
  8. Very nice @Luis Hernández ! The brass section is very energetic and exciting, and I really like the contrast when the strings come in around 0:37. A really nice short piece!
  9. I've taken to another exercise from Chapter 8 of Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony" - "Compound and Mirror Harmony". This time I've chosen Exercise 7 - "Move a chamber group through several mirror chords where the reflective harmony is generated by the same tone and by different tones." In this case he is referring to using symmetrically invertible scales just like in Exercise 8 which I already did. In that exercise I built the respective mirror scales on the same tone (C) so in this exercise I sought to build the mirror scales on different tones only. I also created an inverted canon at a 10th and a quarter note between the Oboes and Bassoons. I used the following chart from the book to simplify the exercise for myself (so I used E Mixolydian in the Oboes and C Aeolian in the Bassoons). At one point I switch the Oboes to Ionian and Bassoons to Phrygian, just like in Exercise 8, but this isn't accompanied by key signature changes. Thanks for reading and for listening! I would appreciate any of your suggestions, comments, critiques or observations! Persichetti Exercise 8 - 7.mp3 Persichetti Exercise 8 - 7.pdf
  10. Hello A lovely piece. One of the key lessons I took away from this ESSENTIAL book by Persichetti is that if you use a system – that is, if you are consistent with a musical organisation, whatever that may be – the result depends solely on each individual’s skill and artistry, just as it would if you were composing tonal music. I think it’s a great decision here to have divided the timbres for each mode-scale. As well as the different registers. The fact that each part has been harmonised in thirds and sixths gives it a very familiar smoothness (common in tonal music). Yet these modes lend themselves perfectly to fourth-based harmony.
  11. It's been a while since I've composed anything, so I felt like getting back into doing some Persichetti composition prompts. I am now on Chapter 8 of Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony" which is titled "Compound and Mirror Harmony". The particular prompt for this piano piece was "8. Write an opening section of a two-part piece for the piano employing two symmetrically invertible scales. The mirror writing should be kept strict throughout." So I tried to do just that with this ~1 minute long piano piece. I tried my best to make an actual piece of music rather than an exercise, but let me know how I did! I'd appreciate any of your comments, critiques, suggestions or observations! Thanks for listening! Here's the form of the piece: A - Right Hand - C Mixolydian, Left Hand - C Aeolian B - Right Hand - C Ionian, Left Hand - C Phrygian A Persichetti Exercise 8 - 8.mp3 Persichetti Exercise 8 - 8 Score.pdf
  12. 1 point
    Thanks i will use it definitely :>
  13. Hi @Fruit hunter , It was lovely to listen to your music! I think On Pastel Skies would make for quite the fun front ensemble or indoor percussion piece as well as a concert percussion quintet. It definitely succeeded in your goal and transported me to your Florida summer evening. I enjoyed the details you brought into the score. Wonderful usage of mallet changes, vibraphone pedaling, stickings, etc. You can tell that you are comfortable writing for percussion and that all the parts are able to be performed, even if some of the transitions are tight. Overall I liked the sectional use of form with reoccurring elements. I think you could have expanded the unpitched percussion sections more and explored that sound world for longer. Or even add sections where you more more thoroughly combined pitched and unpitched sounds. (I know the time limit was only 7 minutes - I did the same thing in my piece and pushed the duration to the buzzer.) Some engraving notes (I'm being quite picky for this score): I would appreciate an instrumentation list/page after the title page, so I know what equipment is needed for each player there's a lot of white space on some pages and a lot of cramped staves on others make sure the instrument abbreviations are marked Mar. 1, Mar. 2 (they are at first but not after you switch instruments) double barlines at meter and tempo changes check that your rests are simplified correctly, a lot of two eighth rests that should be a quarter rest sometimes extra clefs are left in after changing instruments I know this is controversial, but I'm not sold that all the staccato markings need to be placed on the glock and vibes part. I personally don't mark percussion as staccato unless I want the player to dampen the note. If you want vibes really short you can always mark them as non Ped Melodies Themes Motives Harmony Chords Textures Form Development Structure Time Originality Creativity Score Presentation Instrumentation Orchestration Playability Execution of Given Challenge Taste 7 wonderful atmosphere, not a lot of sections which felt melodic - not that that's a bad thing 7 a lot of octave doubling and not a lot of fully fleshed out harmony at times 8 enjoyed, but see comments above 8 interesting and successful use of the theme 8 see above comments 10 lovely blend of mallets - see comments above 9 relaxing summer vibes 8 some of the chromatic scales and octave doublings were a little too marching band-esque for me, but still greatly enjoyed! Average Score: 8.125
  14. Thanks to all 9 participants who submitted music to the competition - the recipients of the "Alchemist Award"! Summer's Day by @Kvothe On Pastel Skies by @Fruit hunter Plus belle encor votre chère beauté by @MK_Piano Your dear beauty lovelier still by @Musicman_3254 Summer – A Song of Beauty and Melancholy by @Wieland Handke Saxophone Quartet no. 2 - Un clair jour d'été by @Ninja Nolan So on a bright Summer Day by @Matthew M Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été by @latebeethoven_addict Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été by @JDevorMusic The members have voted!!! And the winners are ... --==<< Decisive Fanfare >>==-- For winning the "Spirit of Verlaine" Award for the best depiction of Verlaine's poem and the most imaginative transformation of the text into music: with 5 votes, Saxophone Quartet no. 2 - Un clair jour d'été by @Ninja Nolan !!! Congratulations!For winning the "Poème d'Amour" Award for the piece that best captured the sensation of love: with 6 votes, Plus belle encor votre chère beauté by @MK_Piano !!! Congratulations! For winning the "Évocation" Award for the piece that best captured the sensation of summer: with 3 votes, Your dear beauty lovelier still by @Musicman_3254 !!! Congratulations! For winning 3rd place overall with 9 points - We have a tie!!! On Pastel Skies by @Fruit hunter and Summer – A Song of Beauty and Melancholy by @Wieland Handke will both receive the following trophy: For winning 2nd place overall with 16 points - Plus belle encor votre chère beauté by @MK_Piano will receive the following trophy: For winning 1st place overall with 17 points - Saxophone Quartet no. 2 - Un clair jour d'été by @Ninja Nolan will receive the following trophy: Congratulations to all the winners!!! We will now move your pieces to the "Competition Hall of Fame" sub-forum! And thanks to all the following participants who also reviewed all the entries! The contest would not have been as much fun and as instructional as it was without you! The following members will receive the "Heavyweight Reviewer" badge for reviewing 100% of the entries (9) submitted to the competition!@Kvothe @Fruit hunter @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu @chopin @Wieland Handke @Thatguy v2.0 @PeterthePapercomPoser @JDevorMusic And the following members will receive the "Welterweight Reviewer" badge for reviewing 66% of the entries (6) submitted to the competition!@MK_Piano And the following members will receive the "Featherweight Reviewer" badge for reviewing 33% of the entries (3) submitted to the competition!@Luis Hernández @TristanTheTristan @MJFOBOE Thank you to all 12 Ardent Reviewers who reviewed the contest entries! Once again - great reviewing turnout! We had more reviewers than composers in the competition! And thanks for me @PeterthePapercomPoser for organizing and managing all the competition polls, announcements, submission thread, badges, results, satisfaction survey and advertising outreach! I will receive the "Community Organizer" badge! To take the "From Nothing, to Something" Satisfaction Survey go here: To listen to all the entries go to the submission thread: To see the Popular Voting Polls go here: To go to the competition announcement go here:

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