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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

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.

i'll join i guess.

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!

As the third installment in my enharmonic perpetual canon cycle, this one follows a procedure nearly identical to that of the first one and is quite similar in duration as well. The lyrics (once again, in Latin) sung by the choir translate as follows: "Change is inevitable in all things. Everything flows in the balance of those who are tempestive." As with the previous installment, the coda further drives the meaning to greater clarity and realization. YouTube video link:

This is a very informal competition. Usually, in a formal competition we would have dedicated judges who used judging criteria and scoring definitions. But, then, if they were a judge they would not be allowed to participate in the competition themselves. And the submissions would also have to be kept anonymous to stave off any impression of favoritism. But since, ultimately, this competition is just a fun challenge without monetary rewards, we decided to do away with all that formality. But, we would be honored if you (or everybody really) donated their very valuable time to review the music submitted in as detailed a way as you feel is necessary and appropriate! AND, if you review all the participant's works you get an "Ardent Reviewer" badge which everyone will be able to see in your profile! In previous, formal competitions we used the following scoring definitions: And the following scoring categories: It would honor us if you (or anybody who feels up to the challenge) used these categories and definitions to review the pieces submitted! Thank you for whatever time and effort you're willing to give!

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:

Interesting work! It definitely borders on atonal, with some definite centricity on A that keeps it from going too far out of bounds. In fact, you've got an interesting arc here, with two (014) trichords at the beginning and end being sort of "built" off the tonic and dominant of A, even cooler because the "0" in both cases isn't the same note. It's a cool idea, something that George Walker probably would have been fond of. If there's one thing I'd point out is that a lot of the register and dynamic jumps feel a little abrupt. Now, don't get me wrong, I know that happens all the time in more avant-garde music (e.g., Crumb), but—I don't know—it feels like those have a little more pomp and circumstance to them because of the way they grow and decay. For that reason, I'd suggest playing with rhythm a lot more; giving yourself the space to do some really interesting rhythmic interplay will immerse your listener in the intervallic web you want to make instead of necessarily always having to be explicit about it with discrete musical cells of vertical harmonies and lines. The last of Saariaho's Papillons is a good example. Lots of semitones in there but it oscillates so much you just sort of recognize it implicitly and it flows between different playing styles (timestamped): Nitpicks: 1. You have it listed as Horn in F; make sure your score actually is in F (it's concert right now). 2. The fun thing about truly atonal music is that the spelling doesn't matter a ton; it's different here because you've got a pseudo-tonal thing going on, but even still, I don't think there's a need to have unnecessarily uncommon spellings like the E# in the last three measures. 3. Keep clef changes where the notes are played, not the beginning of the bar, e.g., mm. 13, 15. 4. The semitone addition in mm. 13–14 is a cool muddy echo, but I kind of want more out of it; maybe go even further into the depths?

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!

Not yet, but if you're interested we could get something going again. All for fun of course 🙂 Have anything in mind? I'll link this to the chatbox if others may be interested. I will say that it was a bit draining to be a judge, but I'd be up for simple easy topics for short pieces just to see if there would be interest. I personally would write something along those lines.

Hey Alex! First of all great job working at orchestrations. I saw you’ve done a number of them, and as someone newer to composing I think they’re a high quality way to practice and grow. I myself do arrangements of pop songs for Pep Band, which is a very similar process, so I get the concept. I think you’ve done a high quality job in many areas. You’ve got the piece generally laid out, with variations in timbre. The repetition had a semi-lulling effect, yet there was also variation to keep up interest. You’ve got generally nice timbre choices and pairings. I can tell you have a composer’s intuition:) It was a pleasant piece to listen to overall, so you didn’t do terribly:) To provide what I can to hopefully help you take it to the next level, I listened to your piece several times & a recording on YouTube of someone playing the piano version. In my opinion & sense, the original piece edges on a little too repetitive, but it does gain traction at about measure 8 when things start feeling developmental. It does have a kind of lulling effect though, so I think he achieved his purpose, but in my preference I wouldn’t encourage the composition to have any more length or repetition. Here’s my understanding of the original: it seems to actually have two melodies going on simultaneously, playing on each other the whole time, with the other notes providing warmth & fullness. He does a 4 bar A theme twice, then changes to the relative major on a big chord. I liked how the pianist did a little rubato at the transition, because otherwise it would just sound like a major sudden change with no warning, which would feel offputting here. Then he has a 4 bar cascading, what feels like an almost inversion of the previous, repeated (similar to the beginning). It feels like a reprise, concluding & transitioning. That section has large moving chords on the downbeats, and can kind of feel like the ending music of a movie scene. Then he has a iii chord, which I thought he was going to modulate to that key, but he continued developing for 4 bars ending on the B (V of E again). But he goes into a CM7 chord with the melody for 4 bars, the bVI no 5th, which to me feels minor. It ends on a B chord with cascading notes that feels like a cadence, into the final section. It’s an 8 bar near restatement of the A theme, which feels relieving and longed for. Then it ends on the iv, with sudden long chords, which to me just makes me question if whether the child fell asleep or not. Relative to your composition, and recognizing you’ve already done a good job and my comments are just trying to help you get that last 10% to make it pop, I think your timbre changes felt simultaneously too much and too little. At first I didn’t know what to comment, but I think you almost tried to apply film score, quick drastic timbre changes to a slow, lullaby-like, repetitive piece. I think if you were more clear & distinct about your timbre changes, especially using them on the 8 (or less often the 4) bar marks & to mark harmonic changes where he has them, that would help encourage the natural cadence of the piece. My two favorite timbres you used were the low woodwinds with clarinet melody, and the string ensemble. I also think the horn melody was a nice additional change, but it was much brighter & more poignant than the other timbres, so I think it would fit more on the 2nd set of 8 bars, or other more in-your-face moments. Whatever you do, keep the melody on one instrument through the phrase instead of changing so often. The second thing that would help would be the transitions. Ryan Leach on YouTube has a great video on writing transitions: I think both introducing newer elements earlier, and utilizing the more prominent changes (like the large, slow, cascading chords at m.8) in a prominent way will both make the sections fit more together like a natural puzzle. The last minor thing would be trying to make the upper & lower melodies equally as present, with the harmonies quieter behind. It’s a small thing that would make a big difference in this piece, but I think the flute was too loud, and I lost the lower melody over time. Great job, and please let me know if these helped at all. Happy composing!

Hi there! I am a new guy after being recommended to come here by UncleRed99, I would like to participate in this spooky contest as well. Consider this my declaration.

aight im in

Dude you're perfect for youtube, and I think you reach an audience that helps people find how great "classical" music is. Your editing is great, and you're pretty funny. I'm excited to hear you mentioning your original work too, that'll be great for your channel. Awesome stuff, you've got a great personality in your videos!

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:

Cool! I won't follow and make any template then since they make this fun comp less fun!

No - you can review the pieces the way you usually do. Or you can make a new template for yourself with completely different categories and on a completely different scale/point system. It's all up to you!

Do we have to follow this template when we review in order to have our reviews counted?

I am joining this competition: I can be a judge. 🙂

Entrance here. I am in.

Because it's not a passing chord. The type of 6/4 record refers to what the bass is doing. In this case, the E in the bass isn't a "passing" tone (i.e., it's not approached by step and left by step in the same direction), so it isn't a passing 6/4 chord. Now, the third chord in m. 3 is technically a correct passing chord, but odd because it's minor (although minor v's aren't uncommon passing chords) and the aforementioned poor voice spacing. Minor v chords definitely exist, but—in America, at least—you're just taught to always raise the leading tone in minor unless otherwise marked through figured bass. V would indeed have a B-natural, but your use of the minor v, at least where I teach, in and of itself would be suspect. Any diminished or augmented interval in the upper voices is forbidden (unless extremely niche circumstances I won't cover here). If you did make the alto a B-natural in m. 3, it would become an augmented fifth, which is augmented, so it's not permitted. I mean, I'm sure there's music that ends in IV like some sort of plagal half cadence, but for harmony exercises, we really only deal with Half Cadences, Perfect Authentic Cadences, and Imperfect Authentic Cadences, with plagal extensions and deceptive cadences as ways to lengthen a progression, not end one. Ending a phrase in IV is really odd because it's functioning as predominant, which implies there should be a dominant somewhere in there. Note your wording. Authentic cadences resolve to tonic. Half cadences merely end on the dominant. Most phrases and pieces end on tonic because they "feel" resolved. I'm not explaining it in detail here, but 6/4 chords were considered the most unstable because of a remnant from Renaissance-style practice where creating a fourth between the lowest sounding note and any upper voice was a huge problem. So we only use passing, neighbor, pedal, and cadential 6/4s because 6/4 chords are dissonances and need to be treated as such. The fact that you have two 6/4 chords in a row in m. 3 is wrong because you have two dissonant chords in a row, prevents proper resolution. To be clear, all of this is only true in terms of doing exercises. Exceptions in the repertoire exist all the time.

Let's go. I'll try. Deadline a bit bad to me but I'm sure something can be done.

I'm a little confused. If everything's decided via popular poll, what exactly are the criteria for "judging"? For instance, do I need to spend a lot of time on a score? Will I be be viewed less favorably if my audio recording is just standard MIDI? The competition idea is exciting, but don't know where I need to focus my time if I were to join.

Not sure if it serves, but the thing that probably made me not feel that much uneasy was that there was a constant bass sound that I even perceive as comfortable at times. Maybe some more movement in the bass, subtle but noticeable, would help. Or even some absence of bass at times or a shift in its timbre.. At the end of the day, these are your and only your choices. Maybe this is VERY uncanny for some other listener, who knows (I certainly do not). Kind regards!

Hi Churchcantor, or Robert, however you prefer 😁. It seems that this post went through in silence. Let's fix that. I listened to the first movement. While I enjoy the repetition of some ryhtmic patterns, I think it's too contrasting in terms of material (or it appears so at first) and not very well-founded structurally. At the same time it sounds plain: not a single dynamic marking (maybe I missed some?), almost constant tutti except from some sections where all in a sudden virtuoso-fast passages appear and also a pizz. ending that does not convince me at all. But I just could be wrong, I listened to it twice and more often than not pieces require a bit more to be appreciated, specially if they're ones like you submitted. Some other times I just don't like them, though. It's perhaps harmonically daring or inconsistent in that regard too: a more in-depth analysis would reveal one or the other, or both, since practically everything is valid this days and I'm sure you could justify many of the things I may have heard as "wrong" or "weird" or "misplaced", etc. At the end of the day, almost all that matters is that you yourself feel that the work is decent enough. Several years have passed since 2009 so if you are not fully convinced now, maybe these points I brought here are worth noting (and maybe at this point, you know the majority): • Even if you didn't change a note, a better balance of the dynamics of each instrument would greatly help. • The sudden contrasting sections do not reinforce the stability/coherence of the movement, in my humble opinion they rather weaken it. M17 & M18 appearing in the middle of the syncopated section, so dense and all on a sudden, is one example of such a contrasting section. In my opinion, even if you want an abrupt transition, I think it could be stated better (again via dynamics, but also via articulation or even slight rhythm changes, there are many ways to accomplish this better) both in the "before" measures and in the "after" measures. • I can see the movement can be technically demanding at times too. Quadruple stops... Assuming these ones in the score are doable specifically, are you completely sure you need them to be quadruple? After all, it's not a solo, maybe you can distribute the voices in order to avoid these maybe problematic stops. I won't comment much on the score per se, since I am well aware of the poor layout results noteflight default usually delivers. Not to mention the default midi sounds it uses. Wish you could upload a better audio here, it would be neat... I'm myself not a fan of it, but perhaps porting your sheet music to Musescore 4 is not a bad idea. It's 7 AM here and I really need to sleep, but I am eager to listen to the rest of your work...! Thank you for submitting it here and once again, I am sorry the post got a bit lost. Usually posts with material to be analysed are replied sooner or later... Kind regards, Daniel.

Alright, fixed the dark mode issue. Counterfact in this case falls into the "other" category where it's all else but redefining a set of chords into a new song, creatively. I simply forged one of my songs with a new title to approach a different context that also resonates emotionally with me. I was inspired by, Kim Cascones, "Recontextualizing Ambient Music," vying for a more convincing sound structure, if not by the pounding of the anvil that is ostensive in the music: Recontextualizing Ambient Music in Csound That's good that it doesn't bother your ears. I had it professionally mastered, before I shared. I have the unmastered version somewhere if that's your thing? Subtle horror is tough. I thought I had got it, it's not so much unexciting, but uncanny, psychological, maybe personal, but the subtlety in horror is tough to pull off without explaining everything. Maybe you have a few pointers? Anyway, thank you for the review. It spurs me on to the next one.

Cool video, but I prefer your Waltz in F minor 🗿 Cheers! 😁

Hey @Tunndy and welcome to the forum! I think that both the melody and harmony in this piece are quite unique and personal to you! The piece starts quite underwhelmingly and gives the listener time to get used to its unique melodic content and the waltz rhythm. Then it gets really pompous and dynamic! And despite it being undoubtedly a piece that you will consider a part of your juvenilia, it still shows great talent and musical sense. I think the only part that I find objectionable is that the piece sounds like it's ending for too long. To me the piece sounds like it could have ended at 1:30, but then it keeps going, repeating a phrase which to me seemed a little redundant. But that's just my 2¢. Thanks for sharing! P.S.: Please consider leaving a ❤️ or a 🏆 reaction for the people (including myself) who have gone through the trouble and donated their time to review your music. It really helps us feel appreciated and keeps the forum a healthy place for people to share! Thank you!

Changed the number of warning points which will result in each type of penalty.

Added more content to the post about specifically what kind of penalties will be enacted.

Allllright.... Interesting. As far as I remember from College, and from my years as a trumpeter prior to that, "scherzo" is usually defined as a piece with a light, playful, yet vigorous style. My interpretation of that doesn't quite arrive at the conclusion that it should be difficult to perform, or rather, in this case, appearing near impossible, or, that the notes are randomly chosen. No intent to insult you at all, I'm simply explaining my perception of this piece, coming from an educated and experienced point of view. I'd urge you to continue writing, but to truly step back and analyze what you've written before you finalize it. Compare it to other works as well, in terms of it's overall form and structure, as well as the shapes of your phrases within the music. I'm sure you'll come to find that there are things that you did not realize before, and that could be altered to create a piece of music that you can truly be overjoyed at! Thanks for sharing 🙂

Ah no wonder! Your playing is the element I really enjoyed, your music was really brought to life. You're quite the player!

Hello my dear friend. Thank you so much that you like my music. The piano is VST from pianoteq8. Here I use petrof mistral. So I recorded myself with pianoteq8 plugin. So what you are hearing is me playing and use pianoteq8 sounds.

Man, this seems incredibly difficult! This piece seems like an experiment or something, but you have a lot of really cool ideas. It's a bit hodge podge to me, like a bunch of ideas thrown together that don't quite fit or don't transition well. However, like I said, your ideas in this are cool. This would be something if it were my piece that I would take ideas from and build new pieces out of! Regardless, was a fun listen, even if I didn't quite know how the piano parts would be played in certain spots 😄

@Churchcantor and @TristanTheTristan please refer to this forum etiquette and code of conduct:

My proposals

In an effort to actually get something done, I challenged myself to write and record a little piece in two hours; behold the result! The recording definitely got put off until the end. It's pretty out of tune/bad quality, but, I hope, bearable to listen to 🙂 Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!

We just want you to reply something related to the posted music, so you don't need to twist our views, thanks. Henry

Hello again, my dear friends, Here is another piece I wrote yesterday. Music of the moment. It’s one of those inspirations where you sit at the piano and it just comes out all at once, and I must say I truly loved this particular piece. Very Schubert-like, as always, but I believe I’ve also added my own touch. I hope you enjoy it.

Here is one of my favorite sonatas in binary form, inspired by the colossal Scarlatti, who is also the reason I started composing music systematically over the past two years. It’s a blend of Scarlatti’s style but also includes elements from other classical composers. A very playful sonata with quite a few unexpected modulations that make it even more humorous… I hope you enjoy it.

Hello dear fellow composers. This poem (1886) is part of Laforgue’s Imitation of Our Lady the Moon. Here the Moon is no longer a muse or confidante, but becomes the star of farewell and forgetting, sealing human hopes in silence and nothingness. I truly believe that this cycle reflects a part of Laforgue’s own biography — that of a young poet caught in an impossible, broken love story, one almost erased from history, save perhaps for the initial of a name glimpsed in his correspondence. At least, that is the conviction I had while reading these poems. And so here is the end of my cycle: a piece deliberately sparse, rarefied, silent. It is also, perhaps, a farewell to Laforgue — for now. Time has come for me to explore new paths (and I have been kindly reminded more than once that I am probably composing with a delay of about 120 years…). I can only hope that these pieces may nevertheless have found some resonance with you. This is one of my most sincere works, born from a curious overlapping of states of mind with Laforgue. And I believe — to confess under the cover of anonymity — that one is never truly safe from falling secretly in love, even at my age. Perhaps this is what makes the kinship so troubling.

Hello everyone! I composed a waltz for piano during the weekend. I wanted it to be "easy" to play so I composed it with an accompaniment that does not need jumps or the use of the pedal. It is still hard to play for me, so, while I practice, I leave it here with my initial live performance until I can play it better (it would sound awful with midi). My main concerns is always with the form, as I am not sure how do transition best between sections, when to repeat things or let them go, etc. So any feedback about that is more than welcome. The piece is in the form ABCBA. A is the main theme in A minor, which is repeated at the end. It is a frantic and agitated theme (and needs to be played rubato). B is a modulatory section and needs to be played without rubato and with the melody "singing". It is based on a long chromatic descending bass line so it is highly chromatic and there might be many compositional mistakes in this section. While it is the easiest section, I have troubles played it beautifully. You can listen to the only time I played it as well as I wanted in 2:01 from the audio. C is a simple lyrical theme in A major. The audio is really bad, it is based on different recordings so the quality of the sound changes a little. When I practice everything and have a finalized score and audio rendition I will update it! Hope you like it and any feedback is more than welcome! Thank you!

Hey @Alex Weidmann! I think I personally wouldn't use the chord sequence function in Musescore (if I was composing on the computer) because it would prevent me from trying to imagine what kind of stuff I could use to fill the sonic spaces of the music. Also, later, when I would want to add more parts to the piece I would probably have become accustomed to the harmony and I'd become inflexible to use different harmonic/accompanimental ideas. In general though, the reason why I prefer nowadays to write my music on paper is because I found that being able to immediately hear what I'm composing was not conducive to composing. Like in creative writing - it's like the difference between the brainstorming or quick-writing mindset and the editing and proofreading mindset. In the brainstorming or quick-writing mindset you just throw out all ideas no matter how bizarre or impractical - the goal is to just keep writing and keep the pencil moving. In the editing and proofreading mindset you weed out all the little mistakes, grammar, punctuation, spelling etc. If I compose music on the computer the two mindsets interfere with each other too much. When I'm using Musescore I'm almost always already in the editing/proofreading mindset. It's because hearing my music immediately puts me in that editing/proofreading mindset before I even have a chance to complete my musical thoughts as they were meant to be conceived. It's distracting for me. But this has turned into a rant. I can't tell what piece this was inspired by - maybe something by Vivaldi or Bach? Some of the melodic ideas are interesting! The reason why I guessed Vivaldi or Bach is because of the Baroque-like sequences you employ in some parts. But where's the soloist? Thanks for sharing!

I love the work you do with the subtitles, thanks for making your music more accessible to us non-French speakers. The music is hauntingly beautiful, you're a wonderful craftsman and performer. I usually just listen to your music for enjoyment rather than critique, and even though I don't always comment, I'm always a listener. Thanks for sharing this!

Hey @UncleRed99! Glad to see/hear that you've finally moved on to a new piece! I think the proper name for a string quintet + piano combination would be "Piano Sextet". Traditionally for example, a duet of Violin and Cello with Piano is called a "Piano Trio", a trio of Violin, Viola and Cello with Piano would be a "Piano Quartet" and a quartet of 2 Violins, Viola, Cello with Piano would be a "Piano Quintet". So I'm just extrapolating that this would be a "Piano Sextet" based on those naming conventions. I'll address a few things that bothered me about the score before actually talking about the music: There's a few things to note here. First, when writing pizzicato strings, you don't need to add a staccato marking for the pizzicato. It's redundant considering that pizzicato is already a very percussive and separated effect. Also, you have the Bartok pizzicato at mf, followed by a regular pizzicato at forte. That doesn't really make sense considering that Bartok pizzicato is achieved by snapping the string as hard as possible so that it hits the fingerboard. The Bartok pizzicato would naturally have to be louder than the regular pizzicato just by the nature of the effect. Also, there's a special symbol for Bartok pizzicato that string players recognize: I think it would be more concise to use this symbol. Here you have the indication to play legato contradicted by the separated 8th notes. If you want the player to cancel their pizzicato playing and return to bowing you can put "arco" or "ord.". Now about the music. The first thing I noticed is that this is a very quiet piece. I had to listen to it on my Bluetooth speaker to really hear it better. But I think the problem is also that when the piano is playing the melody alone without the support of the strings, the piano melody is often simply inaudible above the accompaniment. Especially the grace notes are lost because they go by so quickly. The way to counteract that is to of course use MS Basic soundfonts for the piano so you can bring out the melody in high relief by using higher velocity values for those notes (which you can edit in the "properties" tab). Unfortunately, the Musesounds samples don't currently respond to velocity changes so you'd be forced to use the MS Basic soundfont for piano. But imo (since I do this all the time) I think the clarity of the melodic line is to me a much more sought after commodity in music than the supposedly "better" sounding Musesound sample. But that might be just me. Overall, I like the melancholy vibe of the piece! The only thing that bothers me is that the key changes seem to be inserted into the piece just for their own sake. And the modulations should be led by the melody for them to make audible sense and create a more breathtaking effect. Thanks for sharing!