Sojar Voglar

Since I have been long fascinated with crazy, unusual ensembles I present to you the piece "Always something unique" for flute, clarinet quartet, accordion, marimba and double bass. Composed in 2023 for the Alpe Adria festival of Music, it was premiered in November in my hometown Mengeš. It is not a perfect performance, there were some mistakes so do follow the score with the performance. It is a pretty demanding piece, particularly in rhythm and overall coordination (there was no conductor). I follow my standard fast-slow-fast form, with finale being pretty high pitched and ear penetrating. The style could be described as a mix of some Stravinsky, modern French music and my own personal idiom.

It is a nice piece. I like it because it is not so much cross-over in style but rather more of a classical art music, based on baiao dance rhythms. It is the similar approach I took on my five tangos for various ensembles. The only problem I see (hear) in no real climax. I wanted something more. Otherwise, good job!

I have already uploaded March and April from my Spring Trilogy, here is the finale, May. Since this month is traditionally rainy in Slovenia, the beginning has some features of rain with various aleatoric timbre playing on orchestra, while cello brings the initial melodic motif with its various transformations. Music becomes more "down to earth", more energetic and passionate. It continues to bounce between these two contrasting characters and ends with cellist playing improvised harmonics of a basic tone of c with unisono violins and violas while lower strings play some low ranged aleatoric pizzicatos.

Did you ever have any music theory lessons? How old are you? I started by improvising on the piano and then writing down these improvisations. During my intermediate school studies I was intensely studying harmony and counterpoint from 16th to 19th century theory. I learned the use of instruments by arranging numerous popular pieces - I had a band with a flute, clarinet, violin, trumpet and trombone players. They were not advanced players but sufficient enough to learn how to late compose for these instruments. If I were young today, I would recommend anybody to start with arrangements and harmonizations of folk pieces or children pieces. Initially to use basic functions of tonality (tonic, subdominant, dominant, followed by supportive functions of IInd, IIIrd and VIth chord of the key, and then beginning to venture outside the single key).

Overrated: Mahler, Brahms, Tchaikovsky (although I love his music most of these selected composers), Puccini and Chopin (I cannot stand his piano music anymore, sorry). From modern era, I would also mention John Cage (he is an inventor, not a composer), Pierre Boulez (terrible attitude) and Gyorgy Kurtag (very poor composing skills, sorry) Underrated: Henk Badings (fantastic Dutch orchestral composer, many of his symphonies are excellent), Uroš Krek (one of the finest Slovene composers), Eugen Suchon (excellent Slovakian composer of operas and instrumental music), Witold Lutosławski (what a great combination of impressionism and modernism, especially in his works from 1970 onwards!) and Nikos Skalkottas (Bartok from Greece)

Wow, a lot to digest... About bar 16. I guess I was sloppy not to add crescendo to basses. About mixing sharps with flats: I prefer diatonic intervals to diminished even if the vertical structure looks strange, I guess for practical reasons (for example, this always happens when harp is used). Beam over rests: from my experience, it depends what type of metre is used. I try to properly control the beaming but sometimes it looks a bit rough. Still, we are used to such notation at the ear and rhythm training sessions. 🙂 I usually don't add extra bowings, unless I am 100% in necessity for the specific articulation. Maybe I am a bit more aware of the bowing since I have a daughter who plays double bass. 🙂 Anyway, thanks for the comment. You really pointed out specific situations which made me take some extra peeks in the score. 🙂

This is my second piece from the Spring Trilogy, April. It is the most easy-going of the cycle. It begins as a gentle waltz but it gets more energetic and drammatic. After a short recapitulation the piece ends surprisingly in dark contrast between bright pizzicatos and low, murky tremolos of the cello.

The first question, that came to my mind is: are the piccolo players you know skilled in circular breathing? If not, the beginning should be revised, no piccolo player can play these high a's without breathing and hence breaking the obvious attempt to maintain the pitch uninterrupted. I personally believe this is more appropriate to be the movement of a Suite, rather than a Symphony. The piece needs some modulations to other tonalities. The varied use of orchestration and dynamics help this music a lot, but there is no real climax or waypoint towards a certain progression of the musical material. You are relatively new in the field of composition. I remember my beginnings, and this is more ambitious than mine were though.

Most of my music from 1995 to 1996 in worthless, I had very limited skills in motivic development, harmony progression and formal approach. So therefore I consider my studies at the Academy to fully improve all these skills, plus knowledge of all instruments, orchestration, contrasts, fresh expansions of tonal colour and timbres. You don't seem to show any interest in developing yourself into a more wider and skilled composer. These "Sententiae" are always, always the same. For decades. Just notes, no dynamic marks, no articulation, no formal development, nothing attractive for performers. But I guess I am consistently hiting a brick wall by talking about your opus.

As composers, we never really know why we compose. If we knew it , we might never have become composers. I DO know why I became composer. It is the passion and the will to speak positively to your audiences and, if necessary, criticize the negativity or simply enjoy the widest range of possibilities of art. It is also about exploring and sharing your talents with everybody. The Bible also says the talents should never be burried. And you should always try to improve your skills and explore the little explored and be open-minded.

A professional composer should be opened to various styles and genres. Although I am primarly a contemporary classical music composer I also write popular pieces, simple music for church services, also jazz. But I always try to maintain high professional standards, even in simple works.

During my studies I sometimes did the sketches but with the experience comes the inner ear skill. Today I can hear the orchestra before I even write notes down. I guess I would be able to be deaf like Beethoven and compose further, trusting my inner ear.

And what makes your music so good compared to masters such as Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, or so many great living composers? You must imagine that you are the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be...

And I believe I am not the only one, who doesn't think you are a good composer. Your youtube videos (uploaded several years ago) don't even reach 100 views.

Plenty of mixed feelings about this one. Sure, you can write for strings (although G flat major is a terrible key for strings) but the work does not progress anywhere for a pretty long time. No modulations (barely any chromatic), similar character. This is more like a minimalism style, akin to early Glass or some less expansive John Adams. The transition at 5:35 is refreshing. I am pretty impressed with final movement, it is a piece within a piece. There are some nice and memorable moments but the overall form is probably too large for what it offers. Still, I admire your bravery to compose such a long string sextet.