Sojar Voglar

I don't know. Due to its repetitive and diatonic nature it sounds like a copy of Phillip Glass (first two movements) and Carl Jenkins (third movement) to me. And the violin part is relatively ineffective, it's just a slightly exposed solo of concert master above the orchestra. It lacks certain ammount of longlasting interest. This is the type of music I'd listen to at home as a background but I'd not be really looking forward to hear such one at live concerts.

Firstly, stylistically, I do not like the separated flags for each syllable. To quote "Some guy that writes music", in the past the notation of separate flags was common but recently it has been abandoned in favor of proper beaming. And I like that, even myself as an experienced choral singer I have always prefered now popular prober beaming notation. This composition requires a skilled singer with large range, but they do exist. Generally, it is nice music, well suited to the poetry, the form is also balanced. I prefer more trips towards chromatics and extended tonality, but that's my personal approach.

I have several questions: How experienced you are as a composer? The answer would make me a lot of easier to comment this Sonatina. How come the flute part has zero dynamics, articulation and interpretation marks? Have you ever heard about the chromaticism in music? This Sonatina is more like a three-pack of sketches rather than an accomplished composition.

I took time to listen to this set of variations. Since you got comments about monotonous experience by other, I think the best solution to this would be modulations to other keys, tempo changes, more varied use of instruments (a theme in bass clarinet every now and then) and more polyphony. The theme is memorable and instantly captures the attention. You should work on this piece to make it better, you might eventually produce a masterpiece.

Thanks for the comment. I will check you Variations soon. I am not really a bassist, my elder daughter is. I do play tamburitza bass, called "berde" occasionally. It has frets like guitar.

I agree with PeterthePapercomPoser, I don't like this midi version at all considering articulation. I believe the piece is all legato, these non legatos at least here sound like quasi staccatos. If you wanted staccato as a contrast, you should have written it in the score. How about pizzicatos instead of these non legato passages? I personally would use legato slurs all the time since the character of the piece is calm and melodic. The organic flow of key changes sounds nice, while the middle sounds almost stuck too much in diatonic c minor although I believe it is done on purpose: the a section has a chromatic flow, while the b section does not.

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.