Austenite

Upon request of a fellow YC member, here's the complete Sonata with its three movements. I must admit that the first movement is my personal favorite - but I'll say no more, preferring to stand by for your comments. Thanks in advance!

Its contributors are only as good as their availability. Hopefully I'll be checking up more often.

Missed it again ...

@Luis Hernández: thanks for the heads up. I tried to install better sound libraries, but so far I've failed miserably. Perhaps I should stay composing rather than play my hand as a sound engineer @Kvothe: I must commend you for your continued support. Of course, the work is modeled after the Russian master's own takes on Shakespeare. I hope I had a convincing result as well, since Julius Caesar happens to be among my favorite plays. Perhaps the piece is much more complex than other works of mine, but I spared no effort nonetheless.

It's a pity that none of it ever reached Beethoven himself.

Indeed, I can hardly tolerate overplayed music of any kind. I particularly dislike over-pretentious Latin Jazz and most pop music - except for Romantic ballads. I'm ambivalent about jazz in general - it's as if I should love it because I love classical as well, but I can't. I don't even get the relationship. I am also supposed to like modernist, avant-garde music, because we all must like that (or at least fake it) to get any kind of credibility as serious musicians - but I hate it, and I know most people hate it as well despite the snobbery. I could go on and on...

My own works

A step in the right direction. I guess you might want to raise the musical tension according to the emotional intensity of the speech.

Are you writing a soundtrack to MLK's speech? You could increase the epicness of it by adding some heavy bass, as Rabbival suggests - and perhaps a few brass strikes. Timpani would also work.

I liked it a lot. I found it well designed and executed. Granted, this is not Tchaikovsky, Mahler or John Williams when it comes to "emotional music", but it's obvious you're going for a darker, more intimate atmosphere. And you did a pretty good job at it. Thanks for sharing!

The worst thing about choral music mockups is that, unlike instrumental music, the digital rendering makes no attempt to even sound natural. That makes following the score a must. Fortunately, you did - thus making possible a detailed review by an experienced choral composer such as Pate. The experience of listening to your work - or rather, to imagine it sung as it should - is pretty cool. You strived towards simplicity, and audiences will thank you for that in a choral environment. Granted, I love polyphony very much, but sometimes I just want to understand whatever is being sung, and it's already tough enough when the lyrics are in a language I'm not fluent at, such as German, Russian or Latin. So I must say I'm really satisfied that you went out to polish your music without disregarding your audience. Thanks for your work!

You're welcome. For what it is worth, I was actually criticizing Zimmer I'd say perhaps you're trying too hard to sound cinematic-pirate-like. You actually do it so well that it backfires against finding your own musical identity, which is what I think composing should be about in the first place. You can, and should, freely stick to the style you're more comfortable with - but your listener should have a genuine reason to pick you over Hans Zimmer. That is why I am doubtful about using this as a part of your porfolio: it obviously proves you're very capable of writing music that screams "Pirates!" for a movie or videogame, but it doesn't help you to stand out from the pack of composers who could do likewise. I'm writing this with the confidence that I'm not coming through as too harsh - since you said there's no "too harsh" upon the criticism you're asking for. I hope I'm actually being helpful by asking you to move closer to your musical self.

This is what Hans Zimmer would sound like if he ever got out of D minor.

Great to see a fellow 19th-century Romantic around - and one who actually performs! I loved the C# minor prelude so much! It had some sort of Rachmaninov feeling to it. But it was the D major one which melted my heart. I felt like I would have loved to write it myself, since I am very fond of melodies. The dialogues between both lines during the second half of it made up for a very exciting climax, full of warmth, and quite comparable to any Song Without Words. I would also make similar comments on the A minor prelude, which also shares the emotional power of a typically Romantic soul. I was also a big fan of the Ab bouncy rhythm and virtuosity. It got my feet almost tapping at once. And the B minor has the dramatic flair which makes for a very effective closing number. Overall I loved these piano miniatures very much, and not only due to the fact that it's a genre I like to explore myself, but also because of your style coming really close to what I admire the most on music. Congrats for such fine works! I look forward to hear more from you.