MuseScience

This is a short action cue piece called "Confrontation!" that I wrote for orchestra. It's supposed to resemble what would be an action cue in a movie or video game, particularly a fantasy type with an "epic" feel to it. Star Wars is my favorite fantasy epic so it's probably inspired from that mostly. Anyhow, I know my engraving skills aren't the best, but I welcome any constructive feedback. Thank you!

Well, that became a lot darker than I thought would.. loved the twist in the film. As for the music, I thoroughly enjoyed it! It felt like it gave so much life to the film. How long have you been scoring for films because the way you do it sounds extremely natural! Congratulations and I hope you do well on the competition!

This is the short introduction movement of an orchestral piece that I'm writing for fun called "Legends, Fabled Tales, and Ancient Doings." My intention with this project is to compose the emotions and color of a world of fantasy and the theoretical epic tales that would come with it. Later on, I plan on adding several movements to it to make it a whole piece. Let me know what you think of this first movement! I welcome any feedback/suggestions/criticisms. 1. Entrance into the Mythic Forest (Score).pdf

Thank you for the reply! And sorry for my late one! So I did take into consideration your suggestion about utilizing more dynamics for the winds, so in the later sections, I tried to implement that idea and to hopefully use them as tools for building up the suspense I was attempting to create. And as for the harmonies, I tried to utilize more complex harmonies and dissonances for the later sections. Let me know what you think of that if you get the chance! Thanks again for the comment and feedback!

Thank you! And actually, yes, I just finished the larger work! I apologize about the late reply, but I am very grateful for your comment. I updated the thread to show the new score and recording. I tried to develop the material as much as possible and also reintroduce some other themes. I also tried to create a bit of suspense in the middle section to simulate the suspense you'd have in a film.

Hello, here is a composition with a mockup recording (using Finale, Note performer, and FL Studio for mixing). I made this as a thematic idea that is inspired from video games I played as a kid called Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, specifically the second installment of those games (KOTOR II). I didn't directly take any themes or harmonies from that score, but I wanted to create something in that same mood since I love the score and still listen to it this day. I haven't composed anything for about four or five years, so I'm just getting back into it - I apologize in advance if any of my notations in the score are sloppy, I really just did this for fun. Let me know what you think! Zaborrah, the Forsaken (Finished Score).pdf

Vivaldi and Adams were the only two I voted overrated. Adams probably not as much, but for me personally, Vivaldi's music just blurs together too much for him to be pleasurable to me. It just sounds like cliché italian baroque music to me and that gets old after a while. I definitely think that Charles-Valentin Alkan is one of the most underrated composers I've ever come across though. I can't express how underrated I feel he is. Same with Schnittke.

Buy books on this subject. Books are always great ways to solve all your musical problems. Trust me. Look about on Amazon, Google Books, or maybe even your local public library. If you are serious about wanting to get better, you can find great information from all sorts of sources, but books are money for the musician looking to advance his/her skill level. While you will get access to tons of useful and applicable information in those books, its up to you to put in the elbow grease to making your projects sound as good as possible. I suggest looking up books on mixing/mastering tracks, and even books on electronic music since thats what your music seems to drift more towards sounding like. Good luck!

I would accept without much consideration, simply for the reasons people mentioned above. The only thing that might worry me is the fact that, due to the circumstances of having new music every week, you'd either have to create smaller-scale pieces that are pretty good, or larger-scale pieces that are unrefined and unworked. I'm guessing the composer in this hypothetical would have to go with the smaller-scale pieces. This being a downside, the composer could never actually compose larger, better works without having to be able to compose smaller works to satisfy the weekly requirements. Thus, it would be frustrating to any composer looking to broaden their compositional repertoire. But for only three years, it'd be so worth it. Also, the weekly constraint might be pretty difficult to a contemporary composer because harmonies today are so much more complex than harmonies from the 18th century, especially when Haydn was under the patronage of Esterhazy. I'm sure any composer worth their salt could manage to work within the time-constraints though.

Wow, that's actually a rather fantastic analogy. I suppose ultimately we decide and carve our musical language throughout our lifetimes, varying with what we listen to, study, or compose during a certain "phase" or "era". It's probably just human nature to personally move on and explore new horizons with your abilities and to break the barriers that you had set for yourself previously. However, with all of that, our purpose with music and why we do it may or may not change, yet our voice will not. Huh. :P

So, a question. Do you, as an experienced and successful composer, believe that the voice that one develops and has through their compositional flavor stays the same throughout their entire compositional career/life, do you believe it changes subtly, or do you believe that it can change drastically over time? And do you believe that the composer himself chooses to change it or do you think it's more or less a natural progression? I figure that seems like a redundant question, but what I'm getting at is something like this. For example, Penderecki for the first half of his compositional career was known as an avant gardist, then later switched to a way more conservative style. Does that result in a complete changeover in his musical "voice" or does the voice stay the same, but the style simply changes? Are the two independent of each other, or not at all, in your opinion?

You can't simply want it and hope it will happen and you can't put such standards for yourself for when you write your first symphony. It may not sound good at all, however you mustn't let that stop you from trying and trying again. Beethoven and Mozart both wrote tons of pieces, both good and horrible, before any of their first masterpieces were even thought of as simple musical ideas prior to their making. They spent years, even decades learning and mastering their craft before writing those pieces. I'm saying that you can't hope to understand music and write down an entire symphony in one huge step. It takes time - years even, before a person has enough compositional experience and knowledge to write even a decent sounding symphony. If I were you, I wouldn't start with a symphony. I would start with mastering the basics like melodies, harmony and counterpoint. Once you have mastered those and laid your musical foundation, only then can you go on and build the fountain of ability you so desire. Remember that Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is musical ability. Learn to crawl on your hands and knees, then walk, then run, then jump. It's all a process and you can't skip any one of those steps no matter how much you want to. We all have to go through it, friend. Good luck friend!

Well it's probably best to just get used to transposing for different instruments because it's quicker and more effective. If you don't, it'll cause problems when instrumentalists go to play it because it won't be in the correct key in regard to playing with other instruments. So, unless you're writing for all instruments in concert key, you might as well spend the time learning how to transpose in your mind. Like anything else with music, it'll pay off in the end. :)

Challenging someone to compose 50,000 examples of a method of that isn't used much anymore is hard to ask of anyone. I could imagine if you asked a person to write 10 for fun and to pass the time. I would bet no one on here would be willing to compose 50,000 examples of traditional counterpoint because that is just too large and too time consuming. I can see where you're coming from in terms of the "journey to mastery," but a person can master this concept without having to do 50,000 examples of it, I can guarantee you that. I bought Fux's Study of Counterpoint, learned from that what I needed to know (which was all of the material contained in the book), and I was good. I maybe wrote 10 to 20 per species, and I had the concept learned and mastered. Writing 50,000 as a challenge is a waste of time and does nothing for a learner except waste the time he could spend on learning another subject or part of music. It's counter-productive. I appreciate what you're trying to do, don't get me wrong, and I'm not meaning to sound negative, but if that is something you wish to do with your time, so be it, but you must think about what you're asking of others.

Copy and pasting too much = minimalism, doesn't it? xD