JorgeDavid

Hello everyone, I recently updated a little draft of music for string quintet on the incomplete works forum and I just developed it into a full piece. After some thought, the section felt somehow like a developed theme, so I composed a main theme by using some of the musical features found in that draft I composed. The piece is an elegy and has the following sections: [m.1~m.9] Introduction -- The introduction was composed by making use of the most important harmonies of the piece: Cmaj, Cminor, Dbmaj and Gmaj. [m.10 ~ m.25] Main theme -- Main theme in C minor. This theme is in 2/2 (cut time). It works as a period but, in this case, both statements end in a half cadence (the second has a stronger modulation to G). [m.26 ~ m.40] Development section (original draft) -- Developmental section which starts with the main theme in Cmaj. This section is repeated once and it is in 4/4 (common time). [m.41 ~ m.51] Restatement of main theme -- second part of the main theme repeated once, this time ending in a perfect cadence (with picardy third in last chord). I am considering repeating also the first part of the theme in the restatement. Somehow I feel the development lasts for long enough as to justify a complete repeat of the initial theme, but I am still not sur. Any suggestion about the best thing to do is welcome! I think the atmosphere fits that title of "elegy", but it is also too hopeful at times so I am not sure if it is really an elegy. Please, let me know if you have any suggestion for the title! Also, I am not sure about the use of dotted notes for those moments in which they need to cut the phrase a little earlier. Would there be a better way for notating that? Thank you! As always any feedback is more than welcome and hope you enjoy it!

Thanks, @PeterthePapercomPoser. I browse through the forum from time to time, although I do not have much time to listen lots of things attentively :S. I have bookmarked some of your "20th century harmony" exercises because I am interested in trying to study that book and I loved some of the ones you made. Will probably comment on some of those when I have a little time to analyze the scores! (and probably use them as examples to compose my own exercises!) Somehow I feel it is too short and that it stars too abruptly so I was thinking about options to extend it. You pointing out about the "double exposition" made me realize that, what I currently have, might be understood as two different themes (or parts of a theme) starting in m.1 and in m.7. I might play around with some different forms but I was thinking on extending those ideas into full themes and then playing them like this: A section 1. Theme I in Cmin 2. Theme II in Gmaj (or minor) B section (The section I have composed). 1. Theme I in Cmaj with sudden transition to Theme II in Cmin and coda. I am not sure if it would be a valid form or not, I guess it would be like a binary piece based on the exposition + recapitulation of a sonata form. Maybe I end up failing and just adding a final chord to what I have now. But I will give it a try. Thanks for the feedback!

EDIT: The completed work, that was composed starting from this draft, can be found here. Hello everyone, As always I am still focusing on improving my piano playing and not composing, but today I decided to sit down and composed a little draft. I was wondering what your thoughts were. It is a short section (it could be the first section of a small piece) for string quintet. Now sure whether I should continue it, put it aside, or maybe use only some parts for a future piece. If I decide to continue, I am not sure what to do with it, either. I guess just a simple binary/ternary piece as most times. It starts in C major but it immediately goes to C minor (where it spends most of the section) so I just called it Cmaj/min draft. For this one, I let my ideas flow quite freely so the melody is more chaotic than my usual. Do you think it is good enough to be used? Any feedback is welcome! Thank you!

Another way would be to move to Abmin for a moment and then, from there, to its parallel major of Cbmaj (enharmonically equivalent to Bmaj). I think it could be quite smooth specially if you go through the V64 --> V progression (B/F# --> F#). For example: I guess this couldn't be considered a lush progression, though. As @Monarcheon suggested, for a lush progression it might be better to start with some line (maybe melody, or a strong bassline that you know points towards B major, or both) and start filling in the remaining voices in any way that sounds good.

Thanks for listening and commenting @Kvothe, and I am glad you found it to be a nice piece!! Yeah, the initial plan was trying to emulate Bartok/Stravinsky style but, since I did not really have fluency with that, after following the simple steps outlined in the post, I ended up just composing it in my own style (by that I mean composing it in any way that sounded good to me without any effort to emulate any particular style). I need to study Bartok style more in depth yet as I found it quite complex😣 I have never listened to Rachmoninov vocalises but I will give them a listen!! Thank you!

Thanks for your nice words and for listening, @MJFOBOE. Nino Rota is one of my favorite composers (specially his "circus" music) so I am really happy that you said that! 😄Glad you enjoyed! Thank you!

For me, this will always be the catchiest song from a video game. It keeping popping into my head quite often in the most random moments since its release so many years ago.

Hello everyone, I composed this inspired by a composition practice exercise for writing some neotonal music (Bartok, Stravinsky, etc): Step 1. Write a diatonic melody in a mode missing one note. Step 2. Use a different mode or scale for the harmony. My melody is in C Ionian without F, and the harmony is C ascending melodic minor (C major with Eb, though I ended up using E here and there too). I later added a B section with the melody focusing on the unused note F. The form is ABA'BA. A' is exactly same melody and accompaniment type but with different harmonies, specially in the first chord, that is Major instead of minor. Some of my concerns are: Does the piece and structure work overall? There is lots of repetition but I feel that having the harmony of A' changed helps a lot on the overall flow and making the A and B repetition feel anew. Also, I changed melody on last measure of each A which also seems to help. Does the harmony work in general? (There might be some weird spots, specially in section B). Does it work well as a vocal piece or another instrument would be better (specially since there are no lyrics)? Technically it is in C Minor (it starts and ends in it) but since it uses mostly natural A and natural B throughout, and natural E on the melody, I used the Cmaj key signature. Is that okay or I should change it to using three flats like in natural C minor? I am not sure how to notate the piano sections that consist of ascending chordal accompaniment (with the pedal, although it is not marked). Is there any obvious mistake in the notation?) Thanks for listening and any feedback is welcome! PD: I found out that the first 4 notes and main motive of the piece (and the mood, because of the vocal singer) is similar to Jerry Goldsmith's theme to 'The Illustrated Man'. I never heard it before so it was a pure coincidence. I think the harmonization of those 4 notes is different, though.

Hi @Kvothe, I am not expert in counterpoint, so take my comments with a grain of salt. Most of your exercise would be technically correct, as it is mostly thirds and sixths. I see you have an interval of a fourth in m.14. This interval, in classical counterpoint, would be considered a mistake (even though in other types of counterpoint it would be acceptable). So, strictly speaking, your counterpoint is not wrong. However, most times counterpoint is used as an exercise by setting up some rules and learning how to compose while sticking to them. These rules can be really varied, but some of the common classical rules are: 1. Using mostly third and sixths (up to three times in a row of the same interval at most) 2. Trying to make the melody move mostly by step, with occasional jumps (making the melody as melodic as possible). 3. Contrasting contour between melody and bass to some degree, where at times when one goes up, the other down, and vice versa. 4. Avoiding parallel fifths and octaves, having fifths only in contrary motion, etc. For example, in your exercises the melody is jumping around too often, which, in classical counterpoint, would be considered something to avoid. So, while your exercises are not wrong, I think you would benefit more by setting up some rules and following them, since using sixths and thirds without consideration of the melodic contour would be easy and, while technically correct, I am not sure it would help you as an exercise. Hope it helps and thank you for sharing your exercises!

Long time no see, @PeterthePapercomPoser. Exactly around 6 months! Hope everything is going great! I was really busy and ran into another musical hiatus where I could not practice or study at all, but I finally restarted it last week. I was planning to focus on learning, instead of composing, as I want to improve my technique and also go through some partimento (rule of the octave, schematas, etc) and jazz practicing. But, after 3 days of piano, I happened to compose again 😅 Now that I am practicing again I will try to browse more often through the forum, I have seen you have kept on with your microtonal pieces! Thanks for your feedback! I also like that from the piece. I always had a tendency to use cross relations without even realizing, particularly in counterpoint, as I enjoyed the sound but in this piece, that G/G# one surprised me (I realized once I composed it), since it is on the same beat and on a strong beat. I think my ear grew used to major seventh dissonances from when I learned a little bit of jazz 😆 Thank you so much for commenting!

Thank you so much for letting me know about the notation error, @Kvothe! Because of the grouping the first bar (and similar ones) might be understood as 6/8. I did not know it but now I totally understand it. Thanks for noticing! I will fix it for the final version. Also, regarding the tempo, I guess I could get rid of tempo marking since the expression marks such as "agitato" might be enough to convey the mood of the piece. Sadly, I do not know any pianist, so I cannot get real-life feedback, but I will try to find out about how tempo markings are normally used! For this piece, do you have any particular suggestion about which tempo marking would fit best? Thanks for commenting!

Thank you so much for the feedback and I am glad you liked it, @TristanTheTristan, I really appreciate it! Regarding the tempo, I am curious about what is the convention with Waltzes. As far as I know, I am using the metronome at around 180bpm if I consider each quartet note as the beat (so three beats per measure). Or is it maybe common in Waltzes to consider the bpm as the first beat of each measure or to consider other particular measure (such as feel of the music)? Thanks for all the feedback of the parts you liked the most! And yes, there is a few notes that are different because I am constantly changing a few notes here and there and I will record it when it is completed. But 99% of the piece is going to stay as it is. Regarding the bar 93, I understand it is a weird bar. It is just a repetition of the same material already played (first in Amaj, now in Dmaj), so the bass note should be A, to have a diatonic F#min chord with the third on the bass moving diatonically. However, in that particular context I like much more the A# in the bass, I am not sure why. It does create a F#7 chord with the natural A on top. The fact that the bass moves from A# to G is strange, but I do like it. But I can imagine most performers would actually change the A# into an A thinking it is a mistake 😅 I am aware of that bar and might consider changing the bass note to the A. But for now I like it better this way. Thanks for noticing it! I also enjoy that part and, both the Maestoso together with the set of bars that you pointed out are my favorite part of the piece! Glad you enjoyed it too! Yes, the ending is quite overwhelming. I am not good at writing Codas but I am going to extend it for the final version, even if it is only a couple of extra bars. The ending now sounds too rushed and probably a few more bars to let the ending breath will improve it. 8.5/10 is really good!! Thank you so much for your encouragement and the nice words!! Thanks for listening and commenting!

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!

I am really glad you enjoyed the piece @Finish the Sextet! Thank you so much for listening and commenting! 🙂

Thank you so much for the nice words, @GospelPiano12! I am really glad you like the piece! I am also happy that you seem to agree with me over the things you enjoyed about the piece. There are some parts I am not so happy with but, in general, I was also really happy with the melody and phrasing and with that "modern but not too modern" sound (which, even though I know what you mean, I am also not sure what it consists in, but I also though the same 😅). Yes, I also would like to try orchestrate it in the future. I have two pieces pending to be orchestrated (this one and the Bagatelle No.2) but these days I am slowly learning orchestration while practicing the piano so I will probably do it a little bit in the future. They are slow pieces and I find I have much more trouble orchestrating slow pieces :S. Thank you so much for listening and leaving a comment!