PeterthePapercomPoser

I have moved on to Chapter 7 of Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony" which covers polychords. The prompt for the piece was "4. Extend the polychordal passage for piano:" Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any of your comments!

I've moved on to Chapter 6 of Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony" which is about secundal chords and clusters. The prompt was "1. Harmonize the following melody for string trio using chords by seconds." Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any of your comments!

Hi @Cafebabe! This symphonic movement is a joy to listen to! It's bursting with an abundance of drive and energy! I really love the many individual touches you put on the piece that aren't characteristic of any other existing classical composer, such as the way you end the movement in the last two bars. The only critiques I can really have are nit-picks about the notation of the score. The piece is fast enough that it should be in cut-time. It would be wholly impractical to conduct in 4/4. Also, there are multiple enharmonic mistakes such as the C#'s in bars 13, 17, 40, 114, 118, and 138 which should be Db's. Also, the Clarinet can reach a low concert Eb in bars 58 - 59 and 61 - 62 so there's no reason why you would have to transpose it up an octave there like you do. I can see why that would be necessary in the recapitulation though when the same material is reiterated in the tonic key. Thanks for sharing this exuberant movement!

Continuing with Persichetti's chapter on added-note chords, I wrote this piano piece. The prompt was "9. Extend the following piano idea, preserving the general character." Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any of your comments!

I have moved on to Chapter 5 of Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony" which is about added note chords. The prompt was "11. Harmonize the following melody for strings with triads in the violins and violas, and the added notes in the cellos and basses (in octaves)." Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any of your comments!

Another Persichetti prompted piano piece! I struggled with this one the most thus far. The prompt was: "6. Continue the following idea for piano." Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any of your comments!

I've written another composition/song prompted by an exercise from Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony". This time it is for women's choir. The prompt was "Compose an original piece for women's voices (SSA) featuring chords by fourths. Other textures may be included. Use the following text, Psalm 107: 'They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.'" Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions, critiques, or just observations!

I come to you with yet another quartal exercise from Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony" - this time for a trio of Trumpets. The prompt was "4. Continue the following passage for trumpets preserving the general character." Thanks for listening and I'd love to hear any of your comments, suggestions, critiques or just observations!

Hi @Luis Hernández! I personally use different numbers of staves to sketch things out for orchestra depending on how far I am in refining my material, what my needs are or how big the orchestral forces I'm sketching out are going to be. If I'm sketching out for a string orchestra I usually don't need more than 3 staves (treble clef, alto clef and bass clef). If I'm expanding the string orchestra sketch for a bigger orchestra I use 6 - 8 staves: 3 staves for the strings, 2 for winds, 2 for brass, and 1 for percussion. Finally, if the score is really complex I will write things out for a full orchestra partiture upwards of 16 staves. But I rarely use just a 2 stave piano score for an orchestra - for me it's too small. I've heard that John Williams uses 8 staves when he sketches out his film scores. Great topic!

Hi @Bjarke! Is this the piece you messaged me about? I think it is quite melodramatic trying to keep such a high intensity and drama without any relief. I don't personally perceive any "climax" because of the constant high intensity. You could create contrast by varying the tempo/tessitura or the thickness of the chords. Currently the chords are voiced so thick all the time that the thickness comes across as the most salient feature of the music and the sense of melody is lost. Also about the tempo - there are few classical pieces of music that are at this tempo and intensity that still manage to keep a sense of being sublime like classical pieces are usually expected to be. Is there any particular reason you're trying to write this piece at such a high intensity/tempo? It isn't conducive to musicality imo. Because of this the cohesiveness of the melody also seems lost to me - the melody seems arbitrary with random seeming modulations. Most importantly there's no sense of tension and release without any sense of cadence nor harmonic resolution. That's my perception of the piece. Thanks for sharing!

I've now moved on to Chapter 4 of Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony" which is about quartal chords. The prompt for this one was "10. Extend the following string-quartet opening. Feature pentatonic melodic and quartal harmonic writing." Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions, critiques or just observations!

I have yet another short piano composition for you prompted by an exercise from Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony". The prompt was "16. Expand this piano passage of eleventh and thirteenth chords preserving the general character." I added lots of dynamics and tempo fluctuations to simulate rubato and bring expression to the music. Let me know how I did! Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any of your comments, suggestions, critiques or just observations.

I've written yet another piece prompted by an exercise from Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony"! This one is for 2 Clarinets and 2 Bassoons. The prompt is: "Extend the following passage for two clarinets and two bassoons." I tried to make an actual piece of music out of it instead of just a harmonic exercise, but let me know what you think! Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions, critiques or just observations!

I am reviewing Vincent Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony" and just finished chapter 3! And so I decided to do the first exercise that looked good to me to try to make an actual piece of music out of (I don't like exercises for their own sake - I think I should always be trying to make living, breathing music). Here is the prompt for the exercise: "12. Harmonize the following melody in four string parts using dominant seventh chords exclusively. Much contrary and oblique motion and several inversions should be used." Like I said, I tried to make an actual piece of music out of it and not be too much of a stickler to the rules. I also tried to approach it not like a chorale exercise - let me know if I've succeeded on that front! Thanks for listening and I would appreciate any suggestions, critiques, comments or just observations!

Hi again @MK_Piano! A passionate and emotional piece fitting for the theme of betrayal. I tried to find the YT video on your channel that goes with this music but couldn't find it. Perhaps I would understand the music better if I could watch that? Thanks for sharing, great job, and by all means, post the video link in this thread!