ComposedBySam

I am sooo sooo glad you liked the compositional devices I used! Thanks a lot Henry ☺️

Damn… the theme sounds so cool and elegant! It has a sort of dark urban fantasy vibe. I could imagine a dark trench coat wearing protagonist looking for answers in a weird underworld (oddly specific, I know). Quite elegant, crunchy harmonies in there and the interplay of timbres between the instruments you choose is quite masterful. Loved it!

Thank you so much, Peter! I was kinda reluctant at first to perform this myself, given I knew almost nothing about vocal performance beforehand—so it’s a great relief to know that my singing skills are passable for a casual performance, haha! (It’s a good thing I took a week’s time to gain some vocal literacy and work a bit on my atrocious passagios, or I would have caused your ears to bleed lol) Regarding the clef issue, as per my knowledge, for an art song/lied, it is standard practice to write the voice part in treble clef notwithstanding the range of the singer. The reason is, most singers, with the exception of basses, have been historically trained to read music in treble clef, and are expected to transpose the part according to their respective ranges. For example, there is this song cycle by Beethoven called “An die fernen Geliebte” which is also primarily for baritone, but all the scores I have seen so far have had the voice part written in treble. Same goes for songs by Schubert. Another reason is to make the song non exclusive and meant for any singer of any range. At least that’s what I know. (Edit: Now that I did some digging, I learned that the treble clef convention I followed is a bit old-fashioned, and that modern art songs favour using a clear bass clef for baritones and basses. Anyhow, I kind of wanted the piece to not be exclusive to a particular voice range, so treble use is still justifiable given my case. Thanks for bringing this up. I learnt something new.) Your observation about my singing having a sense of Indian influence is actually very interesting! Although I am untrained in Indian classical music, my knowledge about it being mostly realised through a western lens or framework (even though I am Indian myself), I did grow up in a household where Indian folk and classical music were played almost everyday. So my baby brain might have picked up the way Indian folk melodies are ornamented, phrased, and contoured haha! It’s interesting to think about

You can make your part writing fuller by making the bass more jumpy. Harmony could sound less thick if the movement if all the voices move smoothly by step. And although it is best to minimise the movements of the middle voices, you should try to make the baseline compete with the melody in grabbing the listener’s attention. This could be done by large emotional leaps downwards when the melody shoots skyward. Good contrary motion balance between the melody and baseline makes for a full sound. Second way is to add more passing notes in the middle voices to give some dissonance between strong beats—they make the harmony tastier. Also, suspensions can really lift up the voice leading. Third way is to make a texture, be it with figurations (as someone mentioned) or with simple imitative counterpoint in the inner voices. My advice is to try experimenting with articulations and syncopations with the inner voices (if you are writing for SATB, make sure it’s singable). Lastly, make sure the rest of the voices do service to the melody, in the sense that their rhythmic material and contrapuntal material are somewhat derived from or echo the essence of the melody in question. Same goes for the baseline. Happy composing!

Thank you so much, Vince! This just made my day 😊

Hi guys! Hope you're all doing well. So, I wrote a poem two months back, and whilst I did, I also made a melody out of it just because lol. So, I thought it had the potential to become an art song, so I composed it. By the way, this song just contains the first stanza of my poem. Do you think I should make more songs for each stanza to do like a song cycle or something? Anyways, I sang this myself because I find vocal soundfonts to be... nauseating. Anyways, I am no singer, so try not to roast me too much for my voice lol. Do tell me how you like it, or if you have any suggestions.

Wow! The piece unfolds and reaches climax quite effectively. I can totally see how the music itself demanded a modulation to F major there lol—and it works great! The fugato section was a nice touch with theme A as the episode and theme B as the subject. I like how the climactic section cools down with plagal harmonies iv—I, gives a bittersweet aftertaste to all the previous agitation. That’s why the decision to end it on the major version of the tonic was a good choice. Such a competent and fluent work!

My word… It begins with a pathetique-esque anguish, falls into nihilism—“nihilistically scherzando” (loving brilliant!)—the adagio-like contemplation tries to tame the nihilism—Honestly? I absolutely love the emotional direction in this. Some people may say that the jazzy section sounds a bit off in a neoclassical sounding sonata, but for me—it has enough juice and meaning to stand as something intentional and felt—even if not “idiomatic” in the general sense. What stood out for me is the development section. It was gorgeous and well directed. Also, incredible job playing this yourself! That deserves a round of applause for its own sake.

Glad you liked it 😊thanks for the advice for managing the sharps!

Haha glad you liked it!

Thank you for your remarks. I learnt a lot. I didn’t particularly think too deeply when I decided to describe it as jazzy, perhaps I was going with superficial vibes. But anyways thanks for pointing out that the cello staff goes over the accompaniment. I actually did try to experiment with the audio by adding some cracks here and there… just thought it would be cool and chill. Anyways thanks for listening and commenting! I appreciate your valuable feedback’s every time!

Wow that’s a huge compliment! Thank you so much for taking the time to listen and appreciate!

Thank you so much! I am glad you found it cozy and nostalgic… basically I download public domain paintings, and overlay it with a transparent png image of my score. (which can be exported in musescore by ticking some settings options) I am glad that you found the visual aesthetics beautiful. Thanks again for listening and commenting!

A jazzy pastoral short piece I composed last winter. Enjoy!

Hi Peter! Thank you so much for taking the time to listen so attentively. Actually while composing it, I also found measure 57 a bit troubling… I thought of doing a smoother resolution but I was absolutely out of brain juice. Maybe I will revise this composition sometime and smooth out the parts which stick out. I have a love hate relationship with the ending. I just felt after a long, heavy, overly romantic coda, a little humour was needed to sort of knock some sense into the pig headed passions invoked by the section which came before. I think it kinda works? 😂 Thanks for you suggestion regarding the balance issue… I have nightmares thinking about trying to bring out the melody using muse sounds. I tried almost everything. I will surely try using MS basic once. Again, thank you so much for your constructive thoughts!