Alex Weidmann

Thanks very much for your review Archie! The tab score is mainly for my benefit, so I can see what hand shapes are needed to play the chords I've written. Some of them look very awkward: so I'm sure these chords will have to be thinned down. I did wonder whether the strumming hand can sometimes assist the fretting hand. E.g. When you need to depress several frets near the top of the neck, and also one much lower down, close to the strumming area. I wonder whether the thumb of the strumming hand can be used to depress the low fret? Anyway I've manually edited the tab score now, so it's looking a bit more sensible (see below) Another thing I'm not clear about, is what happens when you release the frets while a chord is still ringing? Does this produce an unpleasant pitch change effect as the strings slacken? In my piece this fret release would be required, where I have chords in rapid succession. Anyway, thanks again, Alex

That is very cute! Have to admit I don't know the instrument. I have heard of the pipa, mainly because it comes free with GarageBand!

I've combined this piece into one staff now, and created a tab score. MuseScore does this automatically, which is really helpful! I was able to modify the score where it showed red highlight warnings on the tab score: so I think it's mostly playable now (touch wood!) The natural harmonics might still be problematic? Though if they're not achievable as natural harmonics, perhaps they could be played as artificial ones? Edit: and looking at the fret numbers, I guess I'll have to thin out some of those big chords!

I have some lyrics for this now. They're from two different translations of the Epitaph. I'm very inexperienced with fitting lyrics to music: so any advice would be really helpful!

Many thanks for your review, and the very helpful info sheets! Tbh, I didn't think about fingering at all. I'm hoping to get advice from a guitarist on that question. The natural harmonics are probably the most dubious part of my score: so will definitely have to revise those.

This piece is for a concert later this year. Just started on it tonight, and it's the first time I've written for guitar. So I'm sure it's probably unplayable! N.B. I decided to use two staffs to make it more readable. Think it would look very cluttered on a single staff.

Hi Gabriel. Sorry this a bit late for your competition entry, but like Kvothe says above, there are errors in the way you've labelled the staffs. Far as I can see, you should have Oboe 1.2, Clarinet 1.2, Bassoon 1.2, Horn in F 1.3, Horn in F 2.4, Trumpet in Bb 1.2, Trombone 1.2, Trombone 3. Also, where strings have dyads, you should indicate whether these are to be played div. in 2, or non-div. (e.g. celli in Bar 13). Where you have more than one voice on a staff, stalks should always point in opposite directions (you've done this in some places, but not others). The exception is when you have div. in 3 or greater in the strings. Some of your slurs in the strings are too long to be playable in one bow: so these slurs should be omitted. (A slur always indicates: play in one bow. Composers sometimes write molto legato above the staff to indicate longer legato passages.) For the horn parts in concert pitch, you are allowed to have lots of ledger lines, so they can be written in standard treble clef. Hope that helps, Alex

Hi Henry. The quotations are very subtle and fragmentary. E.g. These two quotes from the Domine Jesu. I was aiming for a deconstruction of the Requiem: so I only used a few fragments, rather than quoting long passages.

Thanks Henry. Mendelssohn is a composer I've neglected until now; although he was apparently a greater child genius than Mozart! I accidentally wrote a few hand clashes in the harp (e.g. Bar 45 on Middle C). Hadn't thought of using xylophone, but will give it a try. I would like to add more for the violins and celli to do: so I think your suggestion is a great idea.

Happy New Year to all! For my first post of 2026, here's my orchestration of Medelssohn's Barcarolle from Songs Without Words. It's more or less done; though I may add more dynamics to match the original piano work, and need to add more slurs. Current dynamics are intended for midi playback: so I will be adjusting those for real life performance. Haven't decided where to mark a2 and solo in the winds: so any tips on that would be really helpful.

Does GarageBand Drummer count as AI? I've used this once or twice in the past. Though I made lots of manual tweaks to create alternating rhythms and percussion techniques in different sections of the piece. So it wasn't purely AI driven. I've also used AI to create cover art for my scores.

Thanks so much for listening Henry! Glad you liked it 🤗

Seasons Greetings all! Here's a little something I'm cooking up for a concert next year. It's based on the Epitaph of Seikilos, which is the earliest surviving complete song. I tried to give it a flavour of Antiquity, and to create unexpected harmonies. Haven't come up with lyrics yet; though it will start with the original Ancient Greek text translated into English. Maybe my piano part is a bit too thin? Or perhaps I should keep it sparse? The notation is intended for midi, and I'll be adjusting the dynamics upwards by at least one degree for the musicians. When I make the final score, I'm intending to write out the spread stacked chords in full as arpeggios.

Thanks Henry! That upwards leap in b.58 is definitely a cry of anguish for me. Glad you liked it! I was actually considering dropping the whole first movement: so great minds think alike! I agree it's the weakest of the three, perhaps because it's too pastiche, and also feels like it's treading water in the middle section. Since Vivaldi was a major inspiration, I was trying to evoke his violin concertI in my style of composition. For example the repeated notes in the third movement coda are typical of his music, and help to inject extra impetus and energy.

Thanks! This was the neoclassical piece that inspired me: