Wieland Handke

Hello @Luis Hernández! Having just listened to your orchestration in comparison to the original piano work, I must say that the brass orchestration perfectly matches the character of the “Hunting Song.” The piano version is also beautiful, but it doesn't convey the image of a forest where hunters play before or after the hunt as strongly—perhaps this was also because the recording I heard was at a much faster tempo, which would have been uncomfortable for horns, trumpets, and trombones. In the semiquaver runs, the french horns sound somewhat to „soft“ what might not be the case in a live recording (while the trumpets retain their typical brass timbre), but despite such nitpicks concerning the realism of the software reproduction, the entire piece sounds well balanced and there is nothing „rattling“ (that’s what I call it whenever there is something that had to be improved according to the listening impression). A beautiful, authentic orchestration of a classical piece that captivates with its very own character!

Hello @PeterthePapercomPoser! This piece is cool and absolutely weird! I’m totally confused when I try to listen where the lydian fourth is! It clearly appears in each bar on the first beat (to be read as F#, but transposed as E). However, it sounds not lydian but seems to be somewhat a leading tone to the following G (sounding F). And more interestingly, the long E in bar 3 (sounding as D) has for me the typical lydian character. This must be due to the accompaniment by the phrygian harmony of the strings. The chord [F - Cb – Bb – E] (which is very dissonant) resolves to Bb minor totally absorbing the lydian character of the E! Whereas the Bb major chord [F - Bb - D] in bar 3, second beat brings the expected brightness! This impression is very similar to the combination of the Lydian Augmented and the Spanish Phrygian scales by @Gwendolyn Przyjazna in her Iridescence (progressive rock instrumental), where the (augmented) lydian scale appears to be much „darker“ than traditionally expected and the (spanish) phrygian scale sounds much more „brighter“. So all in all it is a harmonically interesting piece and a brilliant example what can be done using those scales (and not being stuck with only major and minor).

Thank you very much! Yes, this score really does have many colors and is only for analytical purposes. But it makes it clearer (especially for me) where the subject entries are, where inversions, augmentations, diminutions etc. occur. Interestingly, I don't usually highlight the countersubject, except in this fugue. And while writing the above explanations, I activated these additional color highlights and noticed that there was a recurring countersubject even used in inversion and for the episode material (which I had already forgotten in the last four years) ... The post with the second part (linked above) contains the “normal” black-and-white score of the entire fugue, which I also prefer to play from.

Hello @mossy84! Thank you for your advice not to end a fugue subject on the tonic. (And this is, in fact, a good advice which avoids that the subject sounds „too finished“ and there is not enough momentum for the next voice entries.) But in this particular case, I violated this „rule“ - albeit rather unconsciously – in order to follow the rules for crafting a fugue subject in the style of Palestrina, especially having only one „leap“ in the opening fifth which is immediately followed by stepwise motion in the opposite direction. And I wanted to have a Brevis note in the subject to highlight its „renaissance“ character in the score visually. 🙂 However, I must admit that there is a kind of „rest“ in bar 4 where the subject comes home to its tonic key G flat for an entire Brevis – but that’s intentional and emphasized by the „messa di voce“ (which is challenging to be played on the piano at all... 😃). By the way, looking into another of my fugues with a similar, short subject (here is a YouTube link, I haven’t presented it in the YCForum yet), I noticed that I exactly did what you suggested, I started the answer a beat earlier, creating a kind of „stretto“ even in the exposition.

Hello @Alex Weidmann! A piece for theorbo – that is something for me! I really enjoy, that the theorbo is (at least here in Germany) increasingly being used in baroque orchestras alongside the harpsichord and a small organ as a Basso Continuo instrument. I think I first discovered it about five years ago and am always delighted when it is used, for example in Handel's Messiah. It lends such warmth or even a “Mediterranean feeling” to the accompaniment that it surpasses the somewhat “boring” harpsichord and organ, which are unable to play dynamics, while they are needed for rhythmic and percussive accents (the harpsichord) and harmonic filling and foundation (the organ). As I see, you have dealt extensively with the special features of the instrument, especially with regard to playability on the low, diatonically tuned strings. Even if I can’t read the tablature notation, I can imagine that trying to translate the notes into that notation helps to empathize with the player and to avoid playability issues. A two part invention with the voices distributed between the two registers might be challenging to play, but I like that counterpuntual style, together with the arpeggios and flageolet notes! As I used a theorbo too, in a piece I arranged for the 2025 Christmas event – not as a solo instrument but in a continuo, paired with a harpsichord and a small organ, I am no longer sure whether I have taken the ambitus of the theorbo and its special tuning features into account correctly. Therefore, I have linked this piece here, maybe you’ll find a lot of errors ... Greetings, Wieland

Hello @Gwendolyn Przyjazna! I am always interested in pieces featuring „exotic scales“ and modes and so I was excited to find out how your „progressive rock instrumental“ would sound like. Since you didn’t provide a score I could concentrate on listening: My impression is, that the harmonies sound very smooth together – not as dissonantly as in some of @PeterthePapercomPoser’s Persichetti excercises, for example „Persichetti Exercise 2 - 56 for Clarinet Duo“. Thus, producing a dreamy, melancholic sound where especially the transition section from 01:52 to 02:26 reminded me indeed at Kate Bush! I must admit that I had to lookup what the Lydian Augmented and the Spanish Phrygian scales are all about. And so I found the reason why they are gentler or even more similar each other than I expected in the pair Lydian/Phrygian: The Lydian Augmented scale is more „darker“ than the traditional bright Lydian mode (which sounds paradoxical at first glance), while the Spanish Phrygian scale sounds much more „brighter“ than the original Phrygian one due to its major third. You added the tag „counterpoint“ to the piece so that I was curious how a counterpuntual rock instrumental would sound like. But to be honest, I get the impression that for most of the piece, you only had one voice with a melody, while the other instruments accompanied in chords or long notes, so I have to admit that I didn't really understand what you meant by “counterpoint”. Thank you for sharing, I very enjoyed it!

Hello @MichaelJohn! Congratulations for your first jazz quintet. It is amazing when you achieve such a piece after studying jazz theory for only three weeks! Since you didn’t provide a score I could concentrate on listening. I really enjoyed the relaxed piano improvisation and the swinging rhythm. So, if you did not mention, I would thought that composing jazz is your bread-and-butter profession for a long while. With a classical (and even more counterpuntual) background, writing jazz music is a huge challenge for me, since my compositions are more „head driven“ and improvising is an art I have never learnt (yet). But that doesn’t matter since one could compose fantastic jazz music „on paper“ without the ability to improvise, the best example is Nikolai Kapustin who wrote outstanding jazz music especially for the piano while using classical or baroque forms or techniques, for example its 24 preludes and fugues or its sonatas in jazz style. So thank you for sharing, you have inspired me to take a closer look at jazz theory again in the near future.

Hello @MK_Piano! Yes, that’s really a good swinging big band piece which immediately reminds at Glenn Miller’s „Chattanooga Choo Choo“. Good old steam trains seem to have inspired many composers and musicians because of their „sound“ which comprises „rhythmic“ elements (the start of the locomotive, increasing and decreasing speed, the rattling noise when driving over the track joints) and melodic elements (the puffing of steam, the whistling of the locomotive, or the squeaking of the wheels when braking) which animate to be imitated musically. Who would write a piece inspired by the noises a nowadays train produces? Another good example of a piece dedicated to a steam locomotive is Arthur Honnegger's “Pacific 231”, which is not a jazz piece, but rather a dramatic symphonic work. I liked it very much and I must say that the repetitive character mentioned by @PeterthePapercomPoser didn’t bother me, especially taken into account the purpose of the piece as soundtrack for a movie where it does not appear in its entirety but is cut into parts to underpin the individual scenes. Or whenever it would be played in a bar as the background music, the most visitors would not even notice it.

Hello @Tunndy! You have picked the perhaps most covered or orchestrated rock/pop song ever, the iconic Bohemian Rhapsody, which I consider to be a huge challenge. Everyone who hears the piece knows it and has its own expectations in the sense of „does it sound like the original“. I had the chance two years ago to attend a live performance of an orchestra and choir, and I was impressed how realistic that was performed - very close to Queen’s original sound. But that's also the problem when everyone is sensitized to noticing every little “mistake” or deviation from the original: you're faced with the challenge of bringing your own personal touch or interpretation to it. And that's exactly what you've done very well. The longer I listen to your orchestration, the more I notice some beautiful interpretations that really make it “your” piece. I particularly liked the ending, from bar 103 onwards! However, I could imagine that this personal interpretation could go even further. Therefore, as an inspiration, I have linked a YouTube video of David Bennet who reinterprets Bohemian Rhapsody in different modes or scales, which I find very fascinating. Thank you for sharing, I very enjoyed it!

The second part of the fugue (and the entire fugue at all) is now available on this separate thread. I hope, you'll enjoy it and awaiting comments/reviews.

Here now the fugue in its entirety with a YouTube-video and the complete score!

Hello my fellow musicians, now I present the second half of the fugue with the „special feature“. Today is the 24th of February and it is now exactly four years ago since the Russian invasion in Ukraine. As I composed the fugue between February and May 2022, I decided - after I had accomplished the first half - to integrate the Ukrainian national anthem as further theme in the second half of the fugue – as a dedication to those which suffer from that terrible war, or more worse, have even lost their lives. For continuing the „analytic comments“, we cannot speak from now on of „development sections“ and „episodes“ since the fugue is now structured by the verses of the anthem and interludes between them: First Verse of the Anthem (mm. 51b – 43a). The first verse in B flat minor in the soprano is „accompanied“ by three subject entries: • B flat minor, inverted, bass (mm. 51b) • F minor, tenor (mm. 55b) • D flat major, diminished, alto (mm. 58b) Interlude (mm. 60 - 66). The interlude, dominated by a sequential motif which appears three times in normal form and three time in inversion. The fugue subject appears once in normal and once in the diminished form: • D flat major, bass (mm. 60b) • E flat minor, diminished, bass (mm. 64b) Second Verse of the Anthem (mm. 67 – 74). Similarly, the second verse, again in B flat minor in the soprano has tree contrasting subject entries, where the last, diminished one could be counted to the following interlude, too: • F minor, tenor (mm. 67) • B flat minor, bass (mm. 71) • D flat major, diminished, tenor (mm. 74) Interlude (mm. 75 - 82a). This interlude consists of four sequences, each featuring an entry of the diminished subject, which perform the modulation from the „sad“ keys with flat key signatures used so far (for example E flat minor) to the „triumphant“ keys with sharp key signatures (finally to F sharp major): • D flat major, diminished, tenor (mm. 74) • A flat major, diminished, bass (mm.76) • B major, diminished, soprano (mm. 78) • F sharp major, diminished, alto (mm. 80) Third Verse of the Anthem (mm. 82b – 90). The anthem repeats the last half bar of the second verse and is now in the third verse finally in the brightest major key in F sharp major! The remaining subject entries of the fugue are as follows: • B minor, inverted, bass (mm. 82b) • F sharp minor, diminished, tenor (mm. 85b) • A major, diminished, tenor (mm. 86c) • F sharp major, „tail only“, bass (mm. 89) I hope, you'll enjoy it. Wieland Here is the link to the previous thread with the first part of the fugue:

Huh, those two different scales together remain dissonant, even after listening several times. Interestingly, while you separated the two voices clearly, for me the base clarinet „shadows“ the lydian fourth in the soprano, so that its characteristic is not so clearly perceptible. I was just a bit confused whether the score/recording is transposing or not. I think, the score should be read „as is“ since the scales (B lydian vs. G aeolian) are explicitly mentioned in the exercise. But whenever I listen to the recording, I think the clarinets are playing a whole note lower, thus are transposing ... However, very interesting exercise – while I would prefer a slightly more harmonic approach in my own compositions.

A humorous piece that wasn't too short, which I really enjoyed. I could easily imagine a solo violist standing on stage and playing the piece with all the different articulations that a viola can offer! My only criticism concerns—as @Luis Hernández already mentioned—the trills and tremolos. While notation software usually delivers acceptable results for articulations such as staccatos, accents, etc., the automatic unfolding of trills and—even worse—tremolos is usually unusable. To get around this problem, you could try “writing them out” (for this you need a second version of the score, intended only for the MP3 output). I always do this when I use trills and tremolos. In this case, you can “fine-tune” the dynamics of these trills/tremolos, which significantly increases the realism. Thank you for your contribution and welcome to the forum!

I‘m glad to hear that, and to see that you are not too „disappointed“ or overwhelmed by the discussions. Since I see that you are (again) in „good hands“ with @muchen_ continuing a detailed discussion, I will not go so much in detail, but give only some more general thoughts. I‘ve noticed your new version (v3.mp3 – not yet v3m.mp3). Will say that I put it together with the first one on my playlist and listened them, in a loop, perhaps a dozen times while walking. I do the same with my own compositions (where I use different piano soundfonts producing 10 different recordings of the same piece) and listen to them extensively while I take a long walk. This approach helps me to judge the piece whether it is fluent and I get distracted from my thoughts every time something „rattles“. Will say, a more relaxed review on the work thru listening only – being away from the score – is very useful to find out bars which need overhaul or get new ideas how a piece could be continued. Coming to the two versions of your invention I‘ve listened, I must say they are only slightly different (which is good in the sense that your corrections/modifications had no impact on the overall mood). The longer I listened them, the more I loved the subject with the repeated notes! Yes, in the first version there are the few bars, where the „octaves“ produced a bit „thin“ sound in the counterpoint. They have gone away in the newer version (what is good) except of – in my listening impression - two bars, one at the first subject entry in the lower voice and one bar nearly the end. So, I will now look to the score to see whether I can find out what I thought to have heard. ... The one bar which retains to sound „thin“ is bar 4 and the other one is bar 22. Yes there is an octave on an A on the second of the repeated notes. But I think, it‘s not the octave only - there are other ones on a C in bar 3, last of the repeated notes and on a F# in bar 5, second of the repeated notes – which don‘t need „correction“ in my listening impression. I think the „problem“ in bars 4 and 22 is more harmonic nature, I would replace the three sixteenth notes in the upper voice [G A B] with [E# F# G#] emphasizing the dissonance between B major and the four repeated A naturals. Because this was more detailed than I initially intended to be in this repost, so take it not too seriously. The more general question I have – and you probably have yourself – is what do you intend with, for example, this particular invention. If it is an exercise, you‘ll have learned something, especially about „octaves“ – and can leave it at that, going to the next one. But perhaps this is not the best idea to continue with the 1601st exercise, as you seems to me to be already somewhat „overteached“ and „overpracticed“. If you are about to create a „full fledged“ composition of it, we could further talk about episodes, cadences and a more elaborated ending. However, I suspect that you would prefer for that purpose another piece with a subject of your own, which than will be „complete your baby“. For that case, I would suggest you to put your composition in a more larger „framework“, such as in a cycle of, for example of six or twelve inventions, calling it somewhat like „Mein Notenbüchlein“ 😅. I think, that‘s quite enough for today! Greetings, Wieland.