Thank you very much for your comments! It's the first time I've really got any really good, substantial musical feedback on my music, and it means a lot to me. It is very motivating, so it really makes me want to make more!
I often compose by improvising (I'm used to improvising in a jazz/fusion) parts/themes, either using a piano or flute sound, and then edit, change instruments, and adding harmony, voices. To get away from a certain predictability when I improvise, I recently sometimes experiment with pitch-class sets, or some of the messiaen-modes. Most of Eight Crows in a Tree was based on octatonic (diminished scale) melody and harmony, with some parts with polytonality, but not in a strict sense. I might use it as a starting point, and then edit it so it sound better for me.
And yes, there might very well be parts that are un-playable, as I have never written for any real instruments. I'll have to be careful about that.
And yes, I knew the glissandi wasn't sounding 100% natural, but I tried something else, but came back to this, as I thought maybe in a future version of noteperformer/dorico it will sound better. Also about the pitched percussion - I like to use the melodic percussion to emphasize rhythms, if I sometimes use 7/8 or similar.
I can see that you, PeterthePapercomPoser, are interested in Japanese music, as you use some for your variations, they sound great by the way! I'm also very interested in Japanese music, the use of harmony can be interesting and complex, while keeping it very approachable at the same time.
