Dallas

Yeah, actually I've been reading a few other topics about similar questions... and none of the things I'm seeing are quite working. I could possibly insert the hand pluck or whatever option, but then I'd have to turn off Human Playback and things would just... Not Be Cool. >.< Oh well, I'll figger somethin' out.

Okay, so this is a simple question, and I'm seriously hoping it has a simple answer. Now I know that the processed playback of Finale/etc. isn't what we as composers should aim for, live performances are better, yeah... but I'm not gonna get a full orchestra to play this bloody piano concerto anytime soon, and my grandfather wants to hear it. That said... I have an instance in which I want to use pizzicato strings, as well as harmonics in the pizz. bass. Adding to a kinda of brooding psychosis breaking through a really misty introductory statement. However comma, I'm using GPO. And uh... I can't seem to find anything that makes the playback change from arco to pizz. in GPO. What am I missing? Or is it just impossi---- no, I know it's possible, because I've heard some of QC's stuff in GPO with pizzing and such. Anyways... And I just haven't really even bothered the harmonics yet, but any advance advice on those is also appreciated. Thanks for your time, everyone. ...Oh, and long time no see!

Ooookay so I feel like a minor idiot but I don't CARE anymore because I've had this bloody problem ever since I first started using Finale nearly five years ago. I am writing in 7/8 time, a piano solo. The right hand is just on-beat straight eight notes for the most part, BUT... I want to have two groups of four eight notes in the left hand part. In other words, an 8:7 tuplet. So I take my merry arse to the tuplet tool and creat a tuplet with the correct definition (8 8ths in the space of 7 8ths). And I fill in notes. Or at least, I fill in seven of them. It will not let me create the final 8th note. I've had this problem with other tuplet combos, all in the same vein. For instance, in writing scaley 16th note passages, if I want the last group to be a quintuplet in order to speed up the progression, it won't freakin' let me put in all 5 notes. ET CETERA. Is there anyone who can tell me what on Earth I'm doing wrong? I'd be much obliged... D: If you need me to include this snippet of the score, just lemme know and I'll attach it.

Dude, Oica. I know this is like three months late but I was just passing by to upload the PDF and MP3 files that I've created, when I noticed your little thing there. Need I say, HOLY COW. That was a really interesting take on it. What exactly did you use for that? I -loved- the timpani sample, and want it badly, lol. Whatever you used to create that rendering gave it quite the ethereal feel. An interesting breath of fresh air into one my dusty old pieces, lol. Anyways, so it's obvious I'm not grave-digging, but rather updating... MP3 - http://www.box.net/shared/static/y1a4id4tsc.mp3 PDF - http://www.box.net/shared/static/z6gho6sskq.pdf

Okay, FINALLY added the MP3 for you's guys. I must apologize for the fact that the strings are so quiet... and during one certain part, the clarinets are just screaming... I need to go back and play around with the mixer. When I get time, I'll do so and upload a better file. Anyways. Listen and destroy. :D

HEY EVERYONE. I finally got it worked out right. >.< *shot epically* There is now an MP3 link in the first post. And just for the hell of it, I'll put one here as well. http://www.box.net/shared/static/0cbfd8su6y.mp3 Yay me.

Hello, dear fellow South Carolinian, and (hopefully) future colleague. I hope the day finds you well. I'm going to get right down to business with this most lovely Rhapsody. First and foremost, my attention was snared and held right from the first measure. Bravo on that, because I'm easily distracted. >.> That four-note motif really had a way of drawing me in; while it was at once pensive and retenue, it had a psychotic potential to it; in my own composer's mind, I can hear a tense, fortissimo strings passage of those same four notes, screaming through the hall. Now don't get me wrong; I'm not trying to change your music. I'm merely demonstrating the different underlying feelings that visit me while reading through it. (This is something I do often, sorry...) My next comment has to do with the liberal use of the pedal throughout; this daring maneuver worked marvelously. Sebastian put it well in using the word "atmospheres;" I really could feel the presence of different levels of sound to that massive extent, and it was a lovely effect. In contrast with Mr. Sebastian, though, I did feel as though these layered globules of sound led to something, starting right about 2:33, building all the way to what I perceived as the climax of the piece around 3:18 or so. The winding down of material from this climax to the end felt absolutely natural, like it was simply meant to be. Nice job on that. My first time reading through, I did find the last three chords to be a bit odd, given the texture of the piece, but in context, it makes for a near-perfect release of the leftover tension. I think played ever so slightly quieter, and allowed to ring just a tad bit longer, my gripe would be gone. (That's more of a comment on the pianist than the composer, though. :P) For now I shall cut my commentaire merdique to a rest. I applaud you infinitely, and if you don't mind, I'd greatly love to learn this piece as well, myself being a pianist at heart. Keep up the good work, mate. ~Dallas

As I said several times there, I'm having a few issues getting the MP3, but am working on it. Please be patient. I apologize yet again for not having it up at the same time as the post; I had no idea it would turn into this much of an epic struggle for me. *returns to MP3 conversion hell*

Currently lacking a more frilly title, unfortunately. This piece is currently my pride and sorrow. Yes, you read that right; not pride and joy. I'll explain why in a moment. First, an overview of the content itself. Here I present the first movement of a piece of piano literature in rather stark contrast to the last piece I uploaded; whereas that Pr Score.mus

I would certainly love to do so, dear Voce, for then my grandpa's freakin' CD player would play it properly. However, the only option available when I go to create an audio file is .wav; is there some trick of the trade of which I'm not aware? If so, please do let me know. >.

OMG! Thank you SO much for commenting on this! Believe it or not, I literally JUST had my composition interview with Dr. Bain yesterday, and it went wonderfully. He made two comments that just absolutely put me on cloud nine, one of which going right along with yours ("I think you'd fit in very well here, and we'd love to have you here!") and the other I still can't really wrap my mind around ("I see you going very far in the field of composiiton.") I have listened to some of Dr. Bain's computer music, and I respect him greatly both as a composer and, from what little I've seen and heard, an instructor. I absolutely cannot wait to get there! All I have to do now is pass the piano jury this coming Friday. >.> I've heard about the Southern Exposure thing too, and I really look forward to attending some of those events. (Of course, what I look forward to the most are the New Voices concerts... I believe that's what they're called?) Anyways, I'll get back onto the point of this post. Thank you so much for the in-depth commentary. I see what you mean by some of the demands in this; Dr. Bain did rather pointedly ask me once, "Can you really play this?" with a cunning little grin. Of course, I bashfully replied NO. You and I shall talk more, I hope. And I also hope to see you on campus next year! Everyone else, I apologize if I don't go into as much depth with your posts. I thank you all immensely for the praise and criticism alike; I know I have things to work on, and it's nice to hear some agreement and confirmation of certain elements that even I doubted. The one thing I do disagree upon is my use of syncopation... I don't feel that it kills momentum, per se; it does, however, provide a brief breath of sorts amongst the rush of notes. I may yet revise this. I'm about to post a less modern piano concerto, if anyone in this thread is interested in it. And I'll just say that it needs serious revision too, but I'll get to that later. :D Thanks again, everyone! I appreciate it immensely! ~Dallas

Finally, after much stress over dead computers and breaking the bank for Finale... I have music to show you people. This is the first full piece that I have written upon the turning of a proverbial new leaf in my composition. I'd been studying 20th century harmony and the like, when I decided to simply throw caution to the winds and just have FUN writing for once. I never would have expected the ease with which ideas greeted me and the speed with which I assembled this little Pr

Thank you for the input, everyone; as I said, I am planning a revision of this. As such, I will take into account everything you have said at that point in time. Mael, I can agree with most of what you said. And yes, it does lack a recapitulation. Trying to thing back... I believe I simply didn't know what the word meant at the time. *shot* Embarrassing to admit, but again, I had a simple flow chart of words showing the Sonata structure. No explanations. Anyways... when I get around to this, I already know what I'm going to do for the recap. And I'm going to change the key in the development (another thing I didn't realize back then). There were a few things you mentioned that had me confused, but I haven't the time to go into that depth right now. I've got other music of a much less crappy quality to be working on! xD Thank you again everyone.

Here I present to you the first piece I ever completed on any kind of large scale. Well... actually, the whole work in its entirety is not complete, but the first three movements are. The first movement was, at the time, my highest personal achievement ever... anyways, onto important stuff. First Movement I was studying "classical" and "romantic" forms and influences at the time (this is four years ago, mind you), and I happened across a skeleton layout of the "Sonata-Allegro Form" for the first time ever. At that point in my life, due to some of my own personal reasons, anything that presented any kind of definitive structure was fascinating and reassuring to me. So I pursued writing a piece in that structure, and doing research into that, and of course came to find out that the Sonata-Allegro form was used, as we all know, almost always in the first movements of Symphonies. As such, for the first time in my life, I had the idea to write a Symphony. ...For string orchestra. Yes, you may shoot me now. I didn't feel comfortable attempting something for full Orchestra at the time. So far, I've said that this piece is in Sonata-Allegro form and it's for a String Orchestra. It was written in the vain hopes of sounding like the opening to a Classical Symphony... and I still don't honestly know if I ever got close to that. At all. I just... can't judge my own music. It pulls in a grand total of nine minutes and fourteen seconds length; it's the longest piece I've ever written. It's also, I think, the truest to one particular form I've ever succeeded in being (though that's not saying much). And it's one of the few pieces of mine that had a development section that... could ALMOST be called a development section. So in many ways, it is actually a piece just crammed full of my crowning achievements. So said I wrote it when I was 15 and can't surpass it now, lulz. General Notes. At any rate. I should note that this has officially been placed on my growing list of pieces to be revised one day (starting AFTER February, when I won't have to worry about these bloody auditions anymore). My revisions include simply... loosening it up a bit. It still feels a bit stiff to me, like it could use some more in the development section than what little I've done, etcetera. I will also be scoring it out for a full orchestra (not sure if I'm gonna go for a classical-orchestra setting or something a bit more recent and of larger proportions; suggestions will be taken to heart). I will also be providing a score here as soon as possible; I simply don't have the time at the moment to fight my IDIOTIC computers to try and create one, before I go to work. More on that this evening and tomorrow evening. I will also be posting the other two movements that have been written... though I'm not at ALL proud of them. I am going to post them simply because I want them to be public knowledge for comparison with the revisions which are to come. And I'm going to write the finale to this. One day. To those of you who've actually read this whole diatribe, please, do me one final favor. I have a college audition in composition coming up. I have been writing music fervently over the last couple months, and if I needed, I could easily have three brand-new pieces ready to go for it. Brand-new being, also, evidence of all my rantings about moving into a modern-era style of composition. I know, I've only ever posted classical-romantic stuff, but I SWEAR, the pieces I've got going now are modernistic and I'm so comfortable with them it's scary; you'll see them later. But an idea occurred to me. I could present this movement from the Gannet, and then a more recent piece, and then the more technical of the three that I'm writing now. Show how I've grown over the years (and that I can adhere to form... I hope). Any thoughts and opinions would be appreciated. Like I said, I'm really bad at judging my own music, so I don't have any idea if this would be worth the time. Thanks, everyone... the Mp3 file attached should work for most of you, and I'll do my level best to get a score going before the morrow. The other two movements will follow, as well. ~Dallas Mp3: 01 Track 1.wma - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

Thank you very much for the responses, both of you. I should go ahead and say that, after getting some feedback from QcCowboy, I have noticed a few things that I could've done better on... and finally realized a few things that were bothering me to begin with! So there will be a revision of this shortly. And perhaps a GPO-enhanced recording, who knows. >.> Bolanos, yes, the pentatonia isn't for everyone. I'm not really sure where you're coming from with the Texarcana stuff, or the Copland, because I have like, no exposure to either. But! I'm going to take them as compliments. :D Thanks again, you guys. ~Dallas