EclecticPhilosopher

Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C sharp Minor is very intense. And difficult. And insanely cool sounding. Ah, the cruel paradoxes of life. :blush:

No, I know what a mordant is. What I'm talking about is a simple plus sign. + This is new to me, too, and I thought I knew theory! :P Oh well. You learn about something new every day...

In this piece of organ music that I'm trying to learn (Joseph est Bien Marie, by Balbastre), there are many places where a plus sign (+) is above a note. My teacher was playing the piece to demonstrate it for me, and I know it's some kind of trill. Does anybody know anything more specific, or an online resource that could clarify this for me? Thanks. Fuz

*not bumping not bumping not bumping* Looky looky! Prelude made it on the charts as #33 out of 1,669 songs! *happiness* http://www.soundclick.com/genres/chartsSub...p;currentpage=1

I'd like to be a competitor... and yes, please don't make the deadline soon! (Deadline is such a gloomy and pessimistic word...)

Thanks for reviewing, Nico- I really appreciate it. That was fast! :w00t: About endings... I hate them. I hate them all. They're so hard to do right, but when done in a mediocre manner, they wreck the song. And yes, you did a very good job reviewing. Again, thanks.

The Dakota War of 1862 is a suite I wrote over a period of several months. I posted it here a while ago in the Finale format, but became uncomfortable with the possibility that someone might steal it. But now that I've discovered Soundclick, all's right with the world. ;) Thanks for stopping by, listening, and giving a detailed review! :) The first movement, wisely titled 'Prelude'. http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.c...;songID=4319793 The second movement, 'Reservations'. http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.c...;songID=4319802 The third movement, 'Attack on Fort Ridgely'. http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.c...;songID=4319810 The fourth movement, 'Surrender at Camp Release'. http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.c...;songID=4319821 The fifth movement, 'Hanging at Mankato'. http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.c...;songID=4319824

That's verrrrry interesting...

I was actually being sarcastic about it taking you a whole day... ;) It usually takes me a week or more to create a composition I'm comfortable enough with to post it here.

*gasp* It took you a whole day??? :D It's nice, if a bit corny... (a bit... ;)) sounds like a nice day on the beach, or some other fluffy and nice thing... >_< ... :) The ending is sudden, but not dissatisfying. No complaints here, except that it's a bit too happy, perky, simple and repetitive. But then, I'm biased in favor of a minor key. Good job! Fuz

I think I can help with what's musically wrong with this piece... The drums work out well, except for the cymbals... it often feels that the cymbal player doesn't quite understand the tempo or time signature, and has given up on their quest to rejoin the rest of the group, and is randomly adding cymbal clashes to the mix. Except for the part that plays the first time at :39ish. That's done very well. The part from :01 to :16 or so is extremely disconcerting, because it is so random-sounding and has no relation to the time signature, and the instruments have no relation to one another. At :17ish, when the (excellent) theme is introduced, it starts to pull together, but never quite reaches 'this is the final, worked-on version that I don't cringe listening to' stage. My little sister was listening to this as I played it over and over again, and she made the remark that the beginning 'sounds like Holst', referring to his work, "The Planets". I think she's quite right. I just normally go for a more harmonious sound- not so edgy. Anyways- I like it, except for the very beginning. Good work... and next time, add a measure or two of silence to the beginning and ending of your piece for the audio recording- they get cut off by some players. :D Fuz

Hi... welcome to YC, Seb! (I felt that I had to create a new nickname for you, following in Hillary and Marius' footsteps :D ) After reading all of the mildly off-topic posts, I felt compelled to post a (sort of) detailed review of your piece. I like the main themes in the song- they come off like you intended them to: simple and pure. I can definitely hear the influence of Mozart and Bach in this piece. At times, it feels like I'm listening to one of their pieces and not one of yours, but hey! that's not all bad. At measure 120, the minor feel you introduce is good, and the transition back to a major feel is well done. Measure 127 feels like 6/8- I like it. At 134, the reprise of earlier themes begins to close off the song well. Measures 161 and 162 are boring, in the way that absolutely nothing happens for two measures- the notes are beautiful, but, overall, they're too long. Something should be moving (in the bass you could have half notes). The ending is nice, but ending in a new chord is odd. This is a very well done piece. I enjoyed listening to it. Fuz

I like how you use the same theme and contrast it with itself, flipping it inside out and upside down and so on. I really like the part that starts at measure 25, with all the accidentals and the more minor feel to it. This piece is cool... and you made the pedal part very easy, that's a plus. :happy: :ninja: It sortof feels like it should be played while one of those silent melodramatic films was being shown... it has that kind of feel to it. I don't think it would work for a church service, unless it was a celebration Sunday. Then it would work quite well. This is the first piece for organ I've seen on here, and I was impressed by it.

It would be helpful if you would post what you have already... :happy:

Hi! I'm not familiar with Bill Brown's works, so I can't critique you on that, but... I like it. I think it's well done. I especially like the part where all the instruments come into play at 1:00. The violin part in the background works very well with the main melody (which is well done, by the way). All the 'backup' instruments enhance and improve this piece a lot. Nice job with all the percussion, by the way. I don't know what your image of a cool spy is, but mine did not jive with this piece. For me, personally, this sounded like more of a 'quest' thing. Have you seen the movie National Treasure? This piece really sounded (not like any piece actually in the movie) like it belonged in that movie. I would bring in more of a countermelody in another section to extend the song, because as good as the original string 'main melody' sounds here, it sounds like it's perpetually leading up to something- like the introduction of another melody imposed over it...? And the 'perpetual-leading-upness' is what makes it sound like it's from a movie. Very good job! :happy: