cjdarnieder

The last piece I wrote before I discovered the wonderful Garritan Personal Orchestra. The piece begun as a violin sonata, and the first movement was initially a joke piece, something that I never really considered until I listened to it a few more times. The first movement is done in a sort of tableau style rather than typical sonata form. When I was writing the second movement, for whatever reason I was thinking of some sort of slow moving space object. The last movement is lots of fun and really tests the players ability to use the instrument to its full potential. Conceptually, there's a bit of disconnect between the movements, but nonetheless I think it's a challenging and fun addition to the oboe repertoire. Op. 5-Sonata for Oboe-III. Allegro con brio

The first movement of my string quartet. An oldie, but a goodie. Op. 8-String Quartet No. 1-Allegro con anima

I was listening to way too much Chopin one day and thought, "Huh. Why don't I write a fun waltz like that?" Originally for solo piano, but after listening to it over and over again, I figured it could use some extra voicing. Not at all a serious piece. In fact, I believe that I wrote this to contrast all the serious work I had been doing. A very classical and Chopin-like waltz, but then...well...Chopin gets angry. Or something. And then he...gets over it? Well, regardless, it was tons of fun to write! Valse-Scherzo for Clarinet, Bassoon, and Piano

Holy ****... Awesome. Thanks. I needed to see this after the day I had. :)

@Serge: Alexander McQueen is a fashion designer, not a musician. Also, I do think that elegies and homage pieces do not have to be taken in such a literal manner. The idea was to write a piece that celebrated his work. McQueen's work was very intellectual, so rather than honoring his passing with a somber and overly-expressive passage, the piece reflects his artistic aesthetic. Not only that, but I do believe the piece is expressive, the ending in particular, just maybe not in the most traditional way. Just to clarify. :) Thanks for your compliments! @jaime: The work is not MIDI, the sampling is with Finale 2009's GPO. Polystylistic is sort of the way I work; I'm interested in writing pieces that have multiple dimensions in that sense that can surprise the listener. Glad to hear you found it interesting. Thanks both for your comments. :)

Excellent. Here's the submission. Op. 19-For Alexander McQueen-Trio for English horn, Violin, and Viola

This piece is my entry for the February 2010 YC Forum competition.For Alexander McQueen-Trio for English horn, Violin, and ViolaSometimes inspiration comes from the most tragic places.This piece was written for the late designer Alexander McQueen, a designer whose art has truly been influential to me. Whether you abhor his work or admire it, it is art that is to be respected. Rest in peace. For Alexander McQueen-Trio for English horn, Violin, and Viola

I have this problem quite often. Yeah, it's annoying. And yeah, there's a way around it, but it's still pretty annoying. If you go to Playback Settings, choose Playback/Record Options... in the lower right corner. There should be a drop down that says Dynamics and Markings. If it's selected as Chase from First Measure, set it to either Reset or Use Current Settings. This is for PC only. No clue what a Mac Finale interface even looks like. This should fix the crashing, however, this is the perfect example of this still sucking. You write arco for a violin in measure 46, and in measure 78, the violin is now pizzicato. Play back from measure 52? Pizzicato. Why? I can only speculate that since you're using the current settings, it performs the HP that was most recently submitted. How annoying indeed. But at least it won't crash. And to me, that's the biggest problem. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the comments. While I'm starting to open up the idea of posting PDFs of my music to the site, oddly enough I've misplaced the original copy of this piece...so I'm currently in the process of rewriting it from ear. A process which is...well...not fun in the slightest. :) Haven't heard the Scaramouche, but I think I'll mozy on over to YT and see if I can find it. As far as the dissonance goes, I have a tendency in my writing to weave in and out of consonance and dissonance at will. For me, it's exciting to write, and even more exciting to hear. In this particular piece, the middle section (the dissonant one) is depicting a child in a dream-like land (a la "Where the Wild Things Are, if you will). Slightly mischievous, like when things go "bump in the night." Okay, the monster references are pretty lame, but anyway, that's the idea. I wanted to capture that. Dunno. *shrugs* PS. I promise there was a Milhaud influence. Not might be. There IS. Promise. ;)

I always feel like the less instruments you use in a piece, the more you have to manipulate the ones you have to make everything sound full and interesting. A big part of that is expanding the instruments across their range, using any kind of variation possible (articulation, tempo, rhythm, you name it), expressions to change tone color (not like we could hear it through MIDI now, could we? :hmmm: ). I was once asked to write a piece for solo flute only using five notes. It sucked. BUT-because I had less material to work with, the more I had to use what I had to make it interesting. I think that's something really important to think about with smaller chamber pieces like this. Make sense? Hope to hear another piece from you soon.

I think you just made me like minimalism. And 8 horns? This piece has cool written all over it. Well-done; would love to hear this live. Interesting and fresh!

It's my favorite piece of classical music ever. I'm getting the opening bassoon solo tattooed down my back. It's the piece that made me want to be a composer. That answer your question? ;)

Well, wrong notes can be pretty annoying. I was watching a YouTube video of Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe, and while the orchestra was technically phenomenal (the clarinets left my head spinning), there was almost no emotion. There was no story, no feeling...Ravel might be a brilliant orchestrator, but that can only go so far. It's up to the performer to add the human quality to the music. Without that, pretty much every performance sucks.

Where exactly would you like us to post these? I have a .PDF and .MP3 ready to submit anytime. Can I just post them on my page and then link it in this thread?

Well, I had so much fun writing for strings, I decided to do it again! I wrote the first movement after listening to a Darius Milhaud piece for the first time, and it had a very big influence on the piece. My second movement has a story about a young boy who has alcoholic parents who escapes into his mind to keep his realities at bay, but he ends up realizing that you can only do that for so long. The third movement is a humoresque done with all pizzicato. The final movement is full of broad musical strokes and constant movement. I wanted to create something that had a lot space for the audience and the players to crawl into while they were listening. String Quartet No. 1-II. Adagio ma non troppo