J. Kranz

Well, let me say that I was very, ermm, sceptical (sp?) when I downloaded your piece. I mean, no offense, your title made me think this was going to be a waste of my time. I had the TV on, and I was watching south park, the download finished, and started to play. I heard this music, and I literally said to myself, what the hell? very nice, I must admit. My music player doesn't let me see the time for some reason (I'll figure it out later) so, my comments are going to be a little generic. 1) The beginning was nice, but felt a little empty, like if you saw the bunny on the open fields and you were in your house while it was raining out. It did develope very nicely however 2) I agree on you when it comes to percussion, it gives the piece a different feel, yet its not a bad, nor good, feel.........just a feel 3) I love the pizzicato and piano, nice combination, especially when the flutes come in 4) overall, nice piece. As with every piece, it could use a touch up or two, but I mostly like it how it is good job, I enjoyed listening to it (and your title)

Tchaikovsky is definetly my number one, he's brilliant, expressive, intricate....words can't describe him Mahler is definetly on my top 5, along with Bach, Beethoven and some other people.

I re-listened to your piece I'm going to post some comments up - why don't you try to put an insturment an octave above? I think it would be a little more....I'm not sure, but, I'm not sure what I'm talking about, I just think it might sound a little something extra that might make the piece even more nice - measure 50-55, you show this admazing part with the upper section, yet it suddenly dies. I think you could do a little more with this, maybe state a little bit of your 'coming-out-of-the-darkness-and-into-the-light' theme and then when you finally do state the (too long of a name for a theme) theme, maybe develope it a little? Maybe this doesn't make sense, (I have a hard time of expressing what I think with words) but hopefully it does (basically, darkness, then you see a little light (measures 50-55 and on) then back into darkness, then you see the light completely where you let your developed theme out that you stated in 50-55 or something, you sort of do this, but i think you could do this more) - measure 89-90 sounds kind of....beautiful (simply put) - measure 86, the B (c flat, same thing) seems to be a little misplaced, and then as a result, it throws off the whole timing of the rest of the chords until measure 92. This makes it sound like there's a new cord every 8th note, which makes it very ackward. - everything else sounds amdazing, I'll post more comments later when I have time

Yea, I double checked, its a B flat that I was thinking about (I was listening to it BEFORE i got MidiNotate Player, and for all those who DON'T have it, I suggest getting it, it's very helpful for people who don't have perfect pitch (me)) (I only have a good ear when it goes to violin)

haha, I got Sibelius 4 from a friend. He gave it to me on a burned CD, but hey, I dont ask questions unless I need too :whistling: as for the money, I know what it feels like to be broke. And, just as a suggestion, comment on other peoples' pieces, they'll be more likely inclined to comment back and give you hints ect. ect. and don't worry about me losing a page, I was bored that night, and noticed noone left feadback on your piece, so hey the pleasure was mine in listening to it though. Its definetly got potential

yea, I've begun to write outlines to my pieces since I've gotten nowhere in them. I just wanted to see if anyone else had any other ideas, or other ways they write down their outlines.

So, I was typing up an outline that was due tomorrow for an english paper. I got really bored with it (English is boring, i don't like it, and I'm bad at it) and then thought I would compose some. Thinking about it, I was was wondering if anybody actually writes an outline with words on what the piece wants to represent, and how they're going to do it. Example: shokativch (sp? well, I actually know its wrong) has admazing stories behind his music. In his 3rd quartet, it is a story of fashism (sp?) and its very....moving. Does anyone actually write out what they are going to do / say in a piece? I know a lot of people just have in the back of their mind where they want to go, but does anyone write it down?

is there any chance you can post the score? I'd love to see it if you don't mind.

Yes, I am. I just said 4 minutes because it was the first number I saw, and was too lazy to type out 4 minutes and 32 seconds :whistling:

well, I guess your in dire need of comments since you wrote yourself a huge list of comments commenting your own work, give me a minute, 4 minutes to be precise, and I'll comment. AAH! 2 TIMES IN A ROW, I HAD ABOUT A PAGE OF COMMENTS THAT I HAD TYPED UP AFTER I LISTENED TO THE PIECE MANY TIMES, AND I CLOSED MY BROWSER RIGHT BEFORE I WAS GOING TO POST. IT THEN DELETED MY COMMENT, GURR. I'm going to keep these comments short and sweet. WHAT I LIKE: 1) The introduction with the bass's 2) the upper strings when they play above the Bass 3) the overall building upon the bass's COMMENTS: 1) keep the notes in the beginning short and sweet, they tend to sort of drag on. This is the case especially at minute one when the bass is playing an f sharp? (I think, my ear doesn't tend to go down that low) 2) keep building upon what you already have, and every now and then, I'd throw in a nice sweet section here and there. (Personally, that's what I would do. Don't think this piece wont be good if you don't do it.) SUGGESTIONS: 1) dynamics dynamics DYNAMICS, to keep it from feeling boring, add a cresendo in here or there (or everywhere). This is a very nice piece, and I like it, but make sure you are expressive with your themes, otherwise it could sound boring to the audience 2) keep building, you already have a nice foundation to really do anything with the music from here on out. 3) PM me when your done with this piece so I can listen to the full piece, I'd love to hear it when your done good luck to you on finishing this piece, and good luck to me on not closing my browser.

Ermmm, I play violin, and throughout my experience, the long notes are the hardest. To find the EXACT percise emotion that you want to give out, and using the correct type of bowing and virbrato is very hard. To play the violin for sound is easy, just requires practice, to play the violin for music, it requires skill. I LOVE slow songs, for this pure reason, slow songs provide me an opportunity to express music. the long notes in the beginning are fantastic, and incredibly admazing. Such simplicity, yet so deep.

Yea, I agree, it sounds like John Williams, and Hans Zimmer wrote this together. This piece could DEFINETLY be in a movie. I LOVE the beginning though, I thought this was an admazing use of horns. It reminds me of a piece, I'm not particularly sure where I've heard it from. I really like the cresendos in the beginning of the piece, they add a lot to the total atmosphere I think you are trying to accomplish. Again however, try to come up with your own style. The problem with this is that while this ultimatley be your style without someones outside influence, John Williams has already laid his name to this style, therefore when you compose with this style, people will automatically assume its John Willaims, or a rip-off of him. I hope this makes sense without being offensive.

yea, i sort of am jealous of Mozart. How could you not? All his music is nice, but when it comes to the requiems, he is drop dead admazing. I have all his requiems on my ipod, and listen to them quite frequently. When it comes to full orchestras, I definetly like mahler and some others

actually, even though it will be a complete pain in the donkey, I'm thinking of doing that since my budget isn't that great, and I guess improving my ear isn't the worst thing that could happen. Thanks for the help though.

haha, I play violin and viola and I've played in....ooh...6 orchestras. Everyone of them has the problem of either not having enough violas, or not playing loud enough. also, now that I've come back to sort of review my comments, I think it would actually be appropriate for the crescendo to be taken out. 1st violin sits closest to the audience, and they usually are the biggest section, with the best people in the orchestra (again, this is usually), therefore, they will almost always play more loud. Its really a personal choice on that cresendo. just one more comment, in general, I've found that when you play an orchestra piece, it helps a lot more when the lower parts are more loud than the higher parts, so I think you have it right to keep them louder. Just make sure they're not too loud. I hope your orchestra plays this piece well, its a nice piece.

I want sibelius to notate. I can record what I play already. So, all i need is a pickup to my violin, then a MIDI device. Then i plug my violins pickup to the MIDI device, then the MIDI device to my computer? sounds simple enough thanks for the help, if anyone knows of any cheap pickups/MIDI devices, let me know. thanks

I really enjoyed this piece, very nice theme, and you backed it up with the celli and bass very well. here comes my constructive critisism, the only thing i didn't get was at measure 9, the 1st violins dont have a cresendo, while everyone else does. This makes the 1st violin sort of difficult to listen to when the lower strings are loud. I'd make a cresendo for the 1st violins too. overall, very nice piece. Also, this is more of something that I've found as a string player. In measure 63 when the violas are playing with the 2nd's, 90% of the time in orchestras, viola's are too weak. I'd suggest making the viola part atleast one dynamic level up, so when you play this with a real orchestra, and the violas are too soft, it will still sound strong.

I also liked the beginning of this piece, very calm and appeasing (basically, everyone agrees on that) The one thing that I didn't necessarily like, (however, this is more of a personal taste) was that you set yourself up for a really big section of this song, like when the hero slays the dragon or somthing. However, the piece just ended, it was like the hero was runnin through the tall grass to save someones life, and while he was runnin to the man, he was shot in the head and its over. I really like this piece, not too much repetition, and the timbre in this piece is nice, I'd also suggest throwing in some more dynamics, it felt all metzoforte, and didn't change from there overall, great piece, I'll be looking for more of your pieces.

thanks, however im more specifically asking, can I use this stuff with sibelius? I understand that I'd need some equipment, but is it physically possible for sibelius to record what I play on my violin?

I often spend much of my time composing violin solos (one day, i'll release them to the public, but for now, my stash is trash, therefore, its not exactly worth sharing) But i'm getting ideas all the time, and i love to sit down and just play whatever comes into my mind. I was wondering if it was possible, given, i would need to get a pickup, and then a midi device (except I dont know which one), but how would i set this up so sibelius would record what i play? Also, when i say 'record what i play', I mean in terms of it writes down what I play in music, not just records it so I can hear it later. Thanks for all your help. EDIT: I know this is possible for piano, but too bad i don't know piano, therefore, I'm limited to violin. Also, how would intonation affect this? I'd assume I wouldn't be able to play virbrato.

dont worry, i can't. im too bad at english, I just don't get it, and its hard.

no, not with composing, i like music, therefore me sitting at my desk with my laptop on the desk, and my violin case opened with my violin tuned up, bow rosined and writing a violin solo doens't bother me studying for chemistry honors, THAT bothers me my english teacher in 5th grade put a lot on a spelling test, almost everyone spelt it wrong, and for homework, she made us write it 100 times with perfect penminship, my parents were mad at my teacher, but i havn't mispelled it wrong so far :D:)

sounds like you have a classic case of white boy syndrom i go to a school with a lot of asians, and whenever me and my friend say to eachother that we are doin homework, or studying but not really doing it, we call it white boy syndrom since all the asians study a lot (sorry if i offend anyone) to me, u just need some self-discipline, or, do what i do every now and then 1) force urself to write a piece, only if its 50 measures long, in one sitting 2) write whatever comes to mind, and just keep going, dont look back, and dont edit, i've come up with some pretty interesting pieces that way

speaking of colleges, im coming to the age where im starting to think of it (sophmore) and i have about a 3.8 culmalative gpa (taking out p.e. which colleges dont count, since i get C's in them for being tardy, haha) and i am takin some honors and ap's the colleges i've been thinkin about were USC, UCLA, UC Berkley (#1 public univ. in the country) and julliard (haha, yea, like IM gonna get in) UC Berkley has an ok/not the best places to get ur pieces performed, but i live 20 minutes out of berkley (im talkin about berkley california, right outside of san francisco) and i know a lot of people who would play my pieces, USC, and UCLA (more of USC) i've heard admazing things about their music programs, i have classic music connections down there, so there would be a chance of my stuff getting performed USC would to me, seem like a place where grads dominate, not sure though