Ananth Balijepalli

Thanks Chris, Well as I said earlier, the goal of the first movement was to take music of the fifth and mesh it with music of the fourth, which I guess I was able to do but just not to your and Tyler's tastes. But I AM a piano player haha... I picked up violin only recently. Thank you though! I really do think the 2nd and 3rd movements are the best that I've written, so it's good to know someone else can see why. And yes, it was a lot more of the harmony choices that I would be making, thanks for recognizing this (and you of all people would be able to recognize my style of writing). As for the 3rd movement.. a lot of it was written by feel... and I just felt like the message of this sonata was not to be overly excited about anything really... just warm and jaunty I guess. So I don't think there would have been adequate resolution had I ended the 3rd on the fast material nor on the texture corresponding to it. I think it was better to end on texture more suited to the other 2 movements. Thanks again!

Hi, No score? Well, that's fine. Guitar works are very hard to come by, but this one is quite nice. It's not too hard either. The harmony is very well done, as is expected from you. However, I really would have liked more contrast in the B section. Still, it's a short work so it's not that big of deal. I enjoyed it :)

Hi, There is a lot of potential for marimba/vibraphone, but I do not think you were able to fully exploit it. The texture is one dimensional through 90% of the piece. The marimba is in thirds with the vibraphone nearly all the time. The harmony was very simple too (which can work in a neoclassical sense) but there was not much harmonic development. There were no extended techniques either, which could have added a great sound to the music. The rhythmic variation and thematicism were clear, though, so good job on that. Keep writing!

Update - I have added mp3's of each movement to YC's upload system, so everyone should be able to access them. Scores, unfortunately, still have to be taken care of by a 3rd party upload site, so I have used box.net this time because it has less ads. Enjoy.

Yeah, I can't add movements to a piece that I posted. It links me to the home page when I click the "edit movements" button.

I still cannot upload new multi-movement music.

Hi, I would suggest posting the entire suite as one work in order to garner more views. Also, the font used for the score is interesting... Any particular reason for the choice? As for the music, contrapunctally, it seems pretty solid. I didn't really have the time to go through each note and make sure the counterpoint was correct, but it seemed to be from a brief glance through the score. Given the stylistic limitations, I felt that you did a pretty good job keeping interest (the piece was not too long). However, the chromatic motion you wrote (A to Ab) in a couple sections of the work felt really out-of-character, so I would suggest looking at that and seeing if you really want to keep it like that or if you want to change it. Rhythmically, I think you could have done a lot bit more, especially since renaissance music is very rhythmically based, even from folk origins. The tambor could have really accented this, but it was mostly playing on beat through the piece. Finally, the ending was particularly nice, considering the style you were writing in. Keep writing!

Hi, First, let me say congratulations on attempting to write on a grand scale for a genre that is a standard in a composer's repertoire. There are a lot of issues with this piece which, if fixed, would have yielded a stronger piece and, I believe, more control over what you wanted to express. Structure - The structure is not very clear and at times seemed random, especially from 38 onwards til the return of your primary theme. The music that you have in that section is almost completely unrelated to the prior section in texture, harmony, rhythm, and melody. In addition, coherency within that section is limited. It is not clear what you were trying to express. Harmony - The harmony in this piece is probably the portion which requires the most work, in my opinion. Throughout a large portion of the piece, you moved between adjacent chords (F major to E diminished back to F major, for example) and it simply sounded wrong in this tonal, romanticesque context because the movement from one chord to an adjacent chord is one of the weakest progressions. In addition, you frequently wrote an interval between bass and soprano of a fourth or a tritone, which sounds really dissonant in this context. Finally, you didn't really modulate at all... which causes the listener to lose interest, especially when you don't move between textures. Idiomatic writing - Unfortunately, this piece was almost completely non-idiomatic for the instruments you were writing for. The violin writing was the only thing spared, it seems, although you didn't write anything special for it. The piano writing was the biggest offender... especially with block chords consisting of 80% of the writing. The piano can do other things, I swear. Throughout a lot of the piece, the cello and violin were in unison too, which is not very idiomatic of piano trios at all. I suggest you study piano trios of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Ravel, and Rachmaninoff to get an idea of the conversation that goes on in a piano trio. Nonetheless, I could see what you were trying to express and that is commendable in itself. Don't get down by my negative review... It's only to help you. Keep writing :)

No, no, don't get me wrong, I'm quite happy :) It's been quite some time since I've seen a real review on this site. And besides, most of what you have commented on are stylistic things. I'll respond in order of what you've brought up: Incongruity - I understand that it may sound a little unconvincing that I simply mold the more neoclassical and the more impressionist-like music together, but this is sort of the effect that I was going for... A sort of transition in my thought process. So no worries, perhaps I could have done it better and it doesn't play to you. Sonata - Well, I never said it was specifically sonata-allegro, did I... And yes, I am quite familiar with sonata form. Quite honestly, I wasn't trying to specifically copy the "romantic sonata". Instead, I was intentionally trying to reduce the tension of the second theme because to me, it seemed counterintuitive to write something meant to be serene while at a higher energy level, you know? I believe it helped me to express more of what I wanted to say to have moved to the subdominant. Now as for the resolution, I really did believe I had one! After the 2nd theme returns after the cadenza, there's a little lull before a full/lush return to the original theme, and this is where I intended for the climax to occur... the final tension is released at the end of the piece when the 2nd theme returns to the first theme, except the first theme is now written in a more impressionist style than a neoclassical style. Rhythm - I agree. I need to pay more attention to rhythm when I listen to music, I guess. Texture -Really? I hoped that I did enough to vary the texture, but given your background, I guess I should have done more. A lot of call and response was implemented, but not enough solo piano or contrapunctal piano, I agree. Please listen to the other 2 movements for that. In addition, given the idea of the movement, I felt like it wasn't so necessary to include all these violin techniques, but the other 2 movements are chalk full of them. Harmony - Thank you. Again, no worries, because it is more of stylistic things that you pointed out. It's not really a negative review at all. I made quite conscious choices and perhaps it wasn't the best for the piece? But I feel like I accomplished what I wanted to do with this movement. Thanks again :)

Hi, What you have here is a very wonderful piece. The orchestration throughout was really special. That being said, I feel like you could have used your middle voices more effectively. It sounds like you stuck to the general orchestration style of using middle voices as harmony placeholders in many parts of the piece. Some of the textures that you used were innovative, regardless. As for the form and structure, I feel like you did a spectacular job moving through ideas without ever losing track of the overall theme. I was able to pick up on the theme just on the first listen, which is very important to understanding where you are moving with material and the techniques you used. Congratulations on that. However, the piece remains in the same key throughout the majority of time... Eventually, a listener will grow tired of listening to the same ideas in the same key. You did dodge this for the most part through your orchestration. Mechanically, there were a lot of awkward spots between loud tuttis and lighter-texture sections. As a tutti ends, it seemed like you did not know how to gradually transition between loud and soft sections... Instead using a subito pp or subito mp many times. The piece, harmonically, was very reminiscent of the current wind ensemble literature, and I feel like you could have done a lot more to stray from that mold. At around measure 100 or so (that loud tutti section), I was impressed by the orchestration but the harmony was just too predictable... too film-music like (it's the predictability that needs improvement). Other than that, I really enjoyed the music. Keep writing :)

Violin Sonata in A major, Op. 3 I finally was able to upload vst recordings, but not scores. I keep getting an upload error 404. No clue what this means. This work was conceptualized in December of 2009 with work beginning in March of 2010. The basis of this sonata was to write a piece of music that was inspired by the surroundings at my university while paying respect to the composers that I listened to and admired at the time (Vaughan-Williams, Moeran, Debussy, Massenet). It is split into 3 movements, each with a different character I (10:14) - This movement, in loose-sonata form, illustrates two contrasting ideas: music based on the fifth vs. music based on the fourth. II (8:33) - In rondo form, this movement describes the beauty of the surroundings while including themes from celtic folk songs. III (7:10) - The finale was written to feel simultaneously strained and relaxed, while mixing the feel of french and british music around the turn of the 20th century. I hope you enjoy the listen :) I will try to get a good vst recording of the sonata as soon as possible. SCORES CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://www.box.net/shared/irnfv46phz http://www.youngcomposers.com/profile/music/Ananth%20Balijepalli/composition?entry=57139

Hello :) Well, this is not romantic at all, and I think you may have unwittingly written this in sonata form. You have a good ear for harmony and dissonance, as this piece shows. You also aren't afraid to move quickly between chords. However, this is also one of the weaknesses of the piece. At least from a romantic viewpoint, the harmony stems from the melody that you are highlighting. From an impressionist viewpoint, the harmony stems from a color or idea that you want to highlight. Through many sections, there is a franticness to the music, but the effect of the franticness is reduced by the fact that there is no direction. A tighter control of harmony would allow that franticness to build and put increased tension on the listener. As far as form goes, I have already said this is not a prelude and there are hints of it being sonata form. There are 2 distinct characters in the music and they are recombined and reviewed in the ending. It is very effective in this piece because I thought this was going to be in keeping with your piano sonata and I would never get to hear your ideas again... so it was very pleasantly surprising. However there wasn't much development of ideas. Everything was either presented or reviewed, which took away from the sense of direction. I'm not going to talk about the notation, since I believe it won't help you much at this point. Finally, I must say that your ideas really show in this piece and there's a lot that can be done with them. With further study of form and a better control of harmony, these ideas can develop into a strong piece. Happy writing :)

Second movement: I'm going to be frank. Because that's the only way that I can be honest. Please don't be offended, because I'm just doing my job. I wished you had breached more harmonic ground. This is quite simple harmonically and structurally... Perhaps because it feels to me to be more like suspended common-practice harmony than otherwise. Maybe this was your intention. The textures were relatively similar throughout the work and you rarely changed the range. The freshest section of the music came at measure 31, which I think is the measure you were trying to highlight, due to the sudden introduction of the cello's wonderful open C. For an expressivo movement, I thought it was an interesting choice to use the entire ensemble as one voice rather than vocal sections by individual instruments (which is what I would think would be the obvious choice). As far as development goes, there was no initial introduction of tension. The C major chord which you pose as a "resolution" isn't really a resolution if there's not tension in the first place. So I think this is why many do not see it as "fitting". If you had started tonally, say in F major and had gradually descended into atonality and then landed on a C major chord, I think that would be the ultimate release of tension as you have reached the most stable tonal region given the key. Not only that, but the tension caused by other factors like texture manipulation and rhythmic changes is basically non-existant due to the almost inexistance of these things. I like the ideas that you wanted to convey... it's just the execution that was slightly lacking. Keep up the good work!

A small part of a piece I'm writing: B minor 7th (B D F# A) -> D major, add 9 -> (D F# A E) -> E major, add 2 -> (E G# B F#) -> A major (E A C# E) -> F# minor 7th (F# A C# E) -> B minor 7 (B D F# A) At least.. I think this is what you're asking.

Hello, I'm so sorry it took this long... I've been so busy. I'm so sorry! :( Ok, so spring... I like the concept that you are implementing, but you seem to be forgetting one thing, and that's for breathing space! You should give the altos and sopranos a break otherwise you'll have weird cutting-out during a performance. As for the orchestration, it is really good I'd say. The voice ranges are perfect for the important lines to be brought out and the texture is varied enough for interest. I really liked the section where you included some chromatic harmony, and I kind of wished you brought that back out. Maybe a little bit to light for Spring's character as well? Just my take. Summer: Someone already pointed out the notation thing. Ok, the other thing I would say right off the bat is that your sopranos are out of their power/control range, so they could be covered up by the tenors and baritones that are in their best range. I don't like the mainly homophonic texture. You can always add an interesting alto/tenor line to spruce things up. I see what you're trying to do with the harmony here, but it just doesn't work for me because of how you treat the voices. However, the music around 16 displayed some good harmonic substance. Notation in Bar 26 of the altos is an issue. Autumn: It would get incredibly tiring to continually sing those off beat notes in the beginning in the alto and soprano, just letting you know. Again, I like the chromatic bass movement. Very interesting. At this point in the overall work, it's apparent that your voicing is altogether too dense too much of the time. Your sopranos very rarely go into a high range and your altos are in the depths a lot of the time... Something to work on for future writing. Winter: Ok, here's the variety haha. I think that this is your most inspired choral writing yet. The textures would sound lovely and the soprano in such a register would sound ethereal. I like how there isn't quite a tonal resolution when you return to the original material. Hahaha, the ending was nice, made me laugh. Overall, nothing was too deep, which was nice. A lot of the music as I pointed out was too dense, and you can work on that in the future. The poetry (that I think you wrote) is nice, and again not too deep and pensive, which is fine. An enjoyable listen. :)

Hey, I quite like the ideas that you've presented throughout this piece. The music that you give each instrument is never more than what it needs to be, and there is a very clear link between each poem. This allows for a lot of fluidity. However, I personally believe that the piece got a little monotone as time went on. A live performance obviously would change this. I liked the textural/timbral things you've done in particular. The texture of interaction between parts is varied adequately and would be really striking in a live performance. Especially with vocal music, any small change in interval is quite obvious (in a positive way) when put to good use. As for the vocal writing, it's really good, and I'd expect nothing less from you, given your previous works. It's difficult to match pitches when there are a lot of tritones (as in the first poem), but you know this. Any well-trained singer would overcome that. As for the non-vocal instruments, I think you've treated them fairly idiomatically. Your double-bass writing stands out because it is a lot more that harmonidifficult than what you would normally see for this instrument (and double bass players love this apparently) and effect you added with the gradual change to harmonic/full stop would come of great live. Congrats on finishing this work, though. It was a wonderful listen.

Hey haha ... second try. I loved the effects you put in at the beginning... they reminded me of the sea quite well. Now when your piano comes in, I think you did a good job of knowing where you wanted to go and slowly getting to that point. However, your harmony is really simple and restricts the amount of development that can occur (of course, for a short improvisation like this, the tonal distance you must travel to maintain interest is probably shorter). What I would suggest (and what I do before improvising) is practicing advanced harmony beforehand so that your fingers get used to the movement. With advanced harmony, you can explore much more colors and ideas, which will add more interest to the music. However, that being said, I like the fact that you restrained yourself melodically and harmonically because I see all too often that people go crazy with improvisations with no coherency or direction. As for thematic material, the fact that you have only close modulations and not very clear themes is good because this improvisation is short. Overall, not bad at all for an improvisation! A fun listen :)

Thanks terexyun and Chris! You can't realize how happy you made me when I read what you had wrote Chris... Because I don't think most people that have listened to this (even my violinist) made that connection. So for you to have done so is very satisfying for me. So to reply to your points... Fingering - I should include this on each movement of the sonata, as it is pretty important for other players (besides me) but it's tedious! Piano writing - Hmm... I suppose the reason why I write like this for the piano is because I'm not thinking polyphonically, which is incorrect... 3.) - Ah, the reason why I did this was because the previous section had a wide/thick texture, so I wanted to create a contrast. Final chord - It is pretty impossible to determine how long of a pause should happen in that rest in the midi... it sounds great in performance. 5.) I agree haha... My thirst for a strong melody restricted my harmony too much I guess. And the choice to go more conservative was also relating to number 3 in that the prior sections were very modal, so to bring about something fresh I would go more tonal. While performing it, I noticed that with the violin in the range that it is in, the piano was able to provide the simple textural backup that I intended. 6.) I will definitely work on that :) Thanks again, and if you do get a chance to see the third movement, you'll notice that I decided to make the harmony less tonal!

Hey. I don't know what it is with wind ensembles and "new-complexity" , but it seems that many composers think they go hand-in-hand. I like what you're doing with the chromaticism and the basis on the tritone. Some things I would say would be to make your "invididual" sections a tad longer. Meaning, while you can expand on this piece, I would say expand on it more in the solo sections and add background with the other instruments. For example, when the horn is playing its solo, have the oboe in the background (only because I love horn+oboe so much). Hmm... what else... Maybe don't make it as neo-classical as it's turning out to be? I mean... that fits in with my above point. Maybe more neo-romantic with more focus of variation of ideas instead of strict divisions by texture that make the form so easy to distinguish? I dunno. See, a large part of what I say is governed by the fact that everything I write (for some reason) must be greater than 8 minutes long (which is horrible; setting goals by time)... so I'd take my expansion comments with a grain of salt if I were you. Sorry I couldn't be of more help :/

Hello, Had to see what all the buzz was about. First of all, what did you compose this on? Did you go straight from your head to the computer? Or did you play it on the piano first? I ask this because this is for the most part unidiomatic for string quartet. For example, your violin 1 has the foreground for 98% of the music, which not only causes the listener to lose interest fast, but leaves nowhere to go for textural variation! Through most of the music, your cello is playing in the lower end of the staff, which is fine occasionally, but you have to realize that there is SO much that you are missing... Also going with what I said prior, your use of the cello is 98% background, which causes a loss of interest. Strings do not like playing in keys with flats. If you're going to have some professional musicians play this then fine, but lower-level college students and under will not be happy with the beginning of the "tonal instability" section (I'm not going to call it a development because this isn't a sonata) where you modulate to a key with Cb's and Fb's ... unnecessary notes... make that E mixolydian if you have to. As for the harmony in your piece, I will say that the harmony that you use speaks to me... sort of Ireland/Moeranish. A lot of augmented chords and seventh chords. However, please realize that this piece is not in Bb major. It actually starts in Eb Mixolydian and moves to Bb Blues. (Some would say that Bb blues is just a modification of Eb mixolydian). As for the structure of your piece, there is no need to have the repeat of the first section. You didn't really cover much musical variation, so the material is still fresh in the listener's head. Something that disturbs me is that it seems like some of your sections in the development have been copy/pasted... which is never a good idea for extended passages. I really did like the fact that each idea of yours is repeated enough in its original form to be clear in the listener's mind. But that's a problem in itself... there's very little variation in your ideas. One that was particularly refreshing was the sequencing in the developing with the cello's ostinato. Now... notation.... It needs a LOT of work. I'll go in measure order. Measure 1: You don't need the arco, and the violin 1 has unneccessary rest subdivision. Measure 2: Stops are not notated like that. Either get rid of the roll or put a grace note with the notes you want stopped. Measure 2: In the cello line, that triplet is notated incorrectly... Don't tie over the 2nd eigth note. If you want that rhythm, replace the 2nd eigth note with a quarter note. Measure 2: Your dynamics are colliding with the bar line Measure 2: There aren't any slurs indicating how you want the lines bowed. This is fine if you want everything to have a bow stroke. Measure 3: The violin 1 pattern is better notated eigth-eigth with the second eigth having a staccato marking. Measure 4: Beat 3: Same idea, use as few sixteenth rests as you can. Measure 5,6: Same Measure 6: You cannot "slur" over a rest on any instrument Measure 13: slur is too high, and collisions with dynamic markings. Measure 13: Beat 3: The rhythm you have written is confusing. Measure 15: You need a bracket with that triplet. I don't know which notes are triplet-ted You should get the picture... Oh wait.. Measure 56.. why is that an F double sharp? Just write a G, seeing as how that's how you wrote your viola chord. Measure 65 and 66 are ... very difficult to see what's going on. Hm. It's already been an hour on your piece and I need to get going now, so I'm sorry that I couldn't finish helping you. Overall, I really liked the harmony that you've used in this piece. However, the structure is weakened by lack of variation of any sort (except for rhythmic variation with the second theme you've presented) and the notation doesn't help at all. I would suggest studying some string quartet scores before writing your next one so that you get an idea of the different possible roles of each instrument in a musical conversation (if that's what you are intending to write) and you get an idea of how composers generally write for strings (and as a result, what string players are used to seeing). That, and I would challenge you to write a piece without using copy/paste or any form of repetition at all. Keep up the good work! :)

Thanks :) Yep, the second movement was already performed (me on piano) a few weeks ago, so everything is playable. The ending of the cadenza would take too much work to actually sit and chart out tempo-wise with the midi, so I just left it and I apologize that you found the beginning boring, but it's the most important part of the work as the rondo is based off that beginning :P Don't worry about listening to the other file... it's only 30 seconds.. and I've changed a lot of it by now. I'll probably upload an updated version a little later next week. Thanks again!

Hi, This is something I've been working on recently. Enjoy. new1-tanoto.mp3

Hello, This was pretty interesting, I suppose. I think the theme was developed adequately enough... you can't just "make" a theme into a sonata... since a sonata is a little bit higher of a concept and requires a lot of planning. Your notation is ghastly, though. I don't know how you inputted the notes or even if you are a musician, but the score is horrible. I would suggest removing the pedal line inbetween the staves when you have pedal and getting rid of collisions. Also, use the appropriate enharmonic equivalents when doing ascending and descending chromatic motion. Furthermore, your octaves are notated incorrectly/ugly. That's my two cents

Hello, No, quite frankly, it's not lifted from Chopin, and I suggest you quickly become acquainted with his works if you will continue to throw out statements like that, John. JimmyJuicin, you did a very nice job of simulating an early-early Mozart work throughout. I thought there was nice stylistic consistency and your thematic material was obvious. However, there was no development, no harmonic interest, nor any semblance of a thicker texture than one line. For a little diversion, this is not bad at all and you should be happy. For a bigger piece, though, I would suggest studying some Haydn scores or early Beethoven scores to get you to the next step :) Good luck!

Hello, Very nice work. I believe you used each of the instruments to full potential and you varied texture and thematic material often enough to create a very interesting journey through your music. The vst's certainly helped too. Please do post more