Nothing Gold Can Stay (my first piece, sorta)

In a moment of frenzied improvisation, this piece came together in about three hours. It's only an extremely rough sketch (I'm not even sure what the key signature is half the time), but I just wanted to know if it has promise. Also, any advice on how to structure a larger work would be appreciated. I really have no idea what I'm doing. I need help! :)

Nothing Gold Can Stay.pdf

Nothing Gold Can Stay.midi

Hi there. This is a good start and makes sense. My first suggestion is to add more staves to split the parts up depending on how you're going to voice this. Then thicken the texture by adding lower octaves in the bass and color notes (ninths, elevenths, fourths) in the tenor. That would be my frist thing. Oh, also find the enharmonic names and ways the structure the chords. That way they stay the same just how they look (flats versus sharps) changes. Hope this helped.

I think it is a very nice piece. However like steffen said. A chours member would NEVER read that kind of score. You need to use 4 staves, one for Soprano, one for Alto, one for tenor and one for Bass. This now creates the beautiful task of voicing your chords!! Thats a fun game! I would love to hear this in a choral score becuase it will change the sound a lot.

Good Start!!!

Thanks for the comments! I've been in choir for 1 1/2 years now, so I know what a nightmare this would be to read. Once again, this is a VERY rough sketch. I know that there is currently no division of voices for most of the piece (and what there is is too much in one clef or the other), and the key signature is definitely NOT C Major/A minor. I just wanted to see if it has promise. The idea with this was to get it out of my head and onto the paper as fast as possible, as I was terrified that I would forget a key chord or phrase. I don't like using Finale for this, as if I can hear it, I tend to match my song to Finale rather than the other way around. The reason that I'm posting it in this early stage is that I have absolutely no experience with composing so far, and just want some general advice on how to go about this.

Edit: Wow, I just noticed the lovely Incomplete Works forum. Could some mod move this for me please?

EPIC BUMP! 600 damage to all enemies!

Unbelievably, I actually finished this piece after having it lying around for nine months...it's finished, except for maybe a few timing issues. Yes, I know that the MIDI is very poorly rendered, but it should give an idea of how the piece should go. Any criticism is welcome, but if there is a problem, please don't tell me HOW to fix it, as I want to figure that out for myself. Just point it out and I'll struggle along

A few newbie questions:

• [*]How do I go about copyrighting my work? Does just sticking "

NGCS Score.mid

NGCS Score.pdf

• [*]How do I go about copyrighting my work? Does just sticking "

Thanks for the advice! I know that people aren't likely to steal my work, but since it's my first piece, I reserve the right to be unreasonably overprotective of it. Not that I don't still want criticism. *hint, hint*

And yes, I know that the Whitacre influence is pretty blatant, but that's just hot it turned out. We write what we want to hear, and I just happen to really like Whitacre's stuff.

Made a few slight modifications to fix some flow issues. I'm not too skilled with Lilypond, so a few things will look funny. Any advice as the piece itself? Likes? Dislikes?

NGCS Score.mid

NGCS Score.pdf

Fixed some voice leading issues, changed a few notes here and there. I'm becoming resigned to the fact that one usually has to bump one's piece several times before getting a response. Any remarks? Help? Comments?

Fixed more voice leading issues, parallel 5ths/octaves.

NGCS Score.mid

NGCS Score.pdf

Hi, this is my first listening of your piece, I found some "technical faults" but I don't know if this is the kind of criticism you're after.

There are parallel 5ths and 8ves in bar 15. A good tip is to use your ears as well as your eyes when checking for consecutives. To me, that bar sounds obvsiouly 'wrong', or at least, sounds obviously like modern music.

Also, the first chord of bar 16 is in second inversion. In traditional music terms, you only use the second inversion in very specific examples since the interval of a fourth between the bass and an upper voice is considered a dissonance.

I thought the setting of the text was very good! It brought out the feeling of the words.

Again, sorry if this is not the kind of crits you were looking for.

Thanks! Any criticism at all is welcome.

Actually, looking back, I changed a lot of stuff because it was theoretically the correct thing to do, but I'm not happy with it. The parallel 5ths were there because those notes needed to be there, in the alto section. It comes down to this, I guess: Do I go with what I think will sound good, ignoring all the horrifically egregious mistakes, going only by feel, or do I ignore what I feel the note HAS to be, in exchange for a bullet-proof piece? I know my asking for criticism is a really dumb idea if I don't change stuff just because I feel differently. Hmm.

Now that I look at it, the parallelism in m. 15 is pretty obvious, and sounds quite static. I'm not quite sure what to do with that, because I need to maintain the symmetry between that measure and the first measure of the song. The bass line in m. 16 is probably going to stay, as the descending line is textually important.

Actually, looking back, I changed a lot of stuff because it was theoretically the correct thing to do, but I'm not happy with it.

In that case go right ahead. I only offer that kind of criticism to help your piece fit better into the classical idiom. But if that's not the aim, then no worries. It's not as if consecutives or second inversions are objectively wrong.

Do I go with what I think will sound good, ignoring all the horrifically egregious mistakes, going only by feel, or do I ignore what I feel the note HAS to be, in exchange for a bullet-proof piece?

Doing something purely to stop someone like me pointing out consec. 5th is not the way to do it. Doing what sounds good is definitely the way to go. It's just that so often this coincides with following the rules, if you want to compose in that idiom. To me, the consec. movement in bar 15 made it sound like a pop track. Which is fine, but it felt out of keeping with the classical feel of the rest of the piece.

Now that I look at it, the parallelism in m. 15 is pretty obvious, and sounds quite static. I'm not quite sure what to do with that, because I need to maintain the symmetry between that measure and the first measure of the song.

Welcome to composing! These are the problems we all face.

EDIT: Also, where are the words from, may I ask?

The words make up a poem written by Robert Frost

In that case go right ahead. I only offer that kind of criticism to help your piece fit better into the classical idiom. But if that's not the aim, then no worries. It's not as if consecutives or second inversions are objectively wrong.

Oh, I understand. It is meant to be classical, but I just feel that some things simply need to be, in the world of this piece. I'm sure you know the feeling.

Doing something purely to stop someone like me pointing out consec. 5th is not the way to do it. Doing what sounds good is definitely the way to go. It's just that so often this coincides with following the rules, if you want to compose in that idiom.

I don't do it to stop people from pointing it out. I change stuff because, I, as a new composer, desperately want solid ideas for what's "right" and what's "wrong", and, finding none, I turn to what rules I do know to govern the piece, which is probably definitely a bad idea. I'm usually pretty good at trusting my ear, but sometimes I let the theory get in the way of the music. Though I know that the theory is very important as well.

To me, the consec. movement in bar 15 made it sound like a pop track. Which is fine, but it felt out of keeping with the classical feel of the rest of the piece.

That's one part of the piece that I do feel needs to be changed.

Welcome to composing! These are the problems we all face.

Thanks!

EDIT: Also, where are the words from, may I ask?

A Robert Frost poem.