Classical Midi Connection

I'm looking for ways to increase my exposure as a composer. Among my plans along these lines is creating my own website (I've already registered my name as a domain) and building a decent profile here on YC, once I figure out how it's properly done; I'm not the tech guru I was in the early days of personal computing...I haven't been able to keep up with technology, so such things are difficult for me. I'm also not very good with graphic design.

One of the things I'm looking at is posting work on the Classical MIDI Connection (classicalmidiconnection.com). I know Mark Moya (bakhtiyar) posts there...has his own page, even.

Do any others here post or frequent there?

Do you recommend it?

How has your experience been with your exposure there, or lack of it? The site looks clean and well-managed and maintained.

Just curious. Thanks.

I was active on there from about 1995 to 1997. At that time, the site manager abandoned it and it was dormant for a couple of years. While I'm still listed as a composer there, the links are either dead or give really old (and bad) versions of the music I have there.

I'm not sure how it's being managed these days. The people I know from there went to mp3.com in the late 1990s and, when that died, they went to Soundclick. That's around the time I stopped putting things on the internet altogether.

Ecch...I didn't look too carefully, I guess.

I really hate both mp3.com and Soundclick. It looks to me like they're trying to be all things to all people and not doing any of it very well. The interfaces are mind-boggling.

Why was it that you quit putting music on the Internet? Just curious what your experience has been.

Ecch...I didn't look too carefully, I guess.

I really hate both mp3.com and Soundclick. It looks to me like they're trying to be all things to all people and not doing any of it very well. The interfaces are mind-boggling.

Why was it that you quit putting music on the Internet? Just curious what your experience has been.

Aside from the fact that what I had posted was hastily written and not up to my present standard, I don't think MIDI is really a very good vehicle for making one's work publicly available. Most of the people who listen are actually non-musicians and the most commonly available MIDI interfaces make our music sound like it was written for a 1980s video game or the Main Street Electrical Parade. Especially if it's in a historical idiom.

Strings aren't realized well, cantabile "playing" for slow movements is almost impossible, and forget about adding percussion.

With mp3, you can convey how the music sounds through your own setup. It's also very time consuming. That's part of the reason Vox Saeculorum has a website. We can showcase individual composers, give a fair amount of background on them, and put up a couple of representative works so people can get an idea of each writer's individual style without putting up the whole catalogue.

You ought to give some serious thought to starting your own group of classicists. Maybe if there's enough steam behind it and other neohistoricist groups, we can amalgamate into a single umbrella organization for composition in historical idioms.

I've been considering that possibility, too.

I get what you're saying about MIDI in general. It wasn't my first choice, either.

I get what you're saying about MIDI in general. It wasn't my first choice, either.

But then again, since MIDI is the only format I've actually ever heard any of my music through, it may very well be that it won't sound very good when played by real people.

You know, Lee, when we get the music management software up and running (which should be fairly soon, by the way), each user will have their own friendly music URL that points to a page listing all the music they have submitted to the software (e.g. youngcomposers.com/users/J._Lee_Graham). That's quite presentable. You'll also be able to upload MP3s, which solves the MIDI performance problem and lets you stop worrying about files eating up your bandwidth should they be hosted on your newly-purchased domain, because YC would do the work for you. :thumbsup:

But if you were to form the J. Lee Graham ensemble...that'd be sweeter than all else.

I keep forgetting that's coming, Mike. Looking forward to it.

As for the J. Lee Graham ensemble: I've always been the kind of person who wanted to get together with people to make music, and if a certain musical need of mine wasn't being addressed in my other activities, I created an ensemble that would make it a reality. I started an extra-curricular chamber orchestra at my middle-school, because I didn't know I "couldn't." At that age, it was as simple as asking kids if they wanted to go out and play. In high school I started a string quartet that went professional when we graduated. It's much, much harder to do with adults, especially talented and accomplished musicians. The first thing they ask is "how much will I be paid?" Understandable...they're professionals. I ask the same thing now, because my time is valuable. I don't have any money to seed an organisation like this, and the idea of starting with rank amateurs and spending the next 10-20 years building it in the hopes that it will eventually be what I want doesn't sound too appetizing.

If I get some seed money, I just might do it, though.

But then again, since MIDI is the only format I've actually ever heard any of my music through, it may very well be that it won't sound very good when played by real people.

Mark, it's really easy to wonder that. But I've had the pleasure of hearing a few of my piece performed over the years, and my experience has been that most things sound better with real people/instruments than they do in MIDI. A lot better. I haven't actually examined one of your scores, but I've never heard anything in any of your pieces I've listend to that gave me any indication that it wouldn't sound great played by Musica Angelica or Philharmonia Baroque.

I'm actually really surprised (and saddened) that you've never heard anything performed by live musicians.

Why don't you try myspace? It's great. Be sure to add me to your friend's list if you do!

www.myspace.com

Make sure you register as a "band". Lots of composers use it.