Concert Piece

How do you like it? I'm mainly interested in a form discussion, how I can have a proper form but still keep it interesting but fluid.

I pretty much like the baseline, the trumpets' melody and the arrangement you choose, very nice counterpoint. Formweise, I think it works perfectly like that 🙂 

Just a minor critic. In the era Celli and Basse used to be written in the same staff, DB dobling the celli to the octave, you split them because of the pizz. passages on DB. I would keep thinks simple and play them both arco. If you like a percusive effect you can add a harpsichord dobling celli and the chords on the upper strings, which was a common practice in the era. 

On 6/16/2020 at 1:26 PM, Guillem82 said:

Just a minor critic. In the era Celli and Basse used to be written in the same staff, DB dobling the celli to the octave, you split them because of the pizz. passages on DB. I would keep thinks simple and play them both arco. If you like a percusive effect you can add a harpsichord dobling celli and the chords on the upper strings, which was a common practice in the era.

I agree with that, its just that the harpsichord that NotePerformer uses isn't that great like the one I had in Musescore. 

If I could combine the sounds, I would include a harpsichord.

Thank you for your opinions. 

This is nice. Much of your material centers on the Monte Principale schema, or the rising by 4ths-falling by 5ths bass motion. It is also known as the sequential version of the falling circle of 5ths.

In respect to the first appearance of this idea, your first violin is doubling second trumpet part. I personally would avoid this, and make use of suspensions. I would also look to expand the thematic material beyond this schema as it appears 3 times in succession in the B section with a little variation.

Overall, it works with the ideas used making coherent sense.

To illustrate the suspensions, see below:

16 hours ago, Markus Boyd said:

This is nice. Much of your material centers on the Monte Principale schema, or It is also known as the sequential version of the falling circle of 5ths.

In respect to the first appearance of this idea, your first violin is doubling second trumpet part. I personally would avoid this, and make use of suspensions. I would also look to expand the thematic material beyond this schema as it appears 3 times in succession in the B section with a little variation.

Overall, it works with the ideas used making coherent sense.

To illustrate the suspensions, see below:

Man, your using language I've never heard before. lol

16 hours ago, Markus Boyd said:

the rising by 4ths-falling by 5ths bass motion.

I just call this the circle of 5ths progression, which could also be done with falling by 3rd and rising by a 2nd by using chord inversions.

I'm trying new thing this next concert piece. so hopefully it will flow better and it won't be so repetitive.

I've done suspensions with the circle of 5ths before, but thanks for the suggestion.

I'm working on getting a better baroque feel in my next piece.

Thanks for the kind words!

I personally don't think you need to change anything if all you want is to write a Baroque piece.  Do you write in any other styles?

@PaperComposer

I don't know if write in a "style", I have an idea what baroque sounds like, but when I try to compose it, I get my own style.

I generally compose in that style, but I've made special music for friends:

Interesting how you use two different pentatonic scales in the traditional Japanese music.  Together they make a full 7-tone scale - which .. is that still traditional Japanese?  It sounds cool though so no argument there.  You keep it very simple and it's totally sufficient.

Your canon reminds me of how much more versatile a euphonium is than a trombone in basically the same range.  A trombone wouldn't be able to play those descending runs like what you have at that tempo.

"A Weird Dream I had Last Night" isn't baroque nor traditional in any way!  Your deliberate use of dissonance is at totally the opposite pole to your baroque writing.  You know .. there are ways to make a piece sound finished without necessarily ending on a major chord.  I like this style more than your baroque or traditional writing.  It's more creative in my opinion.

I like that you're exploring and the attempt at jazz is a cool foray into unfamiliar territory.  The metronomic snare drum is a bit unrealistic though.  There's no cool groove that the solos can sink into.  Maybe it could work better at a faster tempo with staggered melodic entrances like bebop.  I think you should keep making more attempts like this to compose in as wide variety of styles as you can or want to.  And if you want to compose a style listen to lots of cool examples of it.  Honestly jazz performance is one of the most difficult genres to emulate using notation software.  Plus jazz harmony is a bit more complex than what you have here.

Thanks for sharing!

22 hours ago, PaperComposer said:

Together they make a full 7-tone scale - which .. is that still traditional Japanese?

no, i guess its not. My boss is Japanese, and he found out about my music, so he asked me to make some traditional Japanese music. And he liked it, so mission accomplished

22 hours ago, PaperComposer said:

"A Weird Dream I had Last Night" isn't baroque nor traditional in any way!  Your deliberate use of dissonance is at totally the opposite pole to your baroque writing.  You know .. there are ways to make a piece sound finished without necessarily ending on a major chord.  I like this style more than your baroque or traditional writing.  It's more creative in my opinion.

The story about this piece is kinda funny, at the beginning of my Senior year of high school I asked my band director we could play my concert band piece if it was good. I tried several times, and worked hard to make a good baroque piece, but I was very inexperienced(I mean.... I still am). I got tired of it, so I said to myself: "I bet I could throw some crap together and not even try, and he would accept it." so I wrote up that piece in 4 hours. When my directors took a listen, they were amazed and they thought it was really good. Unfortunately, COVID-19 caused our year to end short, and I never got the chance to have it played.

I'm trying really hard to get an authentic or as close to as authentic baroque as possible.

But I've been working, and I haven't been in a music theory class in forever.

Quote

I'm trying really hard to get an authentic or as close to as authentic baroque as possible.

But I've been working, and I haven't been in a music theory class in forever.

Just a side question:  have you tried writing a fugue or invention?

That's sad that your studies were cut short by corona-virus, but there are other ways of learning music theory ... have you ever watched any of the music theory youtube channels such as 8-bit music theory (which is the most fun) or Amy Nolte (for jazz) and Guim?

@PaperComposer

I've tried, but I wouldn't say that they are any good.

I've tried the applied counterpoint by Alan Belkin, but im having trouble with it. I think that I follow the rules, but it doesn't sound as nice as he makes them.

I don't know how long it took Bach to write good counterpoint that's inspired, but I know he studied intensely the fugues of Buxtehude and constantly theoretically appraised his fellow composers work.  Just saying:  If you want to sound like Bach, it's not an easy task you've set yourself.  Luckily you don't have to sound like Bach when you write fugues.  There are plenty of other types of contrapuntal writing to explore that will help you find your own unique voice.  Ex:  Jazz fugues, and atonal fugues.  Have you heard the fugue from Bartok's "Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste"?

Honestly some of the fugues you shared sound a bit like you're writing an exercise.  Exploring other genres of fugue might help you get out of that mindset.  😃

@PaperComposer

I spend most of my days at work, but during down times, I've been adding some music to some paper. and I came up with a little something that I think didn't turn out too badly considering I didn't know how it would sound like. (I normally don't compose on paper)

I was inspired by your name.

Wow!  That turned out really great considering you don't usually write on paper.  It has proper voice leading.  I just wished you continued it.  It sounds like it could either repeat or end on a picardy third but I guess you meant this as an introduction to the tenor solo.  Now all you need is an old latin text from a mass or something and you're set!  I'm amazed at your results and am glad that my name inspired you!  I used to write in my midi sequencer but was in a hospital for a long time and away from a computer so I had to learn how to write my music on paper only without ever even hearing it and now I can't switch back to writing in my sequencer - the sound interferes with the composition process for me.  Nice job!