The Carlin Soldier

The original name for this was 'The Soldier's Love', hence the mismatch of names between the thread title and the file-name. REALLY do require feed-back on this one. As those of you who have seen the introductory thread know, I've had virtually nothing in the way of musical training, and I'm fairly new to notational composing, and I think it shows...

The melody was actually something I jotted down a year or so back. It's only recently that I actually got around to doing anything with it. Once again, I could kill for some better instruments to play with. *sigh* Oh well, you get what you pay for. And I'm too poor to be able to afford much! There were lyrics to this when I first wrote it, but looking back on them they were rubbish, so I dropped them. Little bit of modification to the melody from the original scribbled-on-a-bit-of-old-notepaper version, and accompianment added.

ETA: Forgot to mention - in my last post, someone had trouble opening the attatched mus file. HA should be compatiable with noteworthy, but if not, try downloading Harmony Assistant (you can get it for free)

The Soldier's Love.mus

The Soldier's Love.mid

Although I'm not sure exactly what effect you were going for, I think this seems to accomplish what you're setting out to do pretty well. You obviously know the piano - the writing is quite idiomatic. And the "song without words" form is appropriate enough for the melody. The only complaint I have is the ending, which seems very abrupt, and to me sounds like it could be more of an interlude than a coda. Was this posted as a finished piece?

Thanks for the feedback, Caltech!

Yes, this is a finished piece. I always seem to have problems ending a piece, I don't know why.

1) I couldn't open the .mus file. Thus, I am forced to comment on this without a score.

2) I liked the motivic work of this piece, but it became tediously repetitious after a while.

3) The harmony just...didn't quite get there. A score?

4) The ending was very abrupt...not a climax. Tasteless.

5) The greatest sound libraries of the world would not correct the above.

1) I know, I've had a few people comment on that, and like I said above, I use Harmony Assistant. It's not worth me trying to download and install yet another computer on my already-dying laptop, but HA is a free download, should you wish to look at that score.

2.)Thanks -er..yeah. Slight copy/paste syndrome there.

3.)Not quite sure what you mean by that...I'm still learning about harmonies, to be honest.

4.) Like I said, endings are not my strong point. Especially using HA, where I can only edit the notes to last for so long, not fade out like they would with real instruments.

5.) No, but they would sure help! (I find the better the equipment I am given to work with, the more inclined I am to spend more time and effort on a piece. )

One thing I should have made clear is that although I said I did this track 'recently', it was actually done some point last year. I have (I hope) improved a little since then. I've certaintly got away from the copy/paste syndrome.

1) I know, I've had a few people comment on that, and like I said above, I use Harmony Assistant. It's not worth me trying to download and install yet another computer on my already-dying laptop, but HA is a free download, should you wish to look at that score.

3.)Not quite sure what you mean by that...I'm still learning about harmonies, to be honest.

4.) Like I said, endings are not my strong point. Especially using HA, where I can only edit the notes to last for so long, not fade out like they would with real instruments.

5.) No, but they would sure help! (I find the better the equipment I am given to work with, the more inclined I am to spend more time and effort on a piece. )

1. Could you provide a .pdf score? Or, better yet (usually), a manuscript? :)

3. Your harmonies didn't seem to have a direction. You attempted to follow the melody, but without a sense of "I want to go there".

4. Your ending would have been problematic even if performed by real instruments. There is no preparation, I feel that 'ending' and 'climax' are mingled and, suddenly, everything abruptly stops. That has nothing to do with the software you're using. :(

5. Spend time and effort on your work, regardless of the equipment. :blush:

1. Could you provide a .pdf score? Or, better yet (usually), a manuscript? :w00t:

3. Your harmonies didn't seem to have a direction. You attempted to follow the melody, but without a sense of "I want to go there".

4. Your ending would have been problematic even if performed by real instruments. There is no preparation, I feel that 'ending' and 'climax' are mingled and, suddenly, everything abruptly stops. That has nothing to do with the software you're using. :(

5. Spend time and effort on your work, regardless of the equipment. :P

1.) I've just discovered the graphical export feature! *grins insanely* I'll edit my original post and put it up there.

3.) That's yet more theory I'm going to have to learn, isn't it?

4.) Ah, that's what you mean. Sorry. Yeah, I understand what you mean by that now - I've always had a problem with endings. Heh. I need to study how other people end their pieces, and see if I can apply similar techniques to mine. More theory, again.

5.) *Whimper* Yessir!