Hello Everyone

I was inspired by Mozart's requiem, made some research, and tried composing Kyrie Eleison, using Sibelius 4 and Finale 2007 to convert to mp3.

The second song, Brillante, is a song I initially intended to compose for a game, but I begin to like it and develop it further.

Incompleto, as the name suggests, doesn't really sound complete to me, let you comment on that.

(I am hoping to use all three songs for IB HL music Portfolio Assessment, so please suggest if there are improvement I could do to make it better)

Hope you all like it :)

Kyrie Eleison:

It was rather monotonous, in my opinion. The soprano voice is also quite soft, I can hardly hear it. I think you should expand on your harmonies. Your progressions were rather dull and uninteresting. The ending was also somewhat abrupt.

Brillante:

It's too incidental-sounding in my opinion. Again, expand your harmonies, having the lower strings playing the same thing over and over again is really boring. You can also perhaps incorporate more interesting techniques with the strings. Futhermore, more variations or differences in the piece would be nice. The repetitive quality really turned me away.

Untitled:

Maybe it's a typo, but it's supposed to be allegretto (with that extra 't'). Again, very incidental sounding, which isn't a bad thing, but for assessments and academic evaluations, it might be a little weak. Harmonies can also be worked on in this piece.

I mean, your music is not bad, however, they just feel too underdeveloped in harmonies, variety and perhaps interests. They are quite coherently, which I am pleased about. But instead of composing entirely out of forms, single melodies or single phrases, try composing more freely. Finally, in my opinion, if you want your music assessed by teachers or whatever, you should try composing more serious music. Those three pieces are too incidental sounding.

Yay, another IB Music HL student like myself! You should comment on the song I posted that I want to do for mine (the one in my sig). BTW, what's wrong with incidental music for assessments, Sir_Dotdotdot?

Kyrie Eleison:
Our Concert Choir did the Mozart requiem for our Major Work Concert last year, so I know and love the requiem you were inspired by. However, to better emulate Mozart, you may want to utilize more and quicker modulations, and definitely try to use some fugue/fuguetto/other elements of form (you could definitely do a fugue with some of your motives), write some orchestral parts to support your voices (or even just piano, because it really sounds empty without the accompaniment).

Brilliante:
What this song really needs is a building up to a key change, and a really good climax.

Allegretto:
Hmmm, this song sounds almost pop style. I don't so much mind that, but you could have really taken this song so much deeper by using some different chord progressions and some contrasting dynamics.

BTW, what's wrong with incidental music for assessments, Sir_Dotdotdot?



Teachers usually prefer more classical rules oriented pieces, since it shows more about your knowledge in composition, music history and etc.

Not necessarily the case in IB Music. You should look at the grading syllabus, because encompasses any kind of music you want to write. You must make it well written, but as long as it is well-written in context (and you have to write a short paper about what you wanted to accomplish with the piece so that they know said context) you will get a good grade.