A couple of pieces. The orchestral one's new, the piano one's quite old.
Please don't do anything annoying with them :sweat:
The pieces are finished, but any general feedback on my composing would be heartily welcomed :D
thanks for listening if you do...

I'd love to listen, but I lack Sibelius.


Perhaps you could export a MIDI file? Or an MP3?

I'm not very good at this... I've always been one of those people who sticks to scores, but here's a midi file... hope it works... I have a feeling the sound will be awful. hope you like it!

The left hand on "Aubade" got pretty annoying pretty quick. You might wanna change up the pattern instead of having it continuously repeating the 1/8th note pattern back and forth. Add some rests into the left hand maybe.

Hey!

Listened to both of your compositions. You have a neat composition style! The orchestral piece was pretty sweet! What was your inspiration? How long have you been composing?

The piano composition on the other hand I'm not too fond of. It sounded a little too... random and plane for my tastes. Hmmm...I may see something. Would you mind telling me do you listen to much Bach or Baroque music?

PorscheGTIII:
Thanks :D
For the second piece, it was kind of meant to be in awe of space, but I got carried away... I don't tend to go for the whole inspiration thing, because it's more free and more fun to start a piece with a blank mind.
I've been composing for years. I write lots of music, mainly for small ensembles, but I do quite a few choral works.
The piano composition is rather old. I was still writing as a means of working out how compostion worked (hence the random, plain-ness), rather than as a way of making pieces. I'm quite fond of it, though :P
I don't tend to listen to much baroque music. My favourite composers are Gabriel Faure and Philip Glass. Increasingly, I'm listening to film music in my spare time... I was raised in a family of people who love musicals, so when I started listening to proper (:P) music, I was listening to whatever I could get my hands on, so I have listened to rather a lot of Baroque music, and, of course, I've analysed a number of pieces.

cablecar1:
The piece is finished :heh: I was still a beginner at the time, so it's not the most impressive piece. The pattern wasn't entirely static, though. I had some fun with it, and, of course, the harmony changed.
Did you listen to it the whole way through? the left hand changes for the different sections; it has a more flowing accompaniment for the second section, then it takes the melody, then I had some fun with the time, having it play the accompaniment in four for a section in 3, held notes, rests, runs, it does quite a lot, over all.

You mention that you like Fauré and Glass. Me too. One thing that they both excel at is having drive to their music. Take Fauré's third "romance sans paroles." Like your piano piece, it has a repetitive rhythm in the left hand, but it has a harmonic pulse to it that gives it enough force so that it doesn't get boring. I'd study that piece.

For the orchestral piece, you've got to learn to balance your instruments (within the computer program). I couldn't hear some of the parts because I was too afraid to turn my speakers up for fear of being killed by the percussion. BUT you do some fun things in there with rhythm. But like the piano piece, it lacks drive. The syncopation gets lost in the sheer amount of meandering that goes on.

I'd like to hear some of your pieces for smaller ensembles.

You mention that you like Fauré and Glass. Me too. One thing that they both excel at is having drive to their music. Take Fauré's third "romance sans paroles." Like your piano piece, it has a repetitive rhythm in the left hand, but it has a harmonic pulse to it that gives it enough force so that it doesn't get boring. I'd study that piece.

For the orchestral piece, you've got to learn to balance your instruments (within the computer program). I couldn't hear some of the parts because I was too afraid to turn my speakers up for fear of being killed by the percussion. BUT you do some fun things in there with rhythm. But like the piano piece, it lacks drive. The syncopation gets lost in the sheer amount of meandering that goes on.

I'd like to hear some of your pieces for smaller ensembles.

(The title was an accident...) I may well attempt to get hold of a score. I'll keep you posted :P (harmonic pulse?)
As for my computer skills... I have none. The piece is all based upon the original chords, but that got lost at times. However, it did still have a relatively sensible form. I tend to write pieces that have a clearer form, though.
I'll try to put an mp3 up so that you can experience it in all its glory :P
I'll post some other pieces another time.

ok. I'm posting the flute duet for Azurdori. It's from a while ago, and it wasn't really meant to be heard :P
N@he des Geliebten (I can't do umlauts) is a work in progress. It's an unaccompanied choral setting of a poem (of the same name) by Goethe.
I've also added a sibelius 5 score, so that people with sibelius 5 (or 6) can see the word setting.
Feel free to point out mistakes in the choral piece, and please don't do anything naughty with either of them.
Sorry about using a midi file with voices, but it was the best I could do.

Okay. I think you get the mood right for both pieces. I'm feeling the Sehnsucht in "Nähe des Geliebten," and the flute duet is adequately playful.

But you have some serious problems that are common to both pieces: 1) You have way too much parallel motion among voices. What makes counterpoint exciting is point going against point. 2) You have an inordinate number of parallel fourths and fifths. If you see one every once in a while, that's understandable, but it doesn't seem like you're trying to avoid them at all. 3) There are lots of dissonances. At almost every point in the Goethe piece there's a dissonance. You've just got to be more careful.

Check out this Brahms motet, especially 2:18 on:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQuim67ECto

If you study the score, his dissonances are carefully placed to lead to resolutions. Also, look at all that beautiful contrary motion.

Keep up the good work, though. You've got the feel of the music right, but as you work on the technical side of it, the feeling will also improve.

Good luck!

I enjoyed the Brahms. Beautiful piece. I shall study the score.
ahahahahaha adequate... the flute piece really was a while ago, and I didn't really want to show it to anyone :heh: I wrote it with little thought toward such things. :heh:
With regard to the Goethe piece, the dissonance wasn't accidental, it was just the way I heard the piece. For the most part, the harmony was what I started with. The contrapuntal sections were intended to mimic the sea, rising dust and waves (the last one was purely due to it being essentially a repeat of the previous verses). This is why they were moving in parallel motion. ahahahaha I tend to use too many prallel 5ths/4ths. It comes from how I used to compose when I was younger. I had an obsession with open 5ths (I still love the sound of them, and, I must say, I don't really dislike parallel 5ths as much as I should). It worked when the entire piece would be like that... I'll try to fix that.
Thanks for the advice and the compliments. I'll work on it. Remove some dissonance, remove some parallel 5ths...
I'll repost an improved version soon.

Adding to this thread after a while [edit: almost a year @_@ ]. I wanted people to hear my new recorder quartet, which, I think, is pretty much finished. ^.^

Each movement's named after a Shinto kami:
1) Suijin- a water god
2) Ebisu- god of fishermen
3) Hotei- patron god of children
4) Susanoo- god of storms
5) Tenjin- god of scholarship
6) Jurojin- god of longevity
7) Ameterasu- goddess of the sun
8) Ame-no-uzume- goddess of dance

I apologise for the length in advance. :heh: Please listen all the way through, though :) I'm quite proud of some of the movements.

Also, possible apology for the sounds. I'm not too good with this kind of thing. :sweat:

Edit: the pitch-bending sounds strange and the last note doesn't play on my computer. Just imagine them :P

Okay, I haven't listened to the whole thing, but I'll come back with more later.

Could you post a PDF? I don't do Sibelius.

I REALLY like this so far!

Downloaded a PDF creator. Here's the PDF.

I'm glad that you're enjoying it :D

What did you think? Is there anything that needs doing?

It's getting performed, so I want it to be perfect :)