Hello everyone!

I finally decided to open a thread for my compositions. Maybe you heard my composition "Harmonic Garden" in the composition contest. alpiso wrote that he got lost in the beginning part of the composition and I guessed that this could happen than I posted the composition. Maybe I will post a revised version after the contest is over.

Today I composed a very repetitive piece named "Dangerous". There are two versions of the piece, one mp3 I created with Finale and the other mp3 I created with vst- instruments in Fruity loops. Esspecially in the Finale version you hear that the left hand plays staccato in the frist part, although I didn't notated it in this way. Unfortunately I don't know to fix it.

I am thankful for all advices, opinions etc. you will give me and hope you enjoy my compositions.


Download - Dangerous (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Dangerous.zip)


See you next time!

Yeah, Finale will occasionally just do things. I've never figured out why it will suddenly get possessed like that. You might want to play with the reverberation settings.

For what it is, I feel like this is a good piece, but it seems unfinished. Develop it. Finish it. It sounds promising.

I notice 2 things.

First, with the harmonic progression: Im, IIm is a progression which sound "hard".
It would be better to do : Im, IV/II or Im VII/II, but, of course, you lose your "effect".

The second: with VST instruments, it sounds better.
Did you try strings for the rythmic ? Perhaps with staccato they should play only eighth with some accents.
It should "replace" the piano which go up and down ;)
oops a third :sweat: : The brasses incoming on the second part are welcome :D

You got a lot of tension there that never was released in a cool new part. You left me hanging... ;_; It does sounds promising, like something exciting is going to happen!

Thank you for your comments.

I made a new and longer version of the piece, which considered Alphonso's advices. But I'm not merely satisfied with this version, so that I will make another one, which will consider alpino's advices as well. The piece has a whole repetition at 1:39, I wasn't sure if this piece should have a real endiing or not. I hope it's more exciting now, Nyu001.

Download - Dangerous (2nd Version) (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Dangerous.zip)

I'm looking forward to your posts.

Sorry, I left my computer on the page while I made a hot chocolate... it hadn't been posted :P

The ending's still not as much as it could be, in my view. It's just such a big, tense piece that having an ending like that is a little sad.

Then you should listen the second version^^.

It's looking good !

I always have troubles with the chords progression, but : As Nyu001 and Alfonso said, you should do a "variation".
I mean, the piece seem to be an introduction to something spectacular (and I admit to wait it ^_^).

If I was composing it, I should do a break, and give a rhythmic part with percussions (timpani, or others) and strings then give places to brasses (and maybe other instrument) to play the theme.

Keep going on.

Thank you guys for advices.

I kept working on the piece and now I am ready to post another version of the piece. Now the song has an ending, an appropriate length, no repetition and more variations, but the mood of the piece get never lost and has his climax in the ending part. I'm curious for your comments.

Download - Dangerous (3th Version) (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Dangerous.zip)


Edit: When I heared my composition several times, I noticed that it takes to long until the trumpets comes again in the second part and the point where the horns play the melody the stringsplayed before doesn't sound so well in my opinion. So I made another version, where I deleted the 16 bars where the horns played before.

Compare it and say your opinion.

Download - Dangerous (4th Version) (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Dangerous 2.zip)

Well, repetition isn't necessarily a bad thing—just ask Philip Glass! And I do think you have an appropriate amount of repetition in here. In fact, this piece sounds a little minimalist, which I like. This is awesome. I love how it builds and builds until the conclusion. 10 points to Ravenclaw. Also, I really like the melodies you give the brass to counter the arpeggios.

Keep it coming!

It is sooo epic! I love it. Like a Giant approaching from afar. And it is still approaching. It's kind of comical, too, now that I think about it. Something from a Mel Brooks movie. I must say though... the ending is still not following up to the promise of the whole piece. I tried to figure out why that is, but I'm stuck myself. How about a chime? That might work.

This is quite funny, before I composed this piece I had the intention to compose a song about a creature that approaches from far away. Maybe I implemented this idea in this piece subcontiously, I should think to change the title.
I will try to make the end more interesting and more epic, chimes could truly help.

Now it's time to share another composition. I made this one 2,5 months ago and gave it the name "Cheerful". Have fun listening the song!

Download - Cheerful (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Cheerful.zip)

Could you post the sheet music for this? The counterpoint sounds kind of clumsy at times, and I'd like to see where and why.

Here is the sheet music:

Sheet music - Cheerful (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Cheerful.pdf)

I'm curious what you are going to say.

Some fun melodies! I do agree with Alphonso — the counterpoint is a little bit funny. I think you just have too many rhythms going on at once; just look at m. 41-43. What exactly do you want someone to hear in that passage? You need to be especially careful with syncopated figures, as those weaken the downbeat quite a bit. Also, the more complex your melody is, the simpler your accompaniment has to be. Measure 25 is okay, but then things keep getting more and more muddled. All this being said, I did enjoy this piece. Very "Cheerful" indeed!

I'm personally don't have a problem with parallel 5ths and whatnot as long as it doesn't sound weird, so I only stopped and looked at measures that rubbed me the wrong way.

In m. 8, the trumpet enters on a 2nd with the cello.

m. 14 the violin 1 and cello have some awkward parallel octaves.

m. 26 you have Cs and Ds fighting with each other all over the place. (Plus an Eb in the flute.)

In 39 you have the trombones against the cellos playing a minor third. There's nothing dissonant about that interval, it just sounds muddy when it's that low (especially with those two instruments). And then they go in parallel motion into a unison.

Also I second what Emeraldshine said. Those parts when you have triplets and eighth notes AND the syncopated trombone rhythm are just too much. There's no way a listener can make sense of that. If you want to do three against two, that should really be the only show in town, so to speak, otherwise it all just gets lost.

But I also second what Emeraldshine said about the great melodies. And when you strip down your counterpoint to just a few voices, I feel like you do a great job.

One last thing, I wish the ending had more kick to it. Maybe stretch out that last cadence and add a few more instruments.

BUT, I only spent as much time going through this as I did because I believe your piece really does have potential. Good job!

It's time for a new version. I changed the end, improved most of the points you mentioned and removed dispensable instruments. Maybe the composition is still a bit to overcharged at some points, so furthermore I shall try to make the piece more clear.

Download - Cheerful (2nd version) (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Cheerful.zip)

I really like this. The only thing is that the cello part still seems dissonant around 0:18. I don't know if that's just the way the MIDI is rendering it or what, but it's bugging me. I like the harp arpeggios you've thrown in. And the ending seems like more of an ending now.

You're right, at this point there is a great ninth between the cello and two other instruments, I will think about changing it.

Today I was quite active in composing so that I can introduce 4 new pieces. I made two today and the other two are works of the past I improved a little bit today. Enjoy the compositions!

Download - Hectic Escape (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Hectic Escape.zip)

Download - Light (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Light.zip)

Download - Peaceful atmosphere (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Peaceful atmosphere.zip)

Download - Skull (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Skull.zip)

Today I wanna please you with a simple and beatiful piece. I named it "Relaxing", i hope you will relav at hearing the piece, although its quite short.

Download - Relaxing (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Relaxing.zip)

Since you posted these en masse, I'm going to respond to them accordingly. You have a good ear for orchestration and balancing different textures. You're also pretty good at capturing the mood you want. I think your weakness is in melody and harmony. Your melodies are sing-songy without really being memorable, and your harmonies feel a little one-dimensional.

I think a good exercise for you would be to write a really stately-sounding piece that uses almost nothing but compound chords. It would force you out of your comfort zone, I feel, and help you discover new harmonic possibilites.

P.S.
I really like what you do with rhythm. Your syncopation is quite nice.

You're right, I think so, too, my harmonic and melodic skills can be improved a lot. Do you know a site where the usage of compound chords is explained and even showed on scores? I am just trying to compose a stately sounding piece like you said and have the problem that I don't really know how much notes I at least need to create a compound chord.

Ok, I finished the piece the piece right now, but I don't know how much compund chords I used because there only are three - four voices in this piece at the same time. When I searched for compund choards in the internet I read that compound chords means either that two different chords sound in the same time or that the 7th, 9th , 11th and 13th of a chord will be used more often. I respected this when I composed the piece. Please tell me how good I integrated compund chords, where are some and where not. The sheets are in the zip-file as well.

Download - Stately (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Stately.zip)


PS: Sorry for double post.

So guys, 2 new compositions today. For the first one I don't really have a name. I wanted to make a background music with percussion acccompaniment, because I don't compose background music so often and I wanna use more percussion instruments in my prospective compositions. The second composition is a special one. My very young improvised or invented an own melody and I wrote a melancholic composition to this melody. Enjoy the compositions!

Download - Background Music (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Background Music.zip)

Download - Melancholic Song (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Melancholic Song.zip)

Your "Stately" composition was nice. I especially liked whenever the violins came in. Keep exploring different kinds of harmonies.

I was just listening to a Shostakovich symphony where he did really fun stuff with percussion. Your "Background Music" is a nice étude in that vein. I wish I knew how to do percussion better.

I'm feeling the Melancholy. This is awesome. You should totally use this piece to experiment crazy harmonies with. Don't get me wrong, I like the piece as it is, but it provides you with good material to expand your palette.

I wasn't too fond of your background track. I feel like the percussion could have been a little more inventive than what you presented.

I did like your Melancholic song. I would also agree with Alfonso in that you could have some fun playing around with the harmony on this track. Give it a try sometime!

I would try to get my harmonic more complex, but it's difficult to compose with complex harmony if I don't know how to do it. I currently compose that I write down the music that plays in my mind and if my mind isn't so familiar with crazy and complex harmonies they don't influence in my compositions. So one way would be to get familiar with this through ear training. I started a view days ago working with the tool Earmaster Pro Demoversion to improve this, but it will take a long time to improve hearing in this way. There has to be other ways to get a more interesting harmony. What for books, internet sites or something else did you used to improve your harmonies? Are there pieces that are worthy to analyse? I'm curious on your anwsers.

Today I present you a short music piece that I can good imagine in a videogame like Zelda. It can be played in much situations, especially if you meet some weird guy.

Download - Meeting a strange person (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Meeting a strange person.zip)


Edit: And another composition I made today: It's for a videogame mod named 1648 Total War and plays when the units approaches each other. I don't think this will be the final version, so say what you guys think about it:

Download - The inevitable departure (http://www.infracta.de/datenbank/datenbank/1648%20-%2030%20Jahre%20Krieg/Wallenstein/Der%20unvermeidliche%20Aufbruch.wav)

Edit 2: Second version of the song ready:

Download - The inevitable departure (2nd version) (http://games4um.ga.funpic.de/Der unvermeidliche Aufbruch.zip)

"Meeting a strange person" sounds like vintage FFVII stuff. Very nice.

Couple things on "ineluctable departure." In the first version, you introduce an organ, but the organ is just playing one note at a time. If the organ comes in, it should be rocking some chords. Also, I feel that "inevitable" might be a better translation of "unvermeidlich." Ineluctable is a pretty obscure, latinate word.

"Meeting a strange person" made me smile. Your instrument combinations are as fun as ever, and you really captured that quirky feeling you were going for. "Inevitable Depature" feels a little sparse for my tastes. Even if it is a background song, it has to go somewhere, and it never really builds as much as it feels it should. Good use of the choir, and the punchy brass lines were awesome.

As to composing with strange harmonies, I'd learn what kind of chords you can substitute for the V7 chord, learn how to elegantly change keys, etc. Find an interesting chord, and write a piece around it. Though honestly I'm having the same problem myself. One thing you should definitely do is listen to music that sounds like you're looking for. Personally, I like Pat Metheny, Eric Whitacre, and Adam Guettel for unusual harmony, but I'd just keep a look out for anyone interesting and try to figure out what they do.