Well, Apparently I was having some trouble uploading in my other thread that is age old (I haven't posted a composition since July!) so I thought maybe making a new one would fix the problem (URGG!!! MP3 ISN'T WORKING!!!!)

Well I need to take a step away fromt the piano a bit, and switch to strings.
It is a little underdeveloped, but I've got a good feeling about it!

Well done. ^_^

Too simple. If you're gonna write this kinda music you gotta choose better instruments than just strings... that way people won't get bored. Second half was way better than the first half.

Actually, I have to agree. More intsruments would add a nice touch. ;)

I intended it to be strictly string orchestra, but yeah your both right. I talked to my old instructure and he pointed about 15 flaws in the begining fugue(sp?), and just kept on going. I'm going to make a newer version of it (hopefully correct in musicality and in movement)

I actually think you can keep it just as strings, but it does become difficult in separating the voices. And so there were moments when I thought there was more than one chord at a time. Your first part needed more direction to keep it moving, perhaps a clear, solid melody would help?

It's kind of messy and ambiguous, but I liked the "feel" of the peice. Clean it up, make the important parts more obvious, and try to keep with consonance until the peice demands dissonance.

I liked the minimalistic introduction (it's not really a fugue, more like a canon of sorts), but after that the development and transitions became more jagged. On many of the measure where you resolve to the chord with F#, you still F naturals playing, which I think is probably not intentional. Also, that pitch bend/gliss near the middle of the piece was really sloppy. Near the end, the sudden high notes on the first violins were also kinda jarring (maybe fade it in?). The diatonic bass notes were pretty much repeated through the entire piece, but there was enough variation in the trebel strings that kept it interesting throughout. As Al suggested, maybe you should try making a more concrete melody, or a theme for a fugue and work from there to keep things flowing smoothly throughout.

This is a case of the old build up, build up, build up.
then switch theme. ive done it myself a couple of times...
and I have to say this song´s got no structure.
its just a lot of ideas at the same time, a mess.
just keep it simple and create a simple melodie.
repetition is not the enemy, keep it structured and give a surprise once in a while.

oh look at me babling away.

keep it up and you will get there...

Too simple. If you're gonna write this kinda music you gotta choose better instruments than just strings... that way people won't get bored. Second half was way better than the first half.


And people ask why I hate Bach.. Hm..

Well... It's been a LONG time, but this is what I have now. Theme of Self. A refelective piece. It's currently incomplete so please do Ignore 3/4 of the way through (It's just my random thoughts on how to end it). And, as always Bastard me with comments. I like any/all comments, so please post them ;)!

Buch better than the first one you made... a long time ago kind of. Much improved.

Theme of Self
I like the use of rest notes in this song. It is a very nice song. Yeah...The ending you have at the moment is a little awkward but you said to ignore it.....Very nice! *Thumbs up*

I think it's nice. It creates a calming effect, yet you can actually listen to this song. It's like in the middle of BG music and easy listening. Good job, M. ^_^

Well, music studies has now taken a back end for me because of 2 reasons:

1) Theory hurts my brain
2) The kids in my class compose circles around me

My next composition I pretty much wrote to piss off my instructor (Yes, I don't like him). I think I broke just about every rule for the `Mozart` style of composition.

Presenting: Small Sky.


EDIT: :heh: Wrong soundfont on the MIDI file (nothing like hearing a Xylophone instead of a piano

up to 00:30 it sounds like something out of secret of mana! you should build on that and make another song out of the rest.

Yeah, up to half a minute, it's a good intro -- but then it just vanishes. It doesn't build anywhere (lacking direction). Keep working on it!

Ummm... I don't like it until about 0:39. Then it gets a little better. Then it gets back to its boringness after a while... XD

Ummm... You can do better. :heh:

I woke up this morining in a cold sweat. Tears were running down my eyes as my dream echoed inside of my head. I had a nightmare.

This is a collection of :30-2:10 long fragments of that dream ment to be played as one song. I seperated the song into 10 parts to present a title for a timeframe, not to mention it works. If you want to hear the song as it should be, download the MP3's from the Rapidshare Link in the following post and enquire them in order, with Cross-Fade turned off. Otherwise, I have uploaded the individual files here for listening to individual tracks.

Let me state that this Suite is based on a free-form atonal method; it is not that I suck at playing the piano (though I do wish I was better at it), it is ment to sound wrong, hopefully leaving an errie feeling after listening to it.

Also I cannot put up the music because it is really freaking hard to write down some of this stuff!

Presenting `The Nightmare`

Zip of All MP3's (7115 KB): http://rapidshare.de/files/17855450/The_Nightmare.zip.html

Ummm... Random... :huh:

Well, it is supposed to represent a dream, no? I think this works quite well for the given mood, though I'd expected it to be even more darker and chaotic. Very neat piece - probably the most interesting concept I seen realized for a while now from these forums.

So I got FL Studio 6.x XXL the other day (my pocket still hurts from the price tag X_X)and decided to take it for a whirl. I only have one thing to say: my head. While there is no learning curve, there is. Any Idiot can make a piece in FL, but to actually make it work is hard stuff.

My first attempt with a synth (a bad one, but an attempt in the least):

Patterned.

The beginning was good but after awhile I couldn't follow with the song. Perhaps it was too repetitive.

My first organ piece! Yay~!


A loop song. Name describes what I was looking for. I'm debating on expanding it.

Try listening to it five times 'round and then turn it off. You feel weird!

Wow. Very serene... I love it. Love the synth sounds too. Keep it up! Woot!

Maybe it's because I don't like organs, but it sounds kinda dissonant sometimes. I like how you incorporated everything together, though.

Overall, a pretty good song. ;)

Found a lost archive holding all of my First Thread's compositions! Have fun listening to the random / impossible to play piano pieces!

LoL. XD I have faint memories of "Confused Death." I think I heard it when you first posted it... :blink: Yeah, I think so.

:think:

Nine pages back. I guess my earlier comment about a long time about three years back wasn't so long XD.

Well, I switched over to a linux system and kinda lost majority of my composition capabilities (unless you count ABC markup as an actual notation system). I figured if I'm going to be moderating this section a little more actively, I should start sharing some of my own melodies. This is a simple test file I've whipped up in about 2 hours just to see how Rosegarden (http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/) actually works. I have to say it worked out okay, though it seems to be limited at the moment. Hopefully it'll pull though in the end :D

I liked the strings.

Personally, I find it hard to compose for string quartet only. The skill needed to compose the correct harmonics without other instruments is quite challenging.

Although, I have to confess I wanted to hear a glockenspiel at some point :p

It took you two years to post didn't it? Welcome!

Few things...
I find it funny that you chose to work in C Maj/A min and you started with a D min. Fiddling in Finale, I enharmonically transposed this to the key of D min and added the Bb's in there. Sections sounded a little better this way.

Also, even though you correctly ended on the tonic, it did not really feel complete. Attached is how I would correct this. I enharmonically changed the key to D min and flatted the B's like I said I would and used the tonic of this key, as well as borrowing from the melodic minor scale to make the ending feel a little more complete in my opinion.

I feel you should also watch out for crossing your voices and tread a little more caution with the progressions.

Let's hear some more Mr. Red Mage! ^_^

Cool piece, and even cooler that you've managed to do it in Linux. I haven't really had the chance to try any Linux music apps (came close with trying some OS X ports, but couldn't get JACK to work under Leopard). Have you tried using either the Ubuntu Studio or the 64 Studio distro by the way? I heard some interesting things about them but never had the chance to personally test them.

Oh, and before I forget, interesting little piece. Some of the harmonies felt strange, but I really liked the interplay between the two guitars. Has a bit of a folkish/early music feel - quaint, but certainly unique sounding. I hope you manage to produce more with your current setup. Good stuff.

Meh, I'm not as good as I used to be. Just a forewarning, it's strictly a bell piece.


Edit: I also like the data security on this forum. Tons of shit just deletes itself at random.

Your handbell samples are nice! I like how the last part of it builds a little in that things are moving faster and the still-vibrating bells create a sort of background noise which crescendos. However, I think the voice leading/chords are pretty boring and stagnant.

A fun little song I whipped up over the past four hours. It's a bit scatterbrained, but I found it to sound quite nice when pieced together.

I like the first 6 bars of the piece. You should have keep the left hand pulse longer, the change at bar 7 felt abrupt. The harmony, motion and melodic line after these first bars turned rather dull.

Keep in mind the dynamism of your piece. Let the melodic lines to be more audible than the rest. And do not stick all phrases with the same dynamism, this will help the piece to have contrasts between phrases and will create interest.

You should do something else with those first bars. I like that motive you got in bar 3 and 4.

i see a running motion. then it goes to the slow-mo. i really enjoyed the rhythm.

This one's incomplete, but I'm kinda liking the mood it's setting.

Edit: Added MP3.

Oh herro!

Can't say much without a MIDI file. Notation wise though, I'd leave out the arrows on the rolls unless you are signifying a roll down. I believe it is assumed to be 'roll up' unless otherwise noted. Also, what's up with measure 3? Why put repeat bars and not just write out the measure? In the tie note in measure 17, I believe the stem of the note should be up as to not interfer with the tie. One final note, the pedal markings in measure 10 are repeated in the left and right hand. You may just want to have it in the left hand. As well, when sight reading the pianist may be confused with the sustain lines you indicate because they can clutter up the sheets. I would just indicate the pedal and the release.

Let's see where you go! :D

EDIT: Saw you just added an MP3 while I was posting. Give me a sec to comment.

EDIT EDIT:

Things to think about:

Do you really want to pedal in measures 10 through 15? In that register, notes closer than a perfect fourth tend to sound muddy.
I see you want to transition into 9/8. Will you be in that time signature for long enough to justify using 9/8 over say 3/4?
You have some dynamics indicated, but how about cres/decres? How about articulation?


Just some food for thought. Let's see where you go with this! ^_^

Added MP3. Damn converter was giving me a hard time with it's output (ogg always works; but mp3 works once in a blue moon)

And I didn't know that about rolls :|. I thought a roll meant to ultimately play all the notes in a chord however you'd like to. I'll have to make note of that ;). It looks like measure three is missing some text... It should have "play at least twice". I meant it as a type of vamp.

And the notation software is kinda kicking me in the butt with pedals. Though, I'm pretty sure it's my fault. That's why the stems are that way and the pedal lines are on multiple lines (playback of pedals works independently as of right now, which is why there's two; note stemming is determined by voice, so I just need to toggle them).

i am a fan of "airs de daemon". it doesnt sound likes its as multimetric as it is but its wonderful. what i wouldve liked to see was the first bass "riff" come back in the end and maybe huge chords on the right hand then leading to the accel section.

and you are braver than me for writing in 7/8 i cant do it =D

I like the introduction. The note sustaining its time a bit more in each bar and fading out. The 'second' introduction is very pleasant. After that, it left me waiting for a melodic phrase on the right hand. it sounded very forced and lost the initial mood you had in the first secs.

Yeah, it feels like a lot of fun ideas that got out of hand and started doing whatever they wanted. Put a leash on them ideas and have them work for you.

And here's another one (this time with more leash; and less fooling around).

So there's a bit of a thought process I had with this one. I was doing a freewrite today that involved a pregnant woman that was raped and ultimately shot. The doctors were unable to revive the woman. The child suffered some minor wounds from the shot, but was healthy and mature enough to be removed and put into an incubator.

The child was later adopted and cared for by a pair of foster parents and raised properly for the next five years. On the child's fifth year, the child had a seizure. The doctors discovered that there were some fragments of the bullet inside the child's skull and that it destroyed all ability to move. The doctors then explained that it wasn't long before the shrapnel would effect cognitive function. It happened. The foster father, in confusion, pulled life support from the child. It was right after that when the child miraculously looked over at the father and said "thank you daddy", and passed on.


I tried to mix some bittersweet simplicity along with a melodic complexity in the main theme, so it turned out to have four moving parts in the main melody, which wasn't exactly what I was intending to do -- I'm not even certain if that's performable.

This song takes the perspective of the child moving through her life, that was taken too soon, and who's live was too short.

I like the first themes. It delivers a mood. ^.^

Be careful when you place two notes in a space longer than an octave. From Bar 25 to 28 you will need to use the pedal for these big chords to sustain.

By the way, you reminded me to me when I upload a file and download it to check if uploaded correctly, lol.

So those are playable :heh:. My old music instructor once told me "YOU CAN NEVER WRITE ROLLS THAT BIG!" and "NEVER GO OUTSIDE OF ONE OCTIVE IN A SINGLE PHRASE!" Then again, he also said that you should never have crossed hands, which apparently is allowed so long as you don't cross fingers between the two staffs.

These roll chords can be played, but you will need the help of a pedal, else you will lose the sound. The problem this will cause is, if you use the pedal, the notes of the left hand will cause an unwanted dissonance.

The notes that appear bigger than an octave like in bar 18 you will be forced to use a pedal for hold the lower note while you reach the higher one. But this will break the flow, since the pianist won't be able to play both notes at the same time.

Edit:

I played the big roll chords. The one that give more problem is the last one. The position get awful to jump the finger and keep the roll feeling. But this can be solved if you give the first notes of the roll chord to the left hand. But still needing a pedal. xP

Edit 2:

Ha! I saw a mistake! OCTIVE! Yay!

i like how you brought back the "theme" back around the half way through... then it turned very sad. i liked how you panned away from that though. at the end, that is.

Someone told me I wasn't being musical enough and had incomplete thoughts, so I revamped the song a bit more, added some more musical direction.

Is this meant to be actually played @_@


Very modern/post-romantic sounding...


Sounds too abstract for someone like me to comment on :P

Watch out for voice leading problems. First of all, in the first, 2-voice section, try to avoid going to an octave unless it's an important/cadential moment because it sort of halts any harmonic drive. In measure 15, you have parallel octaves between the top voice and bottom voice.

The middle section is nice. I like it the best.

I think the pedal point starting in mm. 38 would be more exciting if it were on a note besides the tonic. There's a specific Debussy prelude that does something like this that I want to show you, but I can't remember which prelude it is. :(

A couple things about the ending:

It doesn't really feel connected to the beginning very well. You have your little rhythmic motif that goes on throughout the piece, but I feel like you need more of a melodic or harmonic motif, too, in order to bring things together.

Also, I don't really like that it crescendos to fortissimo.

Is this meant to be actually played @_@

It can be played. Problem is the notes longer than an octave, you can't play them at the same exact time, and this break the original intentions. The performer will be forced to break them for to be able to play these notes.

I played the piece. The notes that can't be played at the same time are located in the bars:

#18 - Upper staff the B and C#, lower staff the D and F#, G and C#.
#19 - Lower staff the D and C#.
#23 - Lower staff the D and F#, E and A. Upper staff Bmin7 chord need to be arpeggiatte for reach the A at the top or eliminate the lower F#.
#33 - Upper staff the B and C#, lower staff the D and F#, G and C#.
#34 - Lower staff the D and C#.

Would be good to revise these bars and make modifications that permit the performer to play the piece without having to break the notes.

What is BY-AT-ND? And why is this CC? o_O

It can be played. Problem is the notes longer than an octave, you can't play them at the same exact time, and this break the original intentions. The performer will be forced to break them for to be able to play these notes.

I played the piece. The notes that can't be played at the same time are located in the bars:

#18 - Upper staff the B and C#, lower staff the D and F#, G and C#.
#19 - Lower staff the D and C#.
#23 - Lower staff the D and F#, E and A. Upper staff Bmin7 chord need to be arpeggiatte for reach the A at the top or eliminate the lower F#.
#33 - Upper staff the B and C#, lower staff the D and F#, G and C#.
#34 - Lower staff the D and C#.

Would be good to revise these bars and make modifications that permit the performer to play the piece without having to break the notes.

What is BY-AT-ND? And why is this CC? o_O


I'm still trying to break apart the chords to get the overtones that I'm looking for; while at the same time, trying to remove the knots that this would cause to the performer (must. not. cross. fingers!). It's just one of those things that I have a hard time doing because I feel that a Bb and Bb in different octaves are not the same note, nor could they ever be considered the same note, and that a eight note cannot be extended to a quarter note by simply flooring a pedal. I'll eventually make it right (_ _)......

And it's CCed because everything posted here is automatically copyrighted. I don't really care about how my musical works are distributed or how they're used, so I copyleft them so that if someone feels so inspired, they're free to take what they want so long as they give me attribution (AT), provide the baseline (BY), and don't produce something commercial off of it (ND). You can't do anything with a copyrighted work without the owner's prior consent, so I circumvent that step by doing this.




As for the ending, I intended for it to sound broken to an extent. As I originally posted, I wrote this to a tortured life. I considered the themes:

Theme I: Birth (0:00-0:51)
Theme II: Infancy (0:51-1:10)
Theme III:Life (1:10-1:56)
Theme IV: Paralyzed (1:56-2:13)
Theme III: Memories (2:13-2:25)
Theme III+II: Peril (2:25-3:02)
Theme I: Rebirth (3:02-3:27)
Theme I + II: Death (3:27-3:47)

I know it's ugly, but I wanted to layer the themes as more of an impression than a musical objective.

Porsche actually restrung this one for me and gave me a few new ideas. I'm still working the kinks out of the ones I like, the ones that absolutely must be fixed, and the ones that I'm going to leave.

It was weird seeing a creative commons mark. XD

I found your explanations of the BY-AT-ND in the CC. I am suppose to know about that... but I do not, lol. :heh:

It was weird seeing a creative commons mark. XD

I found your explanations of the BY-AT-ND in the CC. I am suppose to know about that... but I do not, lol. :heh:

After all the problems I had with users stealing Clarinetists works, I became well versed in copyrights :4eyes:

As for the ending, I intended for it to sound broken to an extent. As I originally posted, I wrote this to a tortured life. I considered the themes:

Theme I: Birth (0:00-0:51)
Theme II: Infancy (0:51-1:10)
Theme III:Life (1:10-1:56)
Theme IV: Paralyzed (1:56-2:13)
Theme III: Memories (2:13-2:25)
Theme III+II: Peril (2:25-3:02)
Theme I: Rebirth (3:02-3:27)
Theme I + II: Death (3:27-3:47)


That's a lot of themes for such a short piece; it would be better if each theme was more developed...

Tweaked some stuff, added some more harmony, and I tried to fix the octaves, but I still can't quite get the broken measures Nyu001 pointed out to give the right overtones in a different octave. I just know one day I'm going to open Sibelius and click somewhere random and be like "oh, that actually works".

And I don't quite see what you're addressing deathraider when you mean parallel octaves. I have:

Ugly Chord | G, F
A,G,A | E
B,D | D

Are you talking about the last D, or am I missing something totally obvious?

:sigh: I need more classes.

Oh, woops, I meant measure 14. Sorry about that. Look between beats 3 and 4.

... I just know one day I'm going to open Sibelius and click somewhere random and be like "oh, that actually works".

hahaha. that happened to me quite so often. it seems like sibelius looks kinda like finale. nevertheless, at least you know^_^... :think:though i don't know exactly what that means.:heh:

the piece sounds a whole lot better. i didn't even have to compare it to the last one, since the impression i got was "a whole lot better", just as i mentioned earlier. and the fact that i now have a series of themes to go off from helps so much sweeter. the title makes so much sense too:lol:. maybe i should start doing that as well.:shifty:

Edit: sorry, accidentally posted in the wrong thread. XD

So I extended a bit of Airs de Daemon to build on the first rhythm that a lot of people liked. I'm not quite certain if I'm repeating melodies a bit too much and was wondering what the experts here feel about the route I took.


Edit: The bassline is apparently glitching in the playback of this file at about 1:00. It should hold out for the entire duration of the silence.

I'm can't really give an informed opinion on this since I'm terrible with abstract music, but on the notation, I think it's often easier for musicians to count larger bars than smaller (eg. 1 bar in 9/8 rather than a 7/8 + 2/8). Unless you intentionally wanted those silent bars at the end, you can get rid of them by selecting and hitting Ctrl + Backspace.

Edit: Actually, I think the progression starting from 1:01 is very pleasant, especially when it went into the higher register later. I wish it could be expanded on.

Do you play the piano? I saw some bichords so difficult to execute at this insane speed that would even make Godowsky's Studies cry. :P

Sadly, I don't, so a lot of things I learn when I give it to someone to play and they go "What the heck were you thinking?!"

Hello M,

I dont think the chords are that hard to play..i just had a try :P
Anyways, have you considered using split chords, eg bar 14 (I mean the wiggly line thing) rather than writing out the notes separately? It looks neater and im pretty sure you'd get the same effect.

Also, really try and point out your main motif (im presuming its the F-Eb-Bb F-D-A theme) some more, maybe sprinkle it in a bit in later sections so the listener doesnt feel too lost if theyre not listening while reading the score?

But good going M :)

The Bbm in Bar 17 is not so possible because of the top Db note. The pianist would need to use the thumb for play the Bb + Db. There is a gasp between both which make it hard to do.

Switching the left and right hands at meas. 16 would make hitting the Bbm chord at 17 a lot easier. Going from the treble to a chord with a octave+minor third stretch in the bass would be really easy to miss and mess up. I think there were some other spots that could use a little tweaking, which I saw on my cursory glance through it, but that one spot stuck out the most to me.

I didn't see any bichords but maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention. Or maybe "bichords" was referring to the harmonic intervals. idk

But composers wrote stuff like that all the time, look at chopin's nocturne in C minor, for example. Crazeh.

Kitty, kitty, kitty. ^.^

---

I take down what I said. I was able to play it and I found out that I can make legato between these notes with my thumb, and leaving them sustained, lol.

I'm can't really give an informed opinion on this since I'm terrible with abstract music, but on the notation, I think it's often easier for musicians to count larger bars than smaller (eg. 1 bar in 9/8 rather than a 7/8 + 2/8). Unless you intentionally wanted those silent bars at the end, you can get rid of them by selecting and hitting Ctrl + Backspace.

The short measures were placed there intentionally. I intended for them to act as pickups into the next phrasing, and merging the lengths seemed like it didn't flow as well as the short 1/8, 2/8, 5/8 bars. By merging the bars together, the implicit phrasing gets a little lost as well.

And sorry about the extra measures. I'm still working out how the ending is going to be so I didn't chop them off (a sign that I'm still working on it ;) ).


Anyways, have you considered using split chords, eg bar 14 (I mean the wiggly line thing) rather than writing out the notes separately? It looks neater and im pretty sure you'd get the same effect.

I don't like the way how it looks either, but I wanted the rolls to be played in time at those points. Is there perhaps another way to tell the performer to play the roll in time with a certain duration per each note?


Switching the left and right hands at meas. 16 would make hitting the Bbm chord at 17 a lot easier. Going from the treble to a chord with a octave+minor third stretch in the bass would be really easy to miss and mess up. I think there were some other spots that could use a little tweaking, which I saw on my cursory glance through it, but that one spot stuck out the most to me.

Good catch. Totally going to fix that.





And here's another incomplete work that I started on this morning. I'm really liking the progressions and phrasing.

it sounds like it'll be fun to play. definitely killed it with the dissonance during the last half of the piece. when i said "killed" i mean you ROCKED IT! i think i'm at the phase where dissonance sounds nice.

I believe I'm now at a happy state with the themes of Ultima now. Here's a draft copy of the final.

I am really digging these last two pieces, however I'm not going to tell you something that you already know *hints at the playability of your compositions* ;)

Don't know much more to say other than I was to hear more. Love your use of rhythm, it's definitely up my avenue...maybe some slower pieces to add some experimentation with harmony and such? :)

Ultima would be better notated as 6/8 rather than 3/4, that way you will have the second accents falling on the beat. You need to apply dynamics, the left hand sounds too loud that does not let me appreciate the right hand very well.

I am really liking the piece, but it sounds to me like it can be improved more melodically. You should add a climax or a slow down at the end to finalize the piece. The ending sounded abrupt to me. My favorite part is bar #44.

Very comfortable piece anyway, I have it repeating here! :D