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The most popular Services mentioned in /r/composer:
MuseScore
Google Docs
Google Drive
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Scribd
Issuu
Dropbox
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Frescobaldi
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Musescore actually has a wide variety of instruments. When you create a new score, you'll want to change the drop-down menu from "Common instruments" to "All instruments". You can also download another soundfont and replace the default one if you feel the default is not realistic enough. Soundfonts explained on Musescore website
If you really dislike Musescore, you can try Noteflight or Lilypond, which are free. I haven't used them though, so I can't really tell you how good they are.
Edit: typo
Depends on what you mean specifically since live electronics can describe a lot of different things. Ableton is excellent for performance and it's my favorite DAW. I'd highly recommend learning Max/msp as well. It's an object based programming language designed for audio. You can use it to create standalone applications.
Here is an example from a score of mine. You'll see on page 2 is a diagram of the electronics layout, and on page 3 are instructions for using the application (which was made in Max).
I was also in a laptop ensemble and we performed many pieces that involved moving smart phones to manipulate program parameters, and scores for those where often very general and aleatoric.
EDIT: Also, I've just remembered an example from another redditer who posted his piece here a while back for tuba and electronics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-qU1_3x4wo
He uses an amp and guitar pedals that the performer controls during the piece. The score is in the video so you can see the kinds of directions he gives.
According to the release timeline, version 3.3 is currently scheduled to be released on October 7 or 8.
In the meantime, you can download a release candidate.
How can someone rip you off if you give it away for free? There is a thing called Creative Commons. All the money I make is through my music and it is all liberally licensed via CC. In fact I have a difficult time calling anything art whose dissemination is heavily constrained by monetary considerations.
I'm assuming you're talking about OSX 10.10 Yosemite (the latest version), not Mavericks, which is the previous version.
MakeMusic posted this regarding compatibility issues with Yosemite. According to this post, Finale 2011 crashes upon creation of a new score.
Here is another post about the issue, which says:
> To be clear, Finale 2012 and earlier are not supported in Yosemite. While results vary, there are known problems. If you’re using Finale 2012 or earlier, I don’t recommend updating to Yosemite at this time. We’ll provide more information on this blog as it becomes available.
As far as I can tell, no further information has been posted on the blog, and this would seem to imply that MakeMusic has no intentions of fixing any issues with old versions of Finale.
I don't use MuseScore but I thought I would fire it up and see about your points.
> Musescore doesn't have shortcut keys so entering music is much slower than Sibelius.
It looks like it has a shortcut key available for just about every function it has. Some you have to assign but plenty are already built in.
> There are many things you can't copy and paste, like pedal lines, and entire sections with all lyrics and barlines and tempo markings.
You can copy and paste pedal lines and lyrics and lots of other things. I'm not sure about barlines and tempo markings are not supported yet. The vast majority of elements can by copy and pasted, however.
> Its panoramic/continuous view (as opposed to page view) freezes in large scores.
I have no way to check that.
> You will never have decent sounding playback in a way you could with NotePeformer in one of the other programs.
Here is what the Musescore devs say:
>> Probably the most exciting part of our plans include a new audio engine as well as VST support. We plan to implement integration with Steinberg's VSTi SDK, while making sure that our system will integrate with NotePerformer. To that end, we are in constant communication with the engineers from the NotePerformer team to ensure that the integration goes smoothly.
So I would say that you are half-wrong to mostly wrong.
I fully agree. All the “greats” are often spoken about as if the compositions were almost directly given from heaven and therefore are great. But this is nonsense, composing is hard work and once you master the skill, there remains the super important aspect of ‘the right place at the right time in history’. About Mozart and his composing style this article is interesting.
Oh yeah, I forgot!
I've only ever used the Musescore software rather than anything online. In fact, it has a lot to do with me that Musescore-only links (those to Musescore.com) on this sub are now banned.
Anyway, original OP, here's the software, the site you'll need:
And here's Musescore the website/social network/sharing site/etc. (whatever it's supposed to be):
It's definitely worth it. And using something like Frescobaldi takes a lot of the pain away from using it. There are so many things that Lilypond can do across so many different types of music that makes it the easy choice.
The key feature is that of all the engraving programs out there, Lilypond will produce the best looking scores out of the box without requiring all the tweaking that normally comes with engraving. In other words you don't have to be an engraver to use it.
Also, because it is a markup language (and thus a text file) this gives you a ton of power with the way you can generate scores. Here's a link to an article I wrote about how I'm using it on a huge project I'm working on. When I started the project I wasn't a programmer. Actually I'm still not. But I am faking my way through it creating a massive music generating program that also creates Lilypond files that are then compiled into scores. Because this is going online someday the scores must be perfect or nearly so without any additional tweaking whatsoever. That's just not something you can get with any other engraving software.
But of course you might not ever have that need but then again who knows? But knowing you are using a platform that can grow in any direction you want to go is a good feeling and makes for a nice investment in your future.
Also, it is actually pretty easy to produce simple scores. Go through the tutorial, use Frescobaldi, and in no time you'll have working scores. If you need to do fancy or complicated things then that stuff can require some patience but fortunately the Lilypond community is very active and incredibly friendly/helpful (see my article for examples of this).
In short, yes, it's worth the effort in order to get beautiful scores.
With all due respect to the other critics, your issue here is not musical quotation or measure 37. Both of those are completely fine. Hell, Mozart stole the fast motive in his Overture to the Magic Flute from Clementi. A whole motive! What appears to be musical quotation in your piece obviously isn't deliberate and reflects the fact that there are simply tropes in classical writing. No one would say that your cadence at bar 12 is stolen from every other classical work that uses that figure, for instance.
No, I think that the issue is you don't pick a theme and stick to it. You open with a nice declarative theme, and then by bar 6, my ear hears an entirely new theme. And then, I get a new theme at 13 (the only theme I think you develop fully).
To explain what I mean, I whipped up an example based on your opening motive:
(Just for the record, I'm not doing this as a shameless plug or something; Mozart and others did this with their pupils to suggest possible alternatives in their writing.)
I don't have a score since I just improvised it, but notice how I develop your first 5 bar idea into a much longer statement. I did this by repeating the first 3 bars up a step, in C minor, and then using a sequence to elaborate and return back to Bb major. Then, I repeated the motives again, in both keys, and came finally to an imperfect authentic cadence that elides into your second theme (the one at bar 6).
I would suggest, overall, being more conservative in your themes and seeing what you can do with them harmonically and rhythmically to mess them up and vary them, rather than writing new themes.
I love bar 37 though, and your development. You took interesting risks with both and that's what gives you personality in your writing.
Score: https://www.scribd.com/doc/251526900/Dusk-orchestra-version
(Better score upload: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5-adIslOLy_cEY4T1BMR0pUMW8/view?usp=sharing)
If you caught it when I posted it, I wrote a solo piano piece by the same title several months ago. I liked it enough to select it as the focus of my first full orchestra piece, so here it is! It's a short piece but the scope of the project was still pretty big, it took me a long time to get all the parts finished and polished. It has been read through once by an orchestra, and they will read through it again later this month. This recording isn't from them though.
about what? did you refer to one of your earlier works like you are some household name level of composing genius and we are supposed to know about it? i assume you're talking about this which still suffers from all the problems everybody on this thread has talked about so far. I don't see any sense of precise development of ideas only someone playing with a notation software.
I typically do it on a case by case basis depending on the mode. For some things I even use dodecaphonic rules (every accidental displayed). For others I will try to find the best voice leading in the individual parts (F# G Ab instead of Gb G G#) and yet others will be the best spelling of chords.
Also, see the section on automatic accidentals here: http://www.lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/notation-big-page.html
I know MuseScore is capable of producing microtonal sounds and scores, but the two are not interlinked. To create the sounds, you alter the tuning of individual notes, while the microtonal accidentals do not affect the sound. For this reason, it's likely not the best option, but it is free.
Place "swing" or this at the top of the score if you want a swung rhythm don't write it all out. Just use eights where you'd use that triplet figure. I recommend investing in notation software though. The look of a composer's score is indicative of their level of craft, and it's the only thing a performer has to work with.
I really liked the atmosphere though (it drags on after a bit, but depending on the music's function, it may not matter).
The guitar is a very hard instrument to write idiomatically for. Research shell voicings like /u/qwertyzxcvbnm said and look up how some common movable chord shapes look written out.
Hans Zimmer has a master class on composing you can sign up for. I think it's $90 for the one class, lifetime access and I think you can speak with him directly during the class? Link to class website.
My wife took one led by Jane Goodall and really loved it. There are also free classes you can take online through coursera.com. I'm taking one now through Berklee on songwriting for free. You have the option to pay and you get a certification but you can just learn the material for free online.
I recommend just making music. Just keep doing it and doing it. Take music theory classes for free, practice your scales and build chords in different ways. If you don't already play an instrument, pick one up. Play around with it and learn as you go. Try creating assignments for yourself like arranging a rock song for a string quartet, or write a jazz version of a popular tune. Experiment with transposing and arranging things for different instruments so you can learn what the limits of each instrument are. Hans Zimmer was likely composing long before he understood all the ins and outs of music theory. You will only get better with time and practice.
Don't let what you don't know yet hold you back from doing what you need to do to be happy. I did that for too long and realized that I need to just do it. I've deleted hundreds of songs over the years and have just now found one that I actually like and want to complete. Don't worry about being able to do it for work until you've developed your sound. That can ONLY develop with time and effort - no degrees or classroom learning can do that for you. So keep it as a side job/hobby and see where it takes you. Good luck and have fun with it!
edit for formatting
Reddit automatically removed your comment. Is that an Amazon affiliate link you provided? If so, then I'm sure that's the reason why.
Hey OP, here is the same link as was removed above: https://www.amazon.com/Contemporary-Orchestration-Practical-Instruments-Ensembles/dp/0415741912
Problem solving comes mostly from practicing oneself, yes, but significant breakthroughs can result from the perspective of another. My teacher has helped me to understand things in the space of weeks that may have taken years, or never.
Solving creative problems is essentially a technical practice. We ask ourselves technical questions: "is this too homogeneous?" or "is this climax grounded?" or "are these lines independent enough to be heard?", etc. And then, our ear answers. Creativity responds to technical obstacles. So, to enlarge one's creative "space", he or she should start asking more questions of one's work. But this takes painful honesty, patience, persistence, and also the knowledge of which questions to ask. Having a good teacher can aid in learning the discipline to keep at it, as well as learning a panoply of new questions to ask.
Good books to help with creative space: "The War of Art", I found helpful, and also any book on form — "Fundamentals of Musical Composition" by Schoenberg is a nice basic one. I've read a few others that helped but they escape me at the moment. Any book on form is good, as I said. Form is where technicality becomes subjective. A dissonance can be consonance, in context.
My trick has always been to pick a mood, genre, or topic and then use numbers or letters to come up with a pattern of notes to start with. I find that having a set of random notes to act as a "seed" pushes me past the writers' block. That and doing music work every day. (Read "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield.)
Did you get all the scores? I'm gonna delete it from Dropbox... Also, it turns out I had this - it's manuscript draft of the cues for Alien.
The score is in the video description and here.
I just finished my senior year of high school, and I'm going to be going on to university to study music. However, I just started composing near the beginning of senior year as a result of my AP music class, and now I'm really interested in it and would be very interested to study that instead of performance (or perhaps alongside?). However, I know that music can be really competitive and I'm afraid that I wouldn't have any chance of competing with other people studying composition who have been interested in it for far longer than I have.
I wrote this at the end of my senior year, and it is my first real piece (everything before has just been studying theory). It's not amazing, but do you guys think it would be good enough for where I am right now? What can I do to improve from here?
https://www.coursera.org/learn/music-production
I'm taking this program right now and it's helping me out a lot to learn music production. It's an awesome skill for learn, especially for a composer. You can take it for free I believe. Also youtube might be good too. There are DAWs you can download for free. If you use a mac, Garageband is a great place to start.
I actually call them "modern" because I studied them that way. I also tend to think that we are in a certain modernity since Debussy's Prélude à l'après midi d'un faune. since that time nothing really changed, it's just the infinity possibilities that govern us, and not a old tonal system.
As you'll see, I also like Ligeti a lot since his cello concerto was one of my major inspiration for L'homme et la mer.
Here is the link to the analysis (it's actually one of my shortest analysis)
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwJtEBfXdk31OWIwODU4NzAtZmQwMS00YjcyLWI1ZjItNzllZmUyNWUzMWVm
Seriously, I just listened to the pieces you uploaded, and I feel embarassed to say what little I have to say about this piece :(
The reason why I chose the vibraphone to be played with the hands was because it was interesting to work with as a technique, and because it followed the underlying inspiration for the piece. Initially I meant for him to play with mallets and hands, and I had the same concern as you mention when my teacher suggested that he should play with the hands only. But we did some tests in some fairly big rooms, and the sound is actually very clear.
I wrote the piece in a continuing dialogue with the performer, and he was a bit skeptical about the hands only technique, but he ended up liking the idea very much, albeit it hurts to play like this. Also as a funny sidestory, he wasn't very fond when he realized he needed to let his fingernails grow in order to play the piece, so he looked forward to the performance very much, so he could cut his nails afterwards :D
edit: I forgot the score
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PAoKg1QkRJjnZlnA8gcx8q_2Wt70mfMyg4L42Ou7OP0/edit?hl=en_US
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BxDOgPtLf3Q_ZWE1ZmFiMDMtM2M4Ni00ZDAyLThiMjItNzA2ODQ5OTk3ZWRi
Composition completed sometime this February, performed in April.
It's a string quartet about Odd numbers.
Movement 1: VII - it's a dance that's meant to make you get used to 7 and like thinking in a 7-meter.
Movement 2: V - 5 is everywhere. We think in 5.
Movement 3: III
Reactions and constructive criticism are welcome. Enjoy! =)
Thought I'd post this here finally for some more critical words. Interested what people have to say about the form!
edit: oh and I should mention I'm revising the layout for the time signatures and making beamed rests more consequential.
I read your description on the video about the cookies and sprinkles. You could try something like these if you want a version of the cookie that won't rupture your intestines: https://www.walmart.com/ip/43973098?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222228031835663&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=m&wl3=60191040656&wl4=aud-273067695102:pla-107161849496&wl5=9031563&wl6=&wl7=&...
Here is the pdf link! The registration is super specific as it was written for the organ it was performed on. I plan on making the registration more general sometime over the summer. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByM1uR9up6-RT1hxeUs3Y1VGYU0/edit?usp=sharing
Thanks for checking out the piece! I believe this link should work for the score, just uploaded it, let me know if you have any issues!
https://www.scribd.com/doc/303782126/Cerebral-Cortex-Score
I wasn't studying any percussion music at this time, but I have played many years in percussion ensembles and we always get multiple mallet pieces like this to play, gives us a break from the woodblock/breakdrum type stuff!
The study of orchestration by Samuel Adler is a great book, but it is pricey. This book Acoustic and MIDI Orchestration for the Contemporary Composer: A Practical Guide to Writing and Sequencing for the Studio Orchestra https://www.amazon.com/dp/0240520211/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_rlAlub14XQMD5. Looks promising, but would need to look at in depth to give the thumbs up.
This is a very brief fanfare for orchestra composed for the University of Louisville Symphony Orchestra in 2013. The title refers to trains that assaulted my ears night after night while living in my apartment in Louisville, Kentucky while studying for my master's degree.
Thanks for listening, enjoy!
Score Here: http://issuu.com/thomasbsturm/docs/a_singing_comet
Here's the details:
"A Singing Comet" is a continuation of my work with transcribing sounds recorded in space for various acoustic ensembles. This piece began as an experiment in transcription of the sound emitted by the Comet 67p and recorded by Rosetta’s Plasma Consortium. After a complete transcription, I began to make musical interventions in the material, adding my own textures and musical contexts for the sound of the comet to travel through. In this way, "A Singing Comet" serves as a representation both of the actual sound of the comet, and the metaphoric representation of its travel through space and its interaction with the Human Race.
Recorded on 3/15/15 by the Little Giant Ensemble during Rice University's Common Practice 21C: Classical, Contemporary, and Cross-Cultural Music Festival highlighting a variety of Chinese Instruments and contemporary compositions composed for Both Chinese and Western Classical ensembles.
Here is the score. The ensemble did great, and the conductor was awesome. This was their third performance of three completely different concerts in the span of about 14 days or so. They blew me away with some of the interpretations and blending in some of the passages. There are more films from this same event, from other composers, if anyone is interested in the full list.
This is really nice! I put it on again with this: http://www.rainymood.com/
You seem really confident in your writing, I'm guessing you've made a few works. It's really fluent and falls into place, it would be nice to hear this live, maybe with some rain outside...
Are you looking for something free or do you have a specific budget in mind?
It it's free, I know that someone recorded and compiled some drumline samples here. As for horns, the FluidR3 GM Bank has some passable brass, but the reeds definitely leave something to be desired.
I started out with this: http://www.musanim.com/player/
I used the midi from the finale score and the logic file (for the tape part). Since the electronics are in strict time I was able to sync the actual performance with the midi animation. I then edited it in premier pro.
I think the power of electronics is that you are not constrained by notation. Notation exists to communicate your ideas to a performer. But when you are communicating ideas to a computer, it is a completely different situation. Most of the 'notation' becomes computer code of some sort. Max/Msp is great if you are new to programming. If you want to get more advanced, the overtone project is incredibly powerful (http://overtone.github.io/). In the same space but a bit simpler is Sonic Pi: http://sonic-pi.net/.
I dig it. I like the sparseness and combining the simple piano sound with a "simple" electronic/percussive effect works nicely. At times the piano music almost became too interesting with the multiple notes and little rhythmic flourishes.
As for producing a score from the MIDI file, Lilypond can do it for you. It's free and produces terrific-looking scores. It comes with a tool called "midi2ly" which takes a MIDI file and converts it to a Lilypond file which can then be run through Lilypond producing a pdf file. Based on what I heard there's going to be a lot of very weird durations because even though midi2ly does provide some quantization it might not be that good. If you become familiar with Lilypond then you would be able to modify the Lilypond file and make it look nicer otherwise consider what it produces to be a draft.
There's a great report at https://musescore.org/en/node/307369. I think some of the issues listed have already been addressed (e.g. the font).
It's helpful to keep in mind that MuseScore probably does a better job at engraving than a handwritten sheet by musician who hasn't learned engraving.
Thank you! Only been using Musescore so not sure how the notation process compares, but its simple navigation might differ from "traditional" programs which creates a slight learning curve. Shortcuts are very customizable in the preferences. Still shines in technical notation; I dug up a very badly orchestrated excerpt that shows some of its capability (this is from a year ago, before a major font update).
DAW etc. compatibility, playback, and software aesthetics are in the works for Musescore 4 to come in a year; initial looks seem very promising: the capabilities of major programs without the fuss of inconsistent design. See this update.
Here are some things that immediately caught my attention:
There are two quarter notes at the end of each four-bar phrase in Gavotte I. That's not wrong by any means, but a variety of rhythms might be nice -- two quarters, dotted quarter followed by an eighth, quarter then four sixteenths, etc.
Each section of the piece begins the same way, quarter note then two eight notes. This isn't wrong either. In fact, since the piece is a dance, it's a good thing in many ways. Still, variety is worth looking into. Perhaps it would be pleasing to use two eights followed by a quarter in Measure 17 and/or 33?
Gavotte II introduces the idea of two unison notes, such as how you use F# in measure 35. I'd love to hear that idea in a clearly stated "sequence"! Ties could also be fun.
I personally enjoy composing without phrase markings, dynamics, or articulations. It allows musicians to find their own stylistic truths in the music, and is (arguably) historically appropriate for a gavotte. That said, some people might criticize you for not including those elements. In my opinion, it's worth considering basic dynamics at the beginning of each section and, for bowing purposes, a few phrase markings.
I really do like the piece as-is too. Thank you for allowing me to make so many nitpicky comments!
PS: What are your thoughts on MuseScore?
If you're starting out, MuseScore is certainly the best choice because it's free. Nowadasys I use Sibelius, but for transcribing MIDIs, they both do the same.
Besides, they've just released version 2.0, which is getting closer and closer to commercial software.
A project I've done in the past 3 months as a representative composition and an attempt in a more experimental/conceptual/contemporary type of music.
The work attempts to find and represent the essential similarities of Tibetan prayer chanting combined with the wild and trance-inducing nature of shamanic meditations/trips.
The title BWRGY - Blue, White, Red, Green, Yellow, represents the colors of Tibetan prayer flags and guides the form of this work. Each color represents a different element/symbol, which is then transformed metaphorically to the corresponding parts of both meditations.
The aim wasn't necessarily to channel a meditative state, but instead, depict in a static and dynamic manner the feelings and images one could experience in either of them.
Here's the score
A couple of pretty easy pieces, if you wanna post some recordings, that'd be cool:
for violin (could work on other instruments if feeling adventurous) :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BygvhOmxBBriSmdfVmZVR29ZVHc/edit?usp=sharing
for piano:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BygvhOmxBBrib0VNTWRCV2tycVU/edit?usp=sharing
You have a good melodic sense. The piece has some strong ideas, but it meanders. The momentum drops out after bar 17. You could stand to devote some time to studying form to help tighten up your phrases, get a handle on cadences, and piece sections together more effectively.
I'm curious how you came up with the chords. To my ear, they distract from the beauty of your melody. Already in bar "3" you have... A/B? Your measure numbers are off, by the way. The pickup should not be counted in the measure numbering. In MuseScore, the way you do this is right click the pickup measure, select Measure Properties, and check "Exclude from measure count." Anyway, what's with this A/B chord? Right after, you go right back to C#m, and the next bar is C#m as well. So you have lots of C#m and some chord that's not very active and doesn't harmonize the melody particularly well. This sounds static. The worst of it, for me, is when you have C#m in bar 18. Try this out: keep the same melody note, but change the chord to A in that bar. Then, in bar 20, change the chord to E. Now you have the progression A–B–E–C#m in mm. 18-21. Repeat those same chords for the next four bars. Listen to the piece up to this point. Do you hear how much more forward motion there is when you hit bar 18?
This is a good first attempt. You have the basics down. Just work on tweaking your harmony and form. You can play this piece?
A recommendation: check out the waltzes of Yuri Slonov.
I’d agree with you - and as a teacher, if you have a better instrument to start, it’s going to make playing easier.
Apologies for the Canadian site but I’m on mobile - this piano (Yamaha P-45) https://www.amazon.ca/Yamaha-88-Key-Contemporary-Digital-Piano/dp/B00UJ9LNDK will be a good one to start. $700 CDN, or around $500 USD iirc. This piano will last you a long, long time. You CAN get cheaper, but this one will last for decades.
The craft books have been covered well, though I would also add The Art of Film Music by George Burt.
That being said, one of the most important books you can possibly read to prepare yourself is the most up to date version of Passman's All You Need To Know About The Music Business.
Film music is equally craft and business. If you're not prepared you will fail.
I'm with u/angelenoatheart , character is a big one for me - and definitely overrides any preconceived ideas about process. If I'm coming up against a deadline, I might fall back on something that's worked in the past, but reinventing the process every time, while seemingly annoying and inefficient, can really create some great results.
I'm actually reading a book loosely related to this right now that you might find interesting: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NLL76U2/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
You will have to forgive the roughness of the score - I use Sibelius only to get the music down before moving into Cubase to render the performance.
The harmony of the first movement is based on fifths and fourths, the second movement thirds and sixths, and the final movement seconds and sevenths.
Coursera just began a new session of "Write Like Mozart," which teaches voice leading composition:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/classical-composition/home/welcome
There are videos, quizzes and homework. A working knowledge of sheet music (sight reading) is a prerequisite. Free. I believe it is eight weeks, but it may be six weeks.
I learned last night (11pm Eastern Time) that a dear friend of mine passed away suddenly. He was young and left before his prime.
This is for him and for a service today that will be held in honor of him.
Score:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9gton99lY6UTTA0RHBBaDdRbkdIeS1ZR2NiSW9pdw/edit
This is an older piece of mine, the performance isn't exactly perfect but most of the harmonies and textures are there so its close.
This was performed last night by the PSU New Music Ensemble. They host a composition contest every year, and commission pieces from 4 student composers. The other 3 pieces are all wonderful, and are in the same bandcamp album if you want to listen to them as well.
Oh, dear, I'm sorry guys! I think my initial comment with the score, text and other such details never actually posted. Let me remedy that ASAP :p
The text is from a french Rilke poem, #12 in the orchards cycle I believe. Here's the french:
Comme un verre de Venise sait en naissant ce gris et la clarté indécise dont il sera épris,
ainsi tes tendres mains avaient rêvé d’avance d’être la lente balance de nos moments trop pleins.
and a translation:
Like a Venetian glass at its conception, knows this gray and the imprecise clarity which will make him beholden,
thus your gentle hands had first dreamed of being the slow balance of our overflowing moments.
Though midi won't play it back, obviously, there is a lot more space in this piece than is immediately evident, especially in the opening.
Here's the score.
The whole first movement is whole tone (except for the chromaticism to move between the two whole tone scales to emulate the key change from tonic to dominant). The second and third movements are also symmetrical scales, but not whole tone themselves.
Here's the score.
The vocal line is a tone row and its retrograde, and then I harmonized it freely from there, using tonal harmony. I'm using both terms serial and tonal colloquially in that there's very little actual serialization, and the tonal harmonization very loosely follows the rules of common practice harmony.
Music as Social Life by Thomas Turino really clicked with me. The big idea is participatory and presentational music. Participatory music is when you get together and play a Mozart trio with your friends for your mutual enjoyment. Presentational music is when you do the exact same thing, but it's for an audience. Or, using another example, participatory music is when, in a Shona village in Zimbabwe, everybody parties and drinks and sings and dances and plays instruments, and there is absolutely zero distinction between the musician and audience. Presentational music is when that Shona village music is taught to American university students in their world music ensemble and they have a end-of-semester concert where parents and students who need to fill out concert cards sit in chairs and watch.
You're going into an undergraduate composition program? Congratulations. You will be surrounded by—and likely compose nothing but—presentational music for the duration of your studies. Now that you know that participatory music exists, you might feel compelled to try to balance that ratio. So read the book, why don't ya?
My friend was living abroad and homesick (from USA), so I wrote a little rag-like song to cheer her up. Shitty MIDI realization. I've browsed this sub for a while, but I never got around to posting anything (too lazy). Today I felt particularly motivated...
A piece about the word "drive"
Notes
The vibraphone when actually played, will be done so with (2) Bass Bows.
Some polishing remains (i.e. notating where to breath in the repeating accompaniment)
Any tips about writing for wind symphonies or any critique is appreciated. This is the first time I've really ever dealt with winds. I'm a pianist so this isn't my "natural" territory.
I feel like I need to make the disclaimer that this piece is for an advanced high school wind ensemble.
Here's the score: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B3A8hVYf3CAeMjE2NGRhY2YtNjY1Ny00YWFlLTlmMWItZGU0NGEzNTcyZTdl&hl=en_US
I'm a composition student, so any and all feedback would be much appreciated.
>because of the way those pieces are written, it is easy for performers to abuse the spirit of things and consciously choose notes to play while still strictly following the rules of the notation.
I'm currently reading The Graph Music of Morton Feldman? by David Cline...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1107521416/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_E457ME4VNZ9MB7RDR9Z9
...which tells the story of some horn players in an performance of one of his works "sneaking" Yankee Doodle in. Feldman, obviously, was less than impressed.
I simply don’t forget it. I try to go over it in my head over and over again until I get back to Sibelius. Or I write it down in a music journal like this one
Sorry, yes you’re right, I was looking at the 1st violin part, not the solo, my bad.
Honestly, your enthusiasm for the harp is really nice to hear. My sister is a harpist and often her parts consist of a glissando, followed by 400 bars rest, so you will be very popular among harpists if you keep going in this direction.
In terms of writing for instruments, I learned most of what I know from this book: Orchestrationhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0393097404/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_9CGQ9GTKT02C3TY7BPHV
It’s quite pricey, but it’s well worth it. There is a detailed chapter for every instrument in the orchestra, with examples of how composers have used them in the past.
It depends on several factors, but an important aspect is how important is it for you that the score lays flat on a stand. Ideally you'd like something that's either spiral-bound or that behaves a such, but I have several old-style scores that need clothespins to stay in place sometimes, so it's not completely mandatory.
The service I'd heard most of is LULU. It's a print-on-demand service that allows to either print a few copies for personal use or sell them in a marketplace. A stapled, 24-sheet A4 book with a color cover and standard quality costs around 4 € (can't remember if shipping was included, probably not).
Then there's Amazon KDP. It offers more-or-less the same thing AFAIK, even though everything you upload goes to the marketplaces invariably (nothing can remain private). A copy for yourself of the same 24-page book costs around 2 €, and a bit more in the markeplace for other people to buy (that's the minimum price, you can raise it up to 500 € IIRC). I've tried this one for the lulz, it's cute, I like it but it doesn't always stay open (but nor does my WTC Henle edition, for the record).
Then there are Lightning Source UK and HALSTAN. They seem great for bulk commands, but ther require a fee just to upload the PDF. Lightning source has normal binding that may not stay flat, but Halstan specializes on sheetmusic (they print the scores of Schott and Boosey).
If you plan to print that stuff for private consumption only, another option would be just investing in a laser printer and a binder such as this one. You'll save money in the long term and the scores not laying flat will never be an issue. That's my default option and I'm very happy with it.
Study partimento. It's the fastest way to internalize baroque counterpoint. Learning to recite Bach won't teach you his language. Learning theory will give you an intellectual understanding of the language, but it won't teach you how to speak it. Studying partimento and learning how to improvise baroque style music will give you a much deeper understanding of what Bach was doing. Here's a great book on the topic: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Partimento-History-Theory-Practice/dp/0195394208/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1EB66GFOEOJIU&keywords=partimento&qid=1649888576&sprefix=partimento%2Caps%2C164&sr=8-2
Here's the score, I'm not 100% sure if that link works. Let me know please :) It's the opening of a much larger piece but I only have this section perfect so far.
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1YfhhiIZEe4ZTc2NDdjZGItNzM4NC00Y2IxLThjNTktOWIzNTc5M2Q1M2U4
You're overthinking it. Music is art. When done right, in my opinion, it fills the soul and makes us happy. You are learning the basics, which is important. But it's pretty much impossible to teach someone how to be creative.
What do you like to listen to? I firmly believe that the only way we can create our own style is to know what has already been created. Even then, there is still a lot you can contribute to existing forms and structures. This is basically what composers do who write for movies. Especially for historic period pieces.
But seriously, I think understanding the forms and structures of various types of music is very important. I think we can create balance and mood through them. I've heard so many beginner compositions that seem like they have no idea of the direction they are taking. Form, progressions, and resolutions can help determine direction.
Anyway, I often find inspiration in the work of others. One of my favorite movies, mainly due to the musical score, is the movie Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer. The music goes so well with the action on the screen. It's a great example of writing music for a period piece that has a modern style to it.
Yeah Caplin's book, or rather books, are great.
He's written two books that are essentially the same. There's Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, which is the "scholarly" work, and then there's Analyzing Classical Form: An Approach for the Classroom which is the student version.
I haven't read the scholarly work but I understand it's pretty accessible. I went with the student edition because I was new to the study of form at the time and wanted to give myself a fighting chance!
Anyway, it's written in plain English, you can skim read it to get the gist but there's also plenty of detail if you need or want it.
A short 'n furious piece for orchestra. Score can be found here.
This was written for a score call in town, so if it get's selected I'll be sure to update this with a live recording.
Feedback is always appreciated! Thanks for listening.
Hello! I’ve been searching for videos to score as well. I found https://pixabay.com/videos/ where you can type anything you want (such as Eating, Swimming, Clouds, Hiking, Battle, etc.). The site outputs stock videos. Then I download them, then compose music to that video. These are short videos, but I boot up a (free) editing software so I can loop it.
>Musescore... doesn't seem to support writing the full score
Where did you get that idea? Of course it writes a full score.
https://musescore.org/sites/musescore.org/files/Multiple%20Percussion%20Staves.png
MuseScore has a planned better synth engine in the future. https://musescore.org/en/node/325860
As for what's available now... NotePerformer is pretty decent.
However, since you only want the playback not the engraving part -- it might make sense for you to play in the parts using midi keyboard and then use a DAW (e.g. Reaper, GarageBand etc.) with a good VST. That way you'll have way more flexibility and also get a more realistic result.
Jon Bang's Master's thesis, The Principles of Orchestration: Analysis, Theory and Practice (alternate link if that doesn't work), is good because it contains a literature survey of a number of orchestration texts, so you actually get a distilled version of multiple orchestration books plus some full orchestral analyses.
Something like SHMRG perhaps - Jan LaRue’s approach to musical style analysis. It's an acronym for Sound, Harmony, Melody, Rhythm, Growth - pronounced "SHMeRG" - and includes aspects like texture, dynamics, duration.
I've not read the original 1970 publication. But here's a detailed presentation with 27 slides I found online a while back. It's displayed as a diagram like a tree and then it zooms into inspect the multiple layers of each branch. There'll probably be a few more articles about it online, like this one for example.
Sheet Music: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6X9ignimuqRMTJhYzlhMDMtZmQwYS00OTY1LWIzMmUtOGY1OGY0MWEzMzA2
Thanks, r/composer, for listening to my pieces! It's been a long week, and this last one took me the entire day to make (10+ hours straight, almost). I hope you enjoy, and I welcome constructive criticism and comments on any of my pieces.
This won't be the last of me.
Sheet Music: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6X9ignimuqRNTVmMzE5ODQtYzhlZC00YTUxLWJjMzMtNTNjNDQwM2RhNDZl
I've been wanting to make a music box style tune for the longest time now. I always get this sort of nostalgia with them despite never having owned a music box.
Hope you enjoy.
Sheet Music: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6X9ignimuqRYTViMTRkMzktYTg3My00MDYyLWI3YTctMjBmMGZkOThmYTcx (without Drums/Lyrics)
This piece takes a turn for... well, whatever it presents itself to be. Be prepared for anything. (Feedback is greatly welcomed.)
Sheet Music: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6X9ignimuqRYTViMTRkMzktYTg3My00MDYyLWI3YTctMjBmMGZkOThmYTcx This takes a huge turn for... whatever it presents itself as. Be prepared. (Feedback is greatly welcome.)
Sheet Music: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6X9ignimuqRZTVmMTc2MjUtMjMzNi00NzQyLWJmYjAtYTE3N2NlOWU2MTAx
Finally, a piece with drums! I hope you like this'un; it's not so much jazz as it is a rock beat.
Sheet Music: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6X9ignimuqRMTI0MWFlZWMtYjgxNi00NTQwLTg2N2UtYWVmMTg3YzEwMmYy
I'm really not sure how possible this is to play. Please reply with your insight on whether or not this is even doable.
You'll want to read up on Gregorian chant practices. I wish I still had the name of the book I used at the university library. I imagine that any text that discusses chant will probably have a background on practices. I haven't used this text, but this looks promising.
I might get downvoted for this, but in the case of learning composition for film I'm not sure a score study will do all that much. I reckon you're a fan and perhaps want to learn the melodic, harmonic, rhythmic and timbral language of the composer, but this will only take you as far as setting similar atmospheres (and since I get the feeling you are going to use a DAW, a DAW breakdown of the Game of Thrones soundtrack might suffice for that).
Watching TV shows and movies while consciously paying attention to the music and asking yourself why certain decisions were made will prepare you a whole lot more than isolating the score from the medium it was composed for. It can rather serve as a supplement when you can't seem to think of the answers to whichever questions pops up.
Richard Davis wrote a "Complete" Guide to Film Scoring for Berklee, it is lacking key information but it's the best I'm aware of to get you started on what questions can be useful to ask yourself.
I'd consider reading the book The war of art by Steven Pressfield. It tackles so many issues I had with planning and inspiration and procrastination, and transformed the way I look at the composition of music.
Read it.
I've deleted the post as spam but I thought I'd respond to your comment anyway. A license is the only thing that allows someone to perform your copyrighted music. Even if you don't charge any royalties or even charge for the music at all, there must still be a license of some sort giving people that permission. See the Creative Commons licensing for examples of this.
Hi, songs are traditional folklore from Czech - Slovakia border. This region is called Walachia and has a lot of common in culture with the rest of Carpathian region. Songs are transcriptions of recordings captured in Valašská Bystřice in 1955. Musicians / singers were quite old, and in this remote and isolated region, songs are still original and authentic. It is in dialect, something between formal Czech / Slovak language, although singers were also aware about formal Czech language at that time.
I compose on electric guitar. I like the timbre I get out if it better. Though, I do play classical, as well.
In regards to my timbre statement, I present you this, recorded with various forms of effected electric guitar. I think it's pretty compelling.
Music as Social Life by Thomas Turino to foster an understanding of music as an activity rather than as a thing, and what that means for you as a participant.
Noise: The Political Economy of Music by Jacques Attali, because chasing the dragon of "originality" is an activity nearly totally unique to our mode of economics for the past 200 years.
Here's the sheet music (Hope it works...). Feel free to give me any criticism, however I don't think I'm going to work on it anymore, so I'll keep the criticism for next time.
By the way, please ignore the dynamic markings. I tend to over-accentuate them and make small changes every few bars because I want Finale to give me a certain sound.
Thanks!
Thanks for the interest! Glad you enjoyed the piece.
I used brass screws and bolts placed at various distances on the strings from the E in the bass clef to the C in the treble clef. I'll upload the score so you can see the preparations.
I chose the pitch material through a bastardized set theory, I had two simple scales that I broke down into sets and combined freely, using one set at a time.
Thanks for the feed back!
This was my thesis piece for my Music Technology degree at Florida International University. The pitches played by the strings are based on spectral analyses of a cello's low C string. The electronics are done through a Max/MSP patch that does live spectral analyses on the strings and creates delay lines and transpositions of the live material in real-time.
Score here!
This is the first attempt I've ever made at writing a fugue!
I think I covered all the basic techniques, even some augmentation towards the end. Augmentation in 7/8 is quite tricky, so I had to change the rhythm a little bit to make it fit.
If there is anything un-fugue like let me know and I'll try and update it I suppose.
Thanks, enjoy. It was very fun to write.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g16xbom2ntzo8fq/PRELUDE%20AND%20FUGUE%20IN%20D%20-%20Full%20Score.pdf
So I've written a piece for each of the categories in a composition competition. If I don't win (probably the case), I can still put them in my portfolio. This one's for SATB (non divisi) plus piano or organ.
Would love your feedback on anything, but especially the notation.
I know it's a pen, but, as Bernerd Herrmann Hemmann said; "Use a pen when you orchetrate, so you'll think about each note you write."
If I make a mistake, I just cross it out and correct somewhere nearby.
If I have to list a pencil, it's a completely basic Pilot Super Grip 0.5.
If you want the official take, I'm sure you'd find it in Behind Bars. But as a practical matter, I also prefer the "mood" descriptors to the Italian (assuming your performers are English speakers). "Allegro", for example, means "cheerful" in Italian. What if your music in a brisk tempo is not intended to be cheerful? Kinda funny to use the Italian. I'd much prefer "urgently" or similar.
Also, I use non-bolded Italics for one-shot purposes - like if a phrase or short moment needs to be performed in a certain stylistic way.
PS., I think the European scene tends to favor the Italian more (simply because of all the local languages being used... the Italian is still the "lingua franca" (lol). But you can make the case that everyone knows some English by now.