Composers of the world... Speak up!

[phil13]

I've been inspired by a recent related topic to write this one.

I want to know about all you composers on pianoforum. Specifically, I want to know the following:

-How long have you been composing?

-What do you compose (or have composed) for?

-What vein of music do you specialize in? If classical, what part of the time period?

-What have you written? (a post of your current portfolio)


And now, to answer my own questions:


I have been composing for about three and a half years.

I compose (so far) for solo piano, and for piano and violin.

I specialize in Romantic music (but I mix Haydn/Beethoven era music with Debussy/Scriabin era music, too.)

Here is my list of works:

5 Preludes for Piano
       1. Allegro, in G major
       2. Presto, in C minor
       3. Allegro, in E minor
       4. Adagio marziale, in A major
       5. Largo sostenuto, in F minor
   *Note: This is my earliest finished composition. I'm not too proud of it now that I've evolved to a higher state of composing.

Sonata No.1 in F minor for solo piano
       I. Allegro ma non troppo.
       II. Sarabanda: Adagia e mesto.
       III. Rondo: Presto appassionato.

Polonaise No.1 in C-sharp minor for solo piano

5 Modal Preludes for Solo Piano
      1. Dorian: Moderato
      2. Phrygian: Lento
      3. Lydian: Animato
      4. Mixolydian: Allegro molto
      5. Locrian: Larghetto

Sonata No.1 in D major for Piano and Violin
      I. Allegro comodo.
      II. Adagio.
      III. Finale: Allegro con spirito.

In progress: Sonata No.2 in C-sharp minor for Piano and Violin

Countless unfinished musical ideas that make up my 'sketchbook' library, including sections of waltzes, preludes, fantasias, a ballade, a Baroque rondo, and a funeral march. I use these in the bigger works I create, to enrich the textures and harmonies.

Phil

[prometheus]

-How long have you been composing?
About two and a half years, but not very productive.

-What do you compose (or have composed) for?
Either for piano of for orchestra or a combination of the two.

-What vein of music do you specialize in? If classical, what part of the time period?
I don't feel like I specialise. I don't really pick a time period and limit myself to that. But I am probably a bit like Reger but I would rather be more like Sorabji.

-What have you written? (a post of your current portfolio)
-Four pieces as fugal excersizes.
-Two complete fugues, three incomplete ones.
-A very crappy incomplete duet between a piano and a electric guitar, which I would rather change into a sax or something if it was good enough to finish.
-An incomplete piano concerto with a lot of parts that went in the trashbin. I have about 6 minutes of music and I hope it willl befome 20-35 minutes someday.
-A very incomplete and very experimental sonata for piano and sax.
-A concept for a piano sonata and a piano prelude which may very well be trashed
-A trashcan filled with all kinds of other tidbits.
-A very incomplete choral symphony with a chocolate cake recipe as sung words. Maybe it will be called 'Ode to Chocolate' though the choir joins in from the beginning at this point. Musically the concept is very thin so this is one is in the fridge, like many of the incomplete pieces above.

[brahmsian]

Phil- Have you made any recordings of your compositions? They would be cool to hear, especially the modal preludes.

[phil13]

No, if I could get them onto the site I would post midis of all of them, but currently I don't have good mp3 capabilities, or a good microphone, etc.

A while ago I posted a question on how to get midis onto the site. Nils still hasn't responded.

Phil

[mlsmithz]

-How long have you been composing?

Technically I've been playing at composition since I was about nine years old but I've only been writing pieces that turned out reasonably well for the past six years.

-What do you compose (or have composed) for?

Piano, although I've been toying with the idea of writing something for piano and violin or viola if I can find a violinist or violist willing to play through it.

-What vein of music do you specialize in? If classical, what part of the time period?

It varies from piece to piece, but primarily Romantic/Impressionist.

-What have you written? (a post of your current portfolio)

Let's see.... ignoring random sketches when I was first playing at composition, it reads as follows:

Adolescent works:
Sonata in F major (unfinished and unlikely to be finished)
Three preludes in C major, A minor, G major (intended to set a set of 24 in motion but I ended up losing interest, and none of those three have any merit anyway)

Since I started taking composition semi-seriously:
Concerto in E minor (partial sketch of two-piano reduction of first movement; I keep meaning to return to it)
Prelude, Fugue, and Chaconne in B-flat minor
Toccata and Fugue in E-flat major
Suite of 24 morceaux de caracteres in the 24 major and minor keys (12 completed, 6 in progress); originally intended as an homage to a now defunct webcomic, it's since taken on a life of its own.
Processional March in E major on themes from the 'Final Fantasy' series (written for a friend's wedding)
"Marche triomphale": Recessional March in E-flat major (also written for same occasion)
Processional March in E-flat major on themes from the 'Final Fantasy' series (expanded version of original in E major; ultimately requested for use in another wedding, much to my amazement)
"Water: An Improvisation": pseudo-minimalist Impressionist experiment.
Sonata for solo piano; four movements planned, one completed, one in progress.

There's nothing of real merit since I've never taken composition lessons, but that certainly hasn't stopped me from trying.

[JCarey]

-How long have you been composing?

I'm not sure, but at least 11 years.

-What do you compose (or have composed) for?

Piano, symphony orchestra...

-What vein of music do you specialize in? If classical, what part of the time period?

Contemporary, Neoromantic

-What have you written? (a post of your current portfolio)

Preludes for Solo Piano
 
1. C Major
2. A Minor
3. C Minor
4. Db Major
5. E Minor
6. F# Major
7. D Minor
 

Piano Sonata in E Minor
 
Adagio - Allegro Appassionato
Adagio Cantabile
Allegro - Maestoso
 

String Trio in F Minor
 
Adagio - Allegro
Adagio cantabile
Allegro
   

Symphony in C Minor
 
Adagio - Allegro
Andante espressivo
Allegro molto con brio
Adagio - Maestoso
 
 
Piano Concerto in C# Minor
 
Adagio - Allegro molto
Lento - Andante
Allegro molto - Adagio - Maestoso
 
 
Symphony #2 in D Major (Sinfonia Italiana)
 
Maestoso - Allegro moderato
Andante - Tarentella
Maestoso - Allegro vivace
 
         
Toccata in A Minor for Piano
 
 
Baroque Suite
 

American Overture
 

Fugal Fantasy for Piano
 
 
Symphony #3 in D Minor

Solo - Allegro
Scherzo
Lento
Adagio - Maestoso
 
 
Piano Sonata in D Minor
 
Adagio - Allegro
Presto con brio
Allegro furioso
 
 
Orchestra Preludes
   
Db Major
C Minor
F Major
 
 
Piano Concerto in F# Minor
 
Allegro furioso
Adagio
Tocatta

[phil13]

JCarey. Ahhh, we have been waiting for you...

I knew about your preludes and the first symphony, but I had no idea you had so much under your belt.

Phil

[phil13]

Oh, and John, one more thing...

I want to put up some recordings of my compositions on the site. However, I'm afraid that if I do, someone might rip it off and use it as their own. I'm not willing to do it until I know about the laws.

Do you know anything about music copyright laws? I tried looking them up but it's a bunch of political jargon to me.

Also, have you had anything published? It would be nice if you knew how that process worked, too.

Phil

[JCarey]

I tried looking them up but it's a bunch of political jargon to me.

Yep, me too. Here is what I know:

Currently, if you wish to have a registered copyright on a work, you must pay a fee of $30. The process is quite simple, actually. Basically, all you have to do is submit an application. More information is available at www.copyright.gov.

However, if you do not wish to pay for a copyright, there is another solution. Don't give out the sheetmusic to your works. Very few would be stupid enough to steal the recording without the sheetmusic. Also, it's a good idea not to post standard MIDI files. They can be easily opened in a notation program like Finale, cleaned up a bit, printed out as sheetmusic, and passed off by somebody else as their own work. If your software only allows you to save your music as MIDI files, there is free software that can be downloaded online that can convert the MIDI files to MP3s, which are much safer.

As far as publishing music, I have been looking into that myself only recently. I don't really have much information about it, however, a cheap and convenient resource for publishing music (if you own Sibelius) is www.sibeliusmusic.com.

- John Carey

[phil13]

However, if you do not wish to pay for a copyright, there is another solution. Don't give out the sheetmusic to your works. Very few would be stupid enough to steal the recording without the sheetmusic. Also, it's a good idea not to post standard MIDI files. They can be easily opened in a notation program like Finale, cleaned up a bit, printed out as sheetmusic, and passed off by somebody else as their own work. If your software only allows you to save your music as MIDI files, there is free software that can be downloaded online that can convert the MIDI files to MP3s, which are much safer.


- John Carey

Where might I find that conversion software? Because I can get MIDI onto my computer, but if I had mp3 files I could post them on this site. That would be great.

Phil

[prometheus]

If you post mp3s and the music is complex it will take people a lot of effort to transcribe it in notes. So its not very useful.


Another thing, your music does not have much value to other people, and this has nothing to do with the quality. It won't get you rich and it will certainly not get anyone else rich. So people will not steal your piece and thus steal your money. They will just be lying when they claim they wrote your piece.

There is no real point in taking someones music and claiming it's yours. Maybe to impress your girlfriend or get into a composition education. I write music because I want to create, express myself, add something to the universe. Thats why people write music. They may steal passages and put it in their own works. But they can just as well take something from an obscure quasi-famous work.

I really wouldn't care if some strange guy takes my music and claims it is his or hers. It may even amuse me. Say this piece becomes a major hit and everybody things he is the big genius. I know I wrote it so it doesn't really matter. Say he gets very rich, I would only care about that if I had children, which at this time I don't think I will ever have. Since I didn't write the work for status or money so its quite irrelevant.

Really I would send my finale files without a thought to anyone, if I am not ashamed of the music.

[JPRitchie]

Hello Composers,
    No one's mentioned creating a CD by running the MIDI through a keyboard or synth and recording the audio. I did something similar and offer the CD for sale though CDBaby (see: www.cdbaby.com/ritchie). Their cut is $4 per CD and there is a $30 start-up fee.
   IANAL,  but under U.S. law, registering a copyright isn't required to create one. Your original works are born copyrighted, but if anyone is paying you to create music of any kind be careful, because employers are by default the copyright holder for works of their employees and contracts can vary. But, the copyright has to be registered in order to bring an infringement suit. It's also a good idea to add a dated copyright notice to any MIDI file - there is a specific msg. ID for this - so that it is clear that you are not intending to place the work in the public domain, as well as assert authorship. As a practical consideration, you might only put a sample of your composition on the internet, instead of the whole thing. Statements about disinterestedly watching others use your work sound noble as hypotheticals, but might not work out that way in practice.

Regards,
Jim Ritchie

[tariswerewolf]

-How long have you been composing?
About nine or ten years

-What do you compose (or have composed) for?
Just about everything from solo piano to chamber ensemble to full orchestra. I also write for solo voice and choir

-What vein of music do you specialize in? If classical, what part of the time period?
My works have varied from late Classical to serial to impressionistic.

-What have you written? (a post of your current portfolio)
Solo instruments
Piano Sonata #1
Kellot & Auringonsadessa (two short preludes for piano)
Mephitis (solo clarinet)
Petite Suite pour violoncelle
In Remembrance (organ)

Chamber ensemble
Concerto for soprano saxophone (chamber orchestra)
Mystic Night (mixed quartet)
Kaleidoscope Variations (string quartet/orchestra)
Concertino for Violin (Violin solo & 5 percussion)
Gratitude (string quartet)

Orchestra
Intensity
Passacaglia in F# minor
Symphony #1 (last movement as yet incomplete)

Solo voice & chorus
Lay A Garland (sop and alto with piano)
Three Short pieces for Christmas (tenor with strings)
In paradisum (SSATB with flute and harp)
Four Songs of Calm (SSAA a cappella)

[phil13]

*bump*

I've heard your sonata, tariswerewolf. It's not my style, but then again most of that type of music doesn't do much for me. Sounds impressive, though.

Phil

[tariswerewolf]

*bump*

I've heard your sonata, tariswerewolf. It's not my style, but then again most of that type of music doesn't do much for me. Sounds impressive, though.

Phil

Oddly enough, most of my music isnt' like that. I think that that and the 'cello suite are the only serial works I have in my repertoire. Most of my work is tonal and quite lyrical.

[phil13]

*bump* keeping this thread alive.

Phil

[asyncopated]

Hi,

I've started composing for solo piano recently (two months back), and was wondering if you have any advice.  So far, I've been playing around with different ideas rather the coming up with anything completely new.  Also, I'm not that good a pianist (yet), and if I did want to learn how to play some of my own work, it will take some time (a couple of months work at least).  Still I will certainly need to hear it on a proper acoustic piano at some point, to make final decisions about the sound.  I am not willing to learn my own work because I believe that I will still get more milage out of playing the masters as a pianist.  Any advice?

I suppose I have a lot of questions about composing in itself but I'll leave them for later.  Is there a good forum like this one?

If you want to have a look at my work, please do so.  They are works in progress, and are rough around the edges, so please forgive me for that -- I still need time to clean up many bits.  If you have the time, please do play these works.  I have the luxury of not needing to rely on my compositions for a living, but do it purely out of interest.

You can find the pdf and midi files at

https://giscompute.gis.a-star.edu.sg/~alvin/music/

al.

PS.  Here is a short intro

Short pieces
Chimes -- Simple piece.  I think this is my cleanest work so far.  It sounds completely different on a proper piano than on midi and is not difficult to play.

Fire -- This sounds kiddish on the midi.  I think it will be the same on the piano.  The intension was to try and compose an argitato piece, but it sounds more like a kid kicking a fuss.  Anyway, I can either develop it into something better or reduce it to give it a more kiddish character. 

Mid-Autumn -- This is a piece inspired by the mid autumn festival, with a legend about the full moon and a lady (chang e) ascending to the moon.  It's a foray into the pentatonic scale.  I did not really keep the accompaniment pentatonic and there are distict "western" elements in the stretto.

Longer piece
Sonata (1st mvt) -- this is just to try writing in a fixed form.  I have comments that the fugue in the middle does not fit.  The sound thins out too much.  I don't really know how to rectify it.  Many of the chords are still messy.   

If you have any comments at all about any piece, PM me!






 

[asyncopated]

If you post mp3s and the music is complex it will take people a lot of effort to transcribe it in notes. So its not very useful.


Another thing, your music does not have much value to other people, and this has nothing to do with the quality. It won't get you rich and it will certainly not get anyone else rich. So people will not steal your piece and thus steal your money. They will just be lying when they claim they wrote your piece.

There is no real point in taking someones music and claiming it's yours. Maybe to impress your girlfriend or get into a composition education. I write music because I want to create, express myself, add something to the universe. Thats why people write music. They may steal passages and put it in their own works. But they can just as well take something from an obscure quasi-famous work.

I really wouldn't care if some strange guy takes my music and claims it is his or hers. It may even amuse me. Say this piece becomes a major hit and everybody things he is the big genius. I know I wrote it so it doesn't really matter. Say he gets very rich, I would only care about that if I had children, which at this time I don't think I will ever have. Since I didn't write the work for status or money so its quite irrelevant.

I agree with many things you've said.  But I suppose that as with I, you don't rely on composing for a living.  The only thing that worries me about sending a finale file ( I am using finale too ) is that people can change the music -- When I write something, I would like it to stay the way it is.  If an editor would like to add comments and makings to make a work more comprehensive, good!  As long is one can clearly distingish what the composer put in from what the editor did.

At the moment, I don't really care if one plagerises the whole piece as passes it off and their own, say for an assignment.

However, I will get irritated if anyone changes a note or a chord to make it sound "better".   I would like to think that after having finished a composition I have considered each note, phrase and marking carefully enough such that it does not need to be made "better".

al.

[pianistimo]

i'm in my fourties and still make 'adolescent sketches.'  hardly anything is completely finished.  and, though they all have good ideas, there is usually something obliquely wrong.  as my teacher pointed out on the last one, 'can you sing that line.'  it was a vocal composition, but the melody was too much in the accompaniment, making one think that the accompaniment was rather boring and the two needed separation.

i would  love it if there was a forum or thread about compositional tips from composer's who have been around.  then, i might be tempted to share my stuff (download somehow) for critique and help in completing.  i am sort of in the genre of mc dowell or post romantic such as barber.  

prelude to a morning in alaska - very contemporary with cluster chords - wide leaps, yet chordal and uses a lot of rolled chords and trills

prelude n jazz

choral piece 'great and marvellous' - taken from verses in the bible - song of moses and also mentioned in revelation.  'great and marvellous are thy works, O Lord, God -- Almighty...'  my inspiration for this was beethoven's 9th (choral).  the melody is different than that, but it is in fugal form after the initial voices come in.

i like writing poetry.  if anyone tries to write a song and needs either melody or words or both, i can come up with ideas pretty fast. 

[asyncopated]

i would  love it if there was a forum or thread about compositional tips from composer's who have been around.  then, i might be tempted to share my stuff (download somehow) for critique and help in completing.  i am sort of in the genre of mc dowell or post romantic such as barber. 

Yes, I second this.  I have absolutely no formal training as a composer.  Learnt to play the electric organ when I was younger, the guitar and have been singing in a choir for 4-5 years.  Last year, I started picking up the piano, partly so that I can learn to compose.

I don't even have a theory certificate... but have read most of Eric Talor.  Right now, I've just ordered fux (study of counterpoint) and schoenberg (Structural functions of Harmony) and will read these.  Any other books to recommend?

I do wish I could get some formal training and find out what other composers are interested in or up to.

al.

[BoliverAllmon]

-How long have you been composing?

for about a year or so

-What do you compose (or have composed) for?

I have composed for clarinet, piano, voice, and toy piano (working on a string quartet)

-What vein of music do you specialize in? If classical, what part of the time period?

classical, probably a neo-classical. I like the simplicity of compositional ideas like bach or mozart with more chromaticism that is found in later works like shostakovich.

-What have you written? (a post of your current portfolio)

couple pieces for piano.

four children miniatures

piece for soprano and piano

two waltzes for toy piano

piece for clarinet and piano

a couple guitar pieces

working on a string quartet.

nothing to brag about really. still pretty immature stuff so far, but I enjoy it.

boliver

[JCarey]

i would  love it if there was a forum or thread about compositional tips from composer's who have been around.

https://www.composeforums.com/forum/default.asp

[prometheus]

https://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/index.php?

[ahinton]

https://www.composeforums.com/forum/default.asp

Here's one - and forgive me if you or anyone finds it unhelpful (for I am sure that such was not the originator's intent); about this kind of thing, Sorabji used to say "solvitur ambulando - you learn composition by composing, just as you learn wine tasting by tasting wine". When we compose, we end up doing things that, later in life, we often see as mistakes, misjudgements, misbalances of conception or whatever other partially negative thing it may be - but then that kind of thing is not just about compostion so much as it is about human development in far wider and more general terms. Just do what you feel you want to do, learn those creative disciplines to which you feel the most strongly attracted at any given time and be prepared to accept that when you are 40 you may think that what you did when you were 25 is - well, not necessarily "bad" as such but just so different from the way you'd go about it now. The great English soprano Eva Turner is credited as having once said that a singer never reaches her prime until she is 50 but by the time she is 45 she might be past it; harsh as this may seem, it may just as well be applied to the composer as to the singer - but do not despair, for she didn't mean it literally! Just go for it! And remember that Bach didn't write the Art of Fugue nor Beethoven his final quartets until each has reached their respective 50s...

Best,

Alistair

[JCarey]

Here's one - and forgive me if you or anyone finds it unhelpful (for I am sure that such was not the originator's intent); about this kind of thing, Sorabji used to say "solvitur ambulando - you learn composition by composing, just as you learn wine tasting by tasting wine". When we compose, we end up doing things that, later in life, we often see as mistakes, misjudgements, misbalances of conception or whatever other partially negative thing it may be - but then that kind of thing is not just about compostion so much as it is about human development in far wider and more general terms. Just do what you feel you want to do, learn those creative disciplines to which you feel the most strongly attracted at any given time and be prepared to accept that when you are 40 you may think that what you did when you were 25 is - well, not necessarily "bad" as such but just so different from the way you'd go about it now. The great English soprano Eva Turner is credited as having once said that a singer never reaches her prime until she is 50 but by the time she is 45 she might be past it; harsh as this may seem, it may just as well be applied to the composer as to the singer - but do not despair, for she didn't mean it literally! Just go for it! And remember that Bach didn't write the Art of Fugue nor Beethoven his final quartets until each has reached their respective 50s...

Best,

Alistair

I absolutely agree, 100%.

[ted]

-How long have you been composing?
Since I was in my teens

-What do you compose (or have composed) for?
Just piano music

-What vein of music do you specialize in? If classical, what part of the time period?
I have written things in many styles but now I just invent my own forms, which are too varied to classify.

-What have you written? (a post of your current portfolio)
Must be hundreds of things lying around the house. Improvisation has now largely supplanted composition for me. In the time it takes me to write, even very approximately, a couple of pages of what I play, I could have made up hundreds of other things. So there's little incentive to bother any more. I do record lots of private CDs though.

[asyncopated]

Alistair,

Thank you for your kind advice.  I do remember reading much of my work, written  when I was in school.  My reaction was, "Did I really write that?" -- some of it was appalling. 

al.

[invictus]

How long
I am now 14, started on 13, so i think thats 1 year

What do you compose

Piano(3), cello(5), concertos(1.5), symphony(1) and a quartet

Genre
Classical, cross between classical, romantic and comtemporary,
Impressionism

Works
Piano Concerto in F minor
Cello Concerto in G minor (half done there)
Symphony no.1 The Horned Sheep (yes lol, impressionism rocks)
Quartet - Mountain Ranges
Piano Sonata x3, b d minor, c major
Cello sets x5 abcde(no pun) minor

most of them are in minor key soo

[pianistimo]

this is cool.  so many composers! 

and, i appreciated the recommended composer forums.

and, ahinton, thanks for the moral support.  i think for me, it is the time involvement.  if i spent more time doing it, i'd be better.  thus, when 50, i might be getting into my prime (in terms of having time to rework pieces that were immaturely written).  there are places in mozart in which you can hear a digression and return.  i am kinda bad about those creative digressions because i can't return yet and the piece just goes off (thus never ending).  i really have to be inspired to write something that has an ending.

[phil13]

Yeah, it's amazing how many others on this forum compose besides me, even those who don't do it a whole lot.

Phil

[burstroman]

I've been composing (trying to) for about 5 years.
Piano is my main instrument.
My style is rather eclectic, but I would tend to a sort of "conservative Ives"with a dash of Milhaud .
My list of works include: several experimental fugues, three more or less impressionistic pieces based on "Macbeth", a, 3-movement sonatina which employs hymn tunes, some etudes, a fantasy based on fanfares, and a theme and variations on a gospel hymn tune (maybe a bit a la Hindemith).  Most of it is probably crap.

[phil13]

I've been composing (trying to) for about 5 years.
Piano is my main instrument.
My style is rather eclectic, but I would tend to a sort of "conservative Ives"with a dash of Milhaud .
My list of works include: several experimental fugues, three more or less impressionistic pieces based on "Macbeth", a, 3-movement sonatina which employs hymn tunes, some etudes, a fantasy based on fanfares, and a theme and variations on a gospel hymn tune (maybe a bit a la Hindemith).  Most of it is probably crap.

Sorry couldn't find my own thread... *bump*

The Macbeth impressionistic pieces sound interesting... one of my friends recently wrote a small, 5 or 6-minute set of program pieces for Hamlet.

I recently finished my latest composition, a 20-minute set of 11 variations on an Arietta in G minor.

Phil

[BoliverAllmon]

How long
I am now 14, started on 13, so i think thats 1 year

What do you compose

Piano(3), cello(5), concertos(1.5), symphony(1) and a quartet

Genre
Classical, cross between classical, romantic and comtemporary,
Impressionism

Works
Piano Concerto in F minor
Cello Concerto in G minor (half done there)
Symphony no.1 The Horned Sheep (yes lol, impressionism rocks)
Quartet - Mountain Ranges
Piano Sonata x3, b d minor, c major
Cello sets x5 abcde(no pun) minor

most of them are in minor key soo

do you have any recordings?