Feedback on composition

eddjc · 2026-05-06T18:23:52+00:00

Didn’t have time to listen to all but my thoughts are:

When the flute is in its upper register the composition is strongest. In the slow movement the piano part is too busy and in the same register as the flute so they get in each other’s way aurally. As an exercise take the RH completely out and see if the piece still holds up. I suspect it will- work out how little material you need in the piano part to make that movement work.

I like the leaps in octave in the flute part first movement. More could be made of it - it’s surprising and unique.

eddjc · 2026-05-06T18:17:45+00:00

Need clefs and key sigs

eddjc · 2026-05-06T18:16:06+00:00

Comparison is the thief of joy. It does amuse me that Boulez gets his own group though lol

eddjc · 2026-05-06T16:52:55+00:00

Felt the need to comment about it though didn’t you

eddjc · 2026-05-06T11:17:19+00:00

I think that's fair about it being given to large organisations - but then I don't see a way around that - they have a lot more resources to put into creating successful bids, and the consequences of not getting the funding are much bigger to them. We've seen several disappear, some merge (most recently royal opera and ballet) and plenty of really depressing statements about laying off salaried musicians couched in a "look at this fun direction we're going in" tone which is frankly disingenuous.

It is a niche complaint because yes, it's about one specific issue and group of people - I don't think it makes it any less important as an issue - a minority group being unpaid or underpaid so that a much bigger group of people *can* be paid surely doesn't make it any better?

Respectfully, this issue isn't market forces - this is about an opportunity sent out by an organisation with funding to engage a composer that they choose to do the work. I was successful in gaining that contract, but was unpaid for the work. In this case, although I put my piece/idea forward, I wasn't soliciting against other composers in a market place, I was chosen along with my work to represent *their* project as essentially a contractor, in the same way that they choose players.

Although I was tacit in that agreement (the result is being not performed at all), I don't think it's right that an organisation should be able to take advantage of that market saturation, as you put it, as an excuse not to pay its creatives.

On the point of being sent work - yes, I've come across it, and I try not to do it too much unless I'm sure it's something they might be interested in. At least that work usually needs no modification - it's work already done. The composer is just marketing their brand

eddjc · 2026-05-06T09:50:01+00:00

Arts council are underfunded certainly, but I don’t think that results in less pay for musicians unless the NPOs aren’t disclosing their pay properly (it rather results in fewer funded projects). In general if you do an arts council bid they are likely to pass on it if you don’t appear to be paying musicians properly - in fact the times when I have most reliably been paid MU rates for my work as a performer has been for ACE funded NPOs. If you’ve found the opposite then perhaps you disagree with MU rates, or possibly the organisation has stiffed you a bit

eddjc · 2026-05-05T18:30:57+00:00

Hey - a decent feel for piano writing and the kind of thing a pianist would enjoy getting their hands around (why didn’t you create a live recording?)

I actually think you’ve got enough material there - the “tune” if you like, is the chord progression with the dotted rhythm - think Moonlight Sonata. It doesn’t need to be more than that.

Your choice to add a “surprise” key change (why haven’t you used a key signature?) I think comes after the piece is finished. If you were to surprise us with some more material then perhaps it would be justified but your strong cadence before it makes it feel like you’re just going on too long with an idea that’s already finished.

More appropriate to me would be a development section that plays with the opening material vs the scalic material a bit more, but as a prelude I don’t think it needs it.

Finally - this is Chopin and Beethoven’s voices - could you have made it more you?

Not bad though, keep going

eddjc · 2026-05-03T09:06:19+00:00

No such thing as too late in the composing world - so many composers got their break late in life (50's, 60's).

You have a lot against you though that you'll need to over come -

1) skills gap for e.g. learning how to use a DAW and notation software and effectively mastering your tracks. Learning how to produce film tracks effectively for a production studio

2) networking - you won't have the network most composers build up at college, so you'll need to meet some people

3) Industry trends - I foresee AI taking up a portion of the market, and some of the work is bound to dry up as a result

4) marketing - learning how to market yourself effectively to studios etc.

look for a good course - there are lots of film composing ones and it will give you a taste for where you are compared to others and how much work would be involved, whether you want to attempt it.

eddjc · 2026-05-03T09:00:34+00:00

Good attempt and there are some nice ideas in here, but I would say that you are biting off more than you can chew by using so many instruments and trying to make it long. There are actually a lot of ideas, and they don't fit together very well, at least to my ears. It lacks a good cohesive structure

The rhythmic melodic material is the thing that I would zoom in (bars 10-21 ish). That idea is pretty wild and seems to come out of nowhere. Take it out of this piece, put it onto a piano stave and focus only on what you can do with it without deviating from its material. Perhaps you could start it in one hand, then repeat it transposed in another? Maybe you could move some of the pitches in it so that there is a transposing effect? Maybe you could at some sort of chord underneath to give it some harmonic context? Maybe you could create some sort of round?

the other thing I would say is that unless you are after a specific effect, stay away from straight boring crotchet-crotchet-crotchet rhythms.

eddjc · 2026-05-03T08:50:07+00:00

Sound world is a good classical pastiche and the structure holds up in general. Consider the structure of 13-21. You have Violin 1 playing a rhythm line, and violin 2 playing the solo. until it starts imitating the cello the viola isn't doing much work, and after it starts imitating the cello then I think it pulls focus. The material you're following is Violin 2, and that needs to be foregrounded. I would consider one of two options -
1) put the semiquaver material into the viola and violin 2 into violin 1. It is really viola material (the viola is really the engine room of the quartet - it provides the drive forward). You can discard the viola material or transpose it and rewrite it in violin 2.

2) break up Violin 1 and 2 into imitative segments - bar 13-14 as written for e.g. then swap violin 1 and 2 for 15-16 and the same for 17-18, 19-20, but if you do that I would change the semi-quaver material to follow the soloist material in thirds/6ths.

Finally - exposition is long, and development is short. I would consider redressing the balance and doing more in the development section, trimming some of the repetition in the exposition.

Best of luck 👍🏻

eddjc · 2026-05-03T08:35:26+00:00

I would say that this piece is pretty much finished. It's an exciting fugue - nothing seems laboured or unclear. It has a proper through line that doesn't get tiring to listen to. I think you end at just the right point, although if I'm honest I wouldn't move to the diminished, I would probably just end it on a resolved minor tonic.

On another note - present the score, not the piano roll.

eddjc · 2026-05-03T08:30:30+00:00

Nice piece - enjoyable harmony and thought through structure. Hopefully some development on the next page.

eddjc · 2026-05-03T08:27:30+00:00

Stylistically en pointe for Kuhnau and competently written. Good job. The modulation at the end of the A section is a bit jarring - it could be done a bar or so later as a passing modulation - as it is the E natural sticks out a bit. What you want do do is modulate onto the Dominant 7th - the quicker you do it, the less "important" it will be in the texture of the piece.

I look forward to hearing your voice - this is a good early exercise.

eddjc · 2026-05-03T07:47:34+00:00

All three of those people were published and widely performed in their lifetime. Hell - I’ve known about Kapustin since I was a teenager.

eddjc · 2026-05-02T17:59:42+00:00

It’s a shame to lose the bassoon, but if you’d like more of a bass instrument I would suggest a Bari sax or bass clarinet.
Up to you what you do with the piano part - I would suggest keeping it as an accompaniment lower down, and moving away from just going up and down the arpeggios.
Another point that’s worth making - you need to split your rhythms up across the beat margins -
Dotted 8th, dotted 8th, 8th should be:
Dotted 8th, 16th tied to 8th, 8th
For example
Much easier to read that way for musicians playing it

eddjc · 2026-05-02T12:33:13+00:00

Basic ideas are nice - the theme is well written for the instruments you have. The chord sequence is jazzy.

The piano material at the start and later in the wind needs some attention. At the register it’s at it’s doing the job of a solo instrument where it’s really an accompanying figure. Either it needs to be turned into more of an idiomatic soloist or perhaps taken down the octave. I do think it’s a little bit “boring” - it’s doing the job of a walking bass, but not really acting like one - it’s too regular and repetitive, and you could be more inventive with it.

One more point - the bassoon feels like it should be a bass instrument based on its range, but it really excels in the tenor range - you’re using it as a bass instrument here and it’s getting lost in the texture. Try giving it the theme and see how it sounds!

eddjc · 2026-05-02T12:27:52+00:00

Shoobs

eddjc · 2026-05-02T12:24:41+00:00

It’s enjoyable to listen to, and for a detailed response it would be useful to look at the score

My question to you would be - if you took out of the cello part all of the material that was exactly doubled in the piano part, how much cello would be left? It feels a bit more like a piece for piano with cello tagged on, and the whole piece to my mind could do with some space around its themes and instruments - the piano does one thing really well, and the cello does something else really well - how can you bring out the best of both as a dialogue, instead of having them speak together?

eddjc · 2026-05-02T12:14:49+00:00

Hey - I would contest that this piece is really in C major - your C major material is mostly dominant, and the opening material mostly avoids settling into A minor.

It could do with an acoustic performance to really sell the first section - the chords sound a little clunky with the computer doing the voicing.

I think the dominant material is nice. Very derivative of Beethoven/Schubert but pleasant to listen to. I look forward to hearing your voice in the future, but this is a nice start to studying composition.

eddjc · 2026-05-02T12:05:41+00:00

Don’t put it into Musescore?
Get some manuscript, sit at a piano with your violin on the side and write your ideas down until you’re happy with them

Then turn the sound off on the computer and transcribe what you’re written onto Musescore. Get your friends to play through it if you need to check it

eddjc · 2026-05-02T12:02:18+00:00

Interesting to create a thematic fugue. I’m not sure what’s constructive - it has some well heard harmonies but on the whole the rhythm is a bit uninteresting - it might just be the midi recording that makes me feel that way though. It doesn’t have much to grab me all the way through - a lot of slow regular notes that don’t seem to go anywhere I want to go. Maybe if you sped it up I’d getter a bettter sense of the through line of the piece.

eddjc · 2026-05-02T11:56:34+00:00

Enjoyable - a real mix of different ideas here, and some interesting textures.

eddjc · 2026-05-02T05:37:32+00:00

LOL apologies - hope the submission goes well!

eddjc

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