# What would you like to compose?



## Lisztfreak (Jan 4, 2007)

This might be interesting since wildest fantasies are allowed!

Although I cannot compose and probably never will be able to, I still feel an urge to compose certain pieces of music. I write down the orchestral forces and movement tempo markings, and then admire these sketches! Even some melodies and harmonies, too. So I've got a nice list of pieces I'd either like to compose myself (in my dreams), or hire a composer to do it for me, like in the good old Mozart's and Haydn's days.

I'm sure some of you here do similar things. Share your ideas!

For example, these are some of my ideas for 'future compositions':

*Symphony No.1* (for Mozart's orchestra)
*A Metal Symphony *in C minor (a Mozart's orchestra but with 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 2 Wagner tubas, 1 tuba, gong, cymbals, glockenspiel, piano and cymbalom)
*Symphony No.3* (for large orchestra - partly atonal and with electronic instruments)
*Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra
Concerto for Organ, Brass and Strings
Concerto for Irish Bagpipes and Orchestra
Triple Concerto for Piano, Contrabass, Timpani and Orchestra*
*Concerto for Sunglasses and Strings *(dedicated to Mirror Image )
*Concertino for Whistler and Chamber Orchestra *(my best friend has unnatural whistling abilities, and I always joke about writing a concerto for him as soon as I learn to compose...)
*Partita for Strings, Timpani and 8 Solo Instruments*
*Solemn Variations on a Theme by Franz Liszt*, for orchestra and mixed choir
*Hockey*, a symphonic poem
*Mouvement macabre*, for piano and orchestra (on a motif by Liszt)
*Casual Variations on an Elgar's Fugal Subject*, for piano
*''For the End of Summer''*, a song cycle for soprano and baritone, choir and large orchestra (my own words)
*''A Difficult Love''*, a song cycle for tenor, strings and harp (words by A.E. Housman)
'*'Jama'' *(''Pit''), for bass, piano trio and side drum (after a long poem by I.G. Kovacic)
*''Rat''* (''War''), for tenor, horn and synthesizer (after a poem by a friend of mine)
*Terzetto for Violin, Clarinet and Musical Saw *(dedicated to Edward Elgar - the forum member of course )
*Prelude and Wedding March*, for organ
*Requiem in intima*, for SATB soloists, string quartet, harmonium and a bell in A
*Sonata for Cello and Piano
String Quartet
Piano Quintet*
+ many voice-and-piano songs on words by famous poets (Lorca, Pessoa, Wilde, some Croatian, Serbian, Slovenian and Bosnian poets)


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Lisztfreak said:


> This might be interesting since wildest fantasies are allowed!


What a fun idea! I'd love to hear your fantasy pieces, especially the electric guitar concerto.

I'll give it a shot, though I have only the vaguest idea what I'm talking about.

Concerto for two wordless sopranos and orchestra (two so they can spell each other on the long notes fading in and out.)

Concerto for mono synthesizer and orchestra.

Suite for Microtonal Ensemble
1. Common Practice Theme
2. Theme splitting into 24 tones
3. Voice Leading in 24 tones
4. New Harmonies.
5. 24 tone theme and variations
6. Coming Home (Common Practice Theme revised).

I would also love to create an entire new genre of common practice music that incorporates a lot rhythmic ambiguities and complexities, more so than harmonic ambiguities.


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## nefigah (Aug 23, 2008)

I'd settle for being able to compose really good fugues :\


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

nefigah said:


> I'd settle for being able to compose really good fugues :\


Once you try you realize how hard it is and finally start admiring Bach.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

Symphonies.

That's really about it. I dunno what else I'd want to write, though I'd love to expand the viola repertoire a good bit.


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## nickgray (Sep 28, 2008)

Um... Wildest fantasies? Probably a quartet for 3 moderately distorted 7-string electrical guitars and a 5-string bass (ok, not really wild, but it's as wild as I can think of, probably). Which reminds me that I should really get a book on composition someday soon...


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## PostMinimalist (May 14, 2008)

I am in the middle of composing my fairytale commission right now. I've done about 4 minutes of the first movement of my concerto for double bass. This is a work for Amsterdam Concertgebouw Principal Dominic Seldis. 
FC


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## PostMinimalist (May 14, 2008)

My dream yet to come true is to write an opera based on the story of Ajax, the greek hero in the Iliad.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I'm not a composer, but if I was, I'd do something similar to *Elgar*'s_ Enigma Variations _- a piece made up of portraits of my friends. It may even be for a jazz group...


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## David C Coleman (Nov 23, 2007)

I would like to be able to compose a piece that would be popular enough to break into the pop music charts - and even make No 1!. And at the same time make pop fans realise that other types of music are not that boring after all.....Fantasie indeed!!!


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## Edmond-Dantes (Mar 20, 2009)

Ah, if I ever become a good composer, I want to write Some orchestral works, but mainly I want to write music for my favorite instrument, the piano.


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## Mirror Image (Apr 20, 2009)

I'm working on a composition right now for a septet of trumpet, electric guitar, percussion, violin, bass, trombone, and french horn. It's going to be based on my experiences traveling by train from Georgia to Louisiana. I'm working on a movement of the piece where I came across a town called "Meridian," which is one of the saddest cities I've seen. This city was at one time a very prominent place in the South. It is located in southern Mississippi. What is unusual about this town is that many of the buildings are boarded up. Very strange indeed.

I'm still in the process of writing it and coming up a name title for it, but here is what the movements are going to look like:

Movement 1: Prelude: All Aboard - Georgia Morning in May
Movement 2: Alabama - I. Birmingham, II. U. S. Steel Desert
Movement 3: Ghost Town (Meridian)
Movement 4: New Orleans - I. Nightlife, II. Daybreak, III. The Blistering Heat
Movement 5: The Return

There is also a good bit of improvisation in this composition. I look forward to refining the movements that I have written in the next few months, then it will be on to compose Movement 4.


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## Lisztfreak (Jan 4, 2007)

Some very interesting ideas already! Now I'd like to hear the music behind those tempting titles... Weston, that fantasy Concerto for Two Sopranos, and your composition, Mirror Image, which I hope will materialise soon. Also the Double Bass Concerto by post-minimalist. I'd really like to hear the instrument in a long solo role - that's why I'm going to write that Triple Concerto of mine!


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## handlebar (Mar 19, 2009)

A concerto for piano and guitar that,if he were still alive, Segovia would play. I suppose John Williams and Sharon Isbin could do it!

Jim


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## PostMinimalist (May 14, 2008)

JIM, that's truely splendid! and I'm not tslking about the concerto but the avatar change!!!!

@Lisztfreak

Here's a little taste of the Concerto. It's about a quarter of what I've written so far.

Bass concerto

FC


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## handlebar (Mar 19, 2009)

post-minimalist said:


> JIM, that's truely splendid! and I'm not tslking about the concerto but the avatar change!!!!
> 
> @Lisztfreak
> 
> ...


 Thanks for the kind words. I always felt that was the best photo I have ever taken.
Of myself that is!

Jim


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

I would like to compose Ludwig Van piano concertos, symphonies, sonatas, and chamber music, but he did it before I had a chance, so now people think that he was great composer, not me.


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## andruini (Apr 14, 2009)

Lisztfreak said:


> Concerto for Irish Bagpipes and Orchestra


i have to admit i've always wondered about that


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## Lisztfreak (Jan 4, 2007)

post-minimalist said:


> @Lisztfreak
> 
> Here's a little taste of the Concerto. It's about a quarter of what I've written so far.
> 
> ...


I'll simply tell you I'd buy a recording of this concerto immediately if I saw it in a music shop. It's very lyrical and I love the baroque cadenza at 0:32. Thanks a lot for sharing it!

And it also dispelled all my doubts about whether a double bass would be a satisfying solo instrument in the long run.


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## Lisztfreak (Jan 4, 2007)

andruini said:


> i have to admit i've always wondered about that


Oh yes - and Irish bagpipes, not the Scottish one - they're too rasp and gruff.

Another 'ethno' suggestion: Concerto Grosso for Tamburica, Balalajka and Kantele.

And as for opera, my choice would be 'Therese Raquin', an opera in three acts.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Lisztfreak said:


> I'll simply tell you I'd buy a recording of this concerto immediately if I saw it in a music shop. It's very lyrical and I love the baroque cadenza at 0:32. Thanks a lot for sharing it!


Me too! Quoted for truth, as they say.


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## JoeGreen (Nov 17, 2008)

Right now all I write is mainly academaical work for school. But as soon as I have the technical ability and time this is what I want to compose...

*Thermonuclear War* Tone Poem for Large Orchestra, Wordless Choir, and off stage Percussion Group and 6 Brass Ensembles.

*Yusuf* Lyrical Opera in 3 Acts for Chamber Orchestra, Choir and Soloists. 
Based on the story of Joseph of the Old Testament, but from the Koranic point of view.

_A Grand Fairytale Opera in 5 Acts_, based on a subject I still haven't selected but It will have magic and wizards and all that good stuff

*Psychadelia* Tone Poem for Chamber Orchestra, Narrator and various Folk Wind Instruments.

*Sonata for Prepared Piano*

*String Quartets*

... there are propably more things I've imagine writing one day.


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## Lisztfreak (Jan 4, 2007)

JoeGreen said:


> *Thermonuclear War* Tone Poem for Large Orchestra, Wordless Choir, and off stage Percussion Group and 6 Brass Ensembles.


Jesus! This would be a an ear-carnage!  But I would really love to hear it one day, no doubt.



> *Yusuf* Lyrical Opera in 3 Acts for Chamber Orchestra, Choir and Soloists.
> Based on the story of Joseph of the Old Testament, but from the Koranic point of view.


Very interesting. I've always felt a special affinty to chamber operas. And to different points of view, as well.


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## MEDIEVAL MIAMI (May 10, 2009)

I tend to dream things that in real life I'M NOT ABLE TO DO anything related to strings.


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## JSK (Dec 31, 2008)

Some of my more specific ideas:

A double concerto for string bass and viola.
A grand opera with a libretto based on the musicological adventures of one of my professors.


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## JoeGreen (Nov 17, 2008)

Lisztfreak said:


> Jesus! This would be a an ear-carnage!  But I would really love to hear it one day, no doubt.


Well that's the idea. 



Lisztfreak said:


> Very interesting. I've always felt a special affinty to chamber operas. And to different points of view, as well.


Yes, after one of my History teachers enthusiastically explained how lyrical and emotionally moving the story is when read in Arabic. I just couldn't help but be enthralled in a writing something so eloquent like that.


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## Herzeleide (Feb 25, 2008)

I have currently in my head a string quartet - though I might need more strings. Imagine lots of heterophony, lots of exotic and unusual modes, microtones, a myriad of glissandi. Think Perotin, Machaut, Indian classical music, Debussy, Stravinsky, Messiaen, Scelsi, Julian Anderson, folk music from around the world. Recall the third movement of Brian Ferneyhough's fourth string quartet - the instruments are 'talking', just like the Trombone in the concerto for that instrument by Xenakis. Imagine this absorbed into the aformentioned influences.


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## Lisztfreak (Jan 4, 2007)

Herzeleide said:


> I have currently in my head a string quartet


A beautiful feeling. And then, soon after, I become pissed off, because I can't write notes and so can't put on paper the musical ideas.

Btw, the work sounds really exotic. And Bartók would be an influence too, wouldn't he?


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## Herzeleide (Feb 25, 2008)

Lisztfreak said:


> Btw, the work sounds really exotic. And Bartók would be an influence too, wouldn't he?


Can't believe I missed him out!

Probably my subconscience telling me to not to be influenced by someone whose string quartets are so famous and fêted. 

One of the good ways to disguise one's influences is to transfer musical concepts to different instrumental ensembles...


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## Lisztfreak (Jan 4, 2007)

Herzeleide said:


> One of the good ways to disguise one's influences is to transfer musical concepts to different instrumental ensembles...


 Yes, an old trick that always works, as history will show...


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## danae (Jan 7, 2009)

There 's a very good quote about composing. My composition teacher used to tell me. It goes something like this: "A mediocre composer borrows. A good composer steals!"


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## Herzeleide (Feb 25, 2008)

danae said:


> There 's a very good quote about composing. My composition teacher used to tell me. It goes something like this: "A mediocre composer borrows. A good composer steals!"




'Borrowing' would seem imply that the object is given back to the person from whom it was taken!


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## danae (Jan 7, 2009)

Herzeleide said:


> 'Borrowing' would seem imply that the object is given back to the person from whom it was taken!


Well, it's a composers joke. It's meant to be cynical. I think you take things too seriously. Next time I'll try to remember one of the viola jokes. Oh, I know! Maybe we should initiate a topic with music jokes.


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## Herzeleide (Feb 25, 2008)

danae said:


> Well, it's a composers joke. It's meant to be cynical. I think you take things too seriously. Next time I'll try to remember one of the viola jokes. Oh, I know! Maybe we should initiate a topic with music jokes.


Yes, I know. I'm afraid I don't understand the joke, and I only find jokes that I don't understand funny if they're deliberately absurd or surreal.


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## Bach (Jun 2, 2008)

danae said:


> There 's a very good quote about composing. My composition teacher used to tell me. It goes something like this: "A mediocre composer borrows. A good composer steals!"


That's actually a bastardized rendition of T.S. Eliot's quote about poetry:

"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal."
by T.S. Eliot


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## Edmond-Dantes (Mar 20, 2009)

Bravo, Bach! ^^ I knew I heard it some place, I just couldn't pin a name on it.


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## Clancy (Mar 14, 2009)

I prefer the more generalised version - "Talent borrows, genius steals".


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## petrushka1611 (May 28, 2009)

I'd like to write:

A banjo concerto for Bela Fleck.
Something for steel guitar - maybe a concerto as well.
A piece called "I Think My Piano Wants to Eat Me", based on the title of another post I read on here.


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## confuoco (Feb 8, 2008)

I would compose:

Demanding and outstanding orchestral *Variations on Slovak folk song*
Large-scale, symphonic-like *Clarinet concerto*
*Concerto for Soprano without words*
*Piano trio*
I would also like to compose full-length *balet*, as I admire this kind of art very much


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## Cyclops (Mar 24, 2008)

Being raised on electronic music I'd love to do a moog concerto.  
I did used to compose music in cubase years ago and have the MP3s somewhere but I don't have the time or space,or equipment, to do that anymore


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

A symphony or some form of symphonic poem detailing the natural and awesome awakening of the sun, the busy and frantic lives of modern humanity and finally the dark serenity of twilight and the blackness that follows.

I often find myself with great ideas for programmatic music and can develop themes and leitmotifs easily. Unfortuanely i currently lack the musical finesse to translate my ideas into great pieces.


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