# Your Compositions for 2012



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

So, what did you complete this year?

As for me (forgive me if I can't remember everything) this year has proven to be more productive than last year and I have composed the following.........

*Ode to Marxism* for five guitars (about 4 minutes). In this piece I explored equal treatment of the instruments and eliminating the tonal chord hierarchy, hence the title.  It was performed in June this year.

*Makedonsko Devojce* for clarinet, two violins, bouzouki, guitar, accordion, piano, double bass and some sort of drum I forget which (about 3 minutes). This is a Macedonian folk song arrangement that I treated as a jazz piece (head-solos and some interludes-head). It was also performed in June.

*Two Pieces for Clarinet* for solo clarinet (about 4 and a half minutes). A slow piece followed by a fast piece that is somewhat a scherzo. Not yet performed.

*Guernica* for solo guitar (about 6 minutes, abridged version 3 and a half minutes). This was written for my school's composition competition and got me $300 for coming first. It is inspired by the Spanish civil war of the 1930s and the painting of the same name by Picasso. The first performance will be in March 2013.

*Workers of the World, Unite!* for orchestra consisting of two oboes, two clarinets, two alto saxophones and a baritone saxophone, one horn, two trumpets, two tenor trombones, tuba, four hand piano, tubular bells, vibraphone, triangle, wood block, snare drum, cymbals, standard string section (aboout 3 and a half minutes). This is probably my cheesiest composition of all time. It's kinda like a march-fanfare hybrid and was performed in December (it was a real crowd pleaser, yuck).

*Piano Piece 4* for solo piano (about 50 seconds.) Experimentating with tonality. It's the fourth short single movement piece I have written for solo piano. Not yet performed.

*Two Two Part Inventions* first for clarinet and bassoon (about 12 seconds), second for violin and bassoon (about 20 seconds). These were more like exercises than proper compositions but were workshopped and performed in November this year.

*Three Voice Ricercare for Six Instruments* for flute, clarinet, bassoon, horn, viola and cello (about 1 minute). An arrangement of the first 37 bars of the three voice ricercare from Bach's Musical Offering. I explored pulling apart the melodies and passing the motifs around the ensemble as well as using various numbers of instruments to create a sense of building up and coming back down at the end. Definitely my best arrangement this year. Workshopped and performed in November.

*Composition for Clarinet and Banjo* for clarinet and banjo (about 2 minutes). A crab canon using quite complicated rhythms. Not yet performed.

*Who's Next?* for solo cello (about 3 minutes). Composed on hearing about the death of Elliott Carter. I made sure I used some metric modulation.  It will probably be performed some time next year.

*Chamber Concerto* for alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, trumpet, horn, tenor trombone, tuba, piano, congas, bongos, snare drum and double bass (about 7 and a half minutes). This piece gave me nightmares. I lost so much sleep because of it too as it was so hard to compose. I've written about this elsewhere so I won't say much apart from it was written for a competition and it is in four movements (a slow one I called Metamorphosis, a scherzo, a cadenza, and another slow one I called Cantabile which highlighted each solo instrument.) Not yet performed.


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## StevenOBrien (Jun 27, 2011)

If you insist...

*Twenty Four Preludes, Op. 2* (Piano) (January to May) (In the order they were composed)
Prelude No. 8 in F# minor, Op. 2h
Prelude No. 9 in E major, Op. 2i
Prelude No. 11 in B major, Op. 2k
Prelude No. 12 in G# minor, Op. 2l
Prelude No. 14 in E-flat minor, Op. 2n
Prelude No. 13 in F# major, Op. 2m
Prelude No. 24 in D minor, Op. 2x

Prelude No. 18 in F minor, Op. 2r
Prelude No. 22 in G minor, Op. 2v
Prelude No. 7 in A major, Op. 2g
Prelude No. 19 in E-flat major, Op. 2s
Prelude No. 23 in F major, Op. 2w
Prelude No. 16 in B-flat minor, Op. 2p
Prelude No. 21 in B-flat major, Op. 2u
Prelude No. 17 in A-flat major, Op. 2q
Prelude No. 20 in C minor, Op. 2t

*Piano Sonata No. 4 in A major, Op. 3* (Piano) (April to June)
I. Allegro
II. Allegretto
III. Presto

*Seven Romances, Op. 4* (Piano) (July to Present)
Romance No. 1 in A major, Op. 4a
Romance No. 2 in F major, Op. 4b
Romance No. 4 in C major, Op. 4d
Romance No. 6 in E major, Op. 4f

*Easy Pieces for the Fumbling Novice at the Piano* (November to Present)
Easy Piece No. 1 in C major
Easy Piece No. 2 in F major
Easy Piece No. 3 in G major
Easy Piece No. 4 in D major

*Score to the Webseries: "Advent Calender 2012"* (Orchestra) (November to December)
Mostly Comical Theme
Mostly Mystical Theme
Mostly Calm Theme
Mostly Action Theme
Main Theme
Main Theme (Alternative)

*Random Orchestral*
Adventurous Orchestral Piece
"Rush to the End!"
Majestic/Epic Orchestral Piece
"Epic" Orchestral Piece
Ambient Orchestral Piece
Tense Thriller Cue

*Etc.*
Upbeat Jazz Piece
Waltz for Accordion
Slow Jazz Piece
Piece for Flute and Harp
"Wake up" (Piano)
"Oh I'm sorry, was that too ******* 'classical' for you?" (A response to people who attack me for writing in an "overly tonal" style...)
60s rock experiment

*Score to the Video Game: "Psychadelic Ostrich Jihad"* (Piano) (March)
Opening
Track 1
Track 2
Track 3
Track 4

*And coming soon...*
String Symphony No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 5(?)
The remaining three romances for Op. 4
More easy pieces for the fumbling novice at the piano
Score to the Video Game: "Firefly Village"

In non-compositional projects, I'm also planning to have all of my MIDI mockups of piano works converted into actual performances by the end of 2013.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Wow that's certainly a lot!


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

congratulations....


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Following on from the awfulness that was 2011, 2012 was a good year musically. I didn't actually compose much but I feel what I have completed is among my best work.

*When the Sea Rises* (28 mins)
If you're wondering why I didn't make a thread about it, my reasoning was that although my work has never been "classical" this is so far afield that asking classically trained composers for a critique would be equivalent to asking a flautist to critique my violin writing.

*Sailin' Tuns!* (18 mins)
You all know what this is, and if you don't the thread is here.

*Hello* (15 mins)
I'm lazy, read the thread.

*Salami* (9 mins)
Finally revised this. Quintet for B-flat clarinet (replacing cor anglais), trombone, horn, cimbasso (replacing bassoon) and tuba, and I will hopefully be sharing it with you all very soon!


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## oogabooha (Nov 22, 2011)

This year I worked on:

Throughout the year I helped many local artists produce and perform their own music through the help of arranging and recording strings for albums and performances (live performances were done on my viola, but I've become the violist in a few local acts). Some great times, including playing Webster Hall's the studio with Yukon, going to the studio to record strings for a few tracks off Chris Cappello's new album, collaborating with Basic Printer for strings on his new album, and many more artists.

I certainly don't write that type of music, but I love helping people flesh out their songwriting whenever I can
(both of those albums release next year)

I also continued working on scores for my friend's short films, and eventually a local independent theatre used my music in an advertisement.

I also went to go see not-local-folk-punk band Andrew Jackson Jihad, and shortly after did a viola sextet arrangement of their album People That Can Eat People Are The Luckiest People In The World. I arranged, recorded, and performed all of it in one week (although I'm very sorry for my playing).

I then went away for 6 weeks to participate in a summer music program, and while I was there I wrote a piece for solo ukulele which I then performed later at a concert.

While there I also continued work on a longterm project that has been the main focus of my year, _Problems for Piano_. The first piece was performed at a concert, and I laid down a lot of work for the other 7 pieces.

I also met a very talented likeminded choreographer/violist who was more than willing to start collaborating with me on a ballet, which has been the main focus of most of the year. I ended up finishing orchestrating the first part (around 20 minutes) of the 4-part ballet, and now I'm working on just the 2-hand piano part of the other 3 parts while i collaborate with her on the choreography, stage direction, _etc._

I also contributed a cover of a Neutral Milk Hotel song to my friend's compilation.

I also released an EP of songs I wrote over the summer, but I deleted it due to me not enjoying my lyrics. Whenever I've written lyrics or songs for a band or folk project or whatever, it always feels like I wake up with a hangover the next morning ashamed at what I did. If I had a way with words, I'm sure I'd be a poet.

I also tried to get a recording of a sonata for viola and synthesizer (in particular a Yamaha DX7) (15 min) that I wrote for a friend, but was not able to get a recording. HOWEVER, I was able to bring my recording materials in with me to NY and record two friends performing a trumpet duet I wrote for them earlier in the year, based off of the Stonewall Riots (16 min).

I then got together all of the sheet music for _Problems for Piano_ (about 40 min.) and started collaborating with the artist and performer. The next few weeks consisted of multiple recording sessions, and I would produce the tracks on the train rides home.

I also composed a piece called _Nineteen_, written for a competition requiring the use of some form of ancient text. I took the 19th poem from the _Tao Te Ching_ and converted the text to braille and then created my own extended technique and notation for a SATB choir to perform.

Another piece was composed for a contest by the JACK Quartet, which involved listening to my newly found collection of throwing up sounds for multiple hours/day.

There was also another piece that was written for my friend's deaf mother. It's for a percussion quartet but the quartet I've been working with isn't able to start rehearsing until next year, so I guess since it hasn't been named or rehearsed yet it isn't complete.

All in all a very interesting year which I hope to build on soon.

I've also been working on another upcoming piece, but that won't be performed until next year.

(I also probably have permanent back problems from having to lug around my viola and recording equipment on almost a daily basis).


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Composed some things, nothing memorable though. The most decent piece, I think, was the piece I called "Chamber suite", a 10 minutes piece for chamber orchestra in four short movements, composed in July and exploring different and contrasting ideas in each movement. 

__
https://soundcloud.com/aleazk%2Fchamber-suite


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