# Writing A Violin Concerto



## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

The Violin Concerto is finished, coming in at around 30 mins. The best news of all is that I have a well known violinist in the UK (secret for now) who will play the solo part on a beautiful, old and rare instrument that sounds just gorgeous. The recording is yet to be determined as he is very busy of course, but it should be done by summer at the latest if corvid19 is kind to us.

The work is tonal (ish) and user friendly, at least more so than my more modern approach to harmony and when it is all done, I'll post it on the forum for anyone who wants a listen.

Symphony no2 next.....


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## Wes Lachot (Aug 11, 2020)

Mike,
I am really enjoying listening to your violin concerto, so much so that I thought I'd drop you a note to say so. I just recently joined the theory forum, so I've been looking around at various members' profiles to see what I can find, and was pleasantly surprised to find your webpage.

The performances and recording are excellent as well! Keep up the good work! -Wes


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Wes Lachot;bt5040 said:


> Mike,
> I am really enjoying listening to your violin concerto, so much so that I thought I'd drop you a note to say so. I just recently joined the theory forum, so I've been looking around at various members' profiles to see what I can find, and was pleasantly surprised to find your webpage.
> 
> The performances and recording are excellent as well! Keep up the good work! -Wes


Hi Wes,
That's very nice of you to let me know, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Your first posts have made an impression, so I've just taken a peak at your website. Bloody Hell man, I've been in some nice recording studios in my time, but yours look absolutely fantastic. If you compose as well as you build, we are in for a treat.

best,
Mike.


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## Wes Lachot (Aug 11, 2020)

Mike,
Coming from someone of your obviously deep musical background and perceptiveness your opinion means a lot, and I hope you get to hear one these studios some time. 

As for composing, I don't do nearly enough of it and I am certainly nowhere near your league, although you may be interested to know that I actually design studios at the piano, using music theory concepts of ratios, harmonics, and so on and blending them with sound physics (it all comes together on some level). As far as I know, I'm pretty much the only guy on the planet that sits at the piano playing weird chords, looking for the "lost room" ;-)

I am self taught in classical composition, for instance learning sonata form straight from Rosen's book, and so on. That's my biggest challenge with composing. I did write a short piano movement last year that I like; it's sort of an exloration of the symmetry implications of N6 chords (and Aug6), using them as part of the thematic motive instead of saving them for the cadences. The internal challenge was to see if I could make it musically interesting, since it seems a lot of composers save the N6 and use it for emphasis, being discreet and careful not to overuse it. I just thought, let's see if we can stand that idea on it's head and make it work. That's what my composing tends to be--it will start off as a study of this or that geometrical "question", and the writing is nothing more than a search for the solutions. 

Thanks again. I am really enjoying your works. That's really why I'm here om the forum, to get exposed to more great music and meet some people with common interests. Cheers!


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Thanks Wes, your kind words are most appreciated.
The " lost room", love it, very funny. Lateral thinking is essential to creativity so I'm not surprised that you can jam together to different disciplines into a logical outcome. It's a good pathway, maybe the only pathway, to innovation and originality. The results of this are quite spectacular in your designs. I've worked in all the major studios in London and a few abroad and the closest one in my experience that matches your beautiful designs in any way is perhaps AIR. I've been drooling over your photos and missing that life a little (I retired early from it).

Despite my education, I consider myself self-taught too, it's the only way really. I also came to CP academia via Jazz guitar which was my very first instrument and have a handle on both sides of the 'debate'. Even today, I can still imagine harmonies and themes as though fingered on the guitar. I fully agree that composing is a search for solutions and a great way to hunt for them is via technique. As always though, the music comes first.

I look forward to your posts here and just as a heads up, it'll get quite tetchy at times in these parts but there are very knowledgable folk here. I've learnt an awful lot from just ploughing through some of the heavier debates/wars.
Best
Mike.


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