# My first 2 symphonies



## MaestroRoss (Jun 2, 2012)

I've been listening to a lot of Dvorak, Vivaldi, Stokowski, Tchaikovsky, Bach, etc lately and became VERY inspired to try it for myself. Everyone likes it so far. Please leave feedback as it helps every musician develop.
Thank you for listening.

a dreamer's dream

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https://soundcloud.com/jason_scott_ross%2Fa-dreamers-dream

mystery

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https://soundcloud.com/jason_scott_ross%2Fmystery


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I just had a listen to the first one. Are there any more movements in that symphony or is it just a short piece for orchestra? I noticed a lot of parallel fifths in the first 30 seconds which might need fixing up.


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## MaestroRoss (Jun 2, 2012)

It's just that piece alone. What do you mean by fixing up? Please explain.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroRoss said:


> It's just that piece alone. What do you mean by fixing up? Please explain.


Unusually short for a symphony. Even for a single movement. But still a good first effort.  Maybe if you change around a few notes here and there to get rid of the parallel fifths it would sound better. Nobody likes bad voice leading.


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## MaestroRoss (Jun 2, 2012)

Actually Chopin and other composers did it. I know it was discouraged long ago but it's kind of irrelevant now. All that matters is how it sounds. Nothing is masking.. And short, yes, but it's just a short melodic symphony. They do exist. I know my Classical stuff will improve as I keep writing. No comment on the other one? I'm listening to your stuff right now.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroRoss said:


> Actually Chopin and other composers did it. I know it was discouraged long ago but it's kind of irrelevant now. All that matters is how it sounds. Nothing is masking.. And short, yes, but it's just a short melodic symphony. They do exist. I know my Classical stuff will improve as I keep writing. No comment on the other one? I'm listening to your stuff right now.


As you are still a beginning composer, my best advice is to follow the rules and understand what will become irrelevant to your compositional style later in life. It's quite late here (nearly midnight) and I need some sleep I'll have a listen to the other one tomorrow.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

I think you need to be more self-critical.


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## MaestroRoss (Jun 2, 2012)

Man you guys are really vague. I came to this forum hoping for some real advice and feedback, not these one or two liners that don't say much. Please explain. I am very self-critical. This is good music. Everyone likes it. Yeah I don't know music theory and "rules" to music but you know what? It's musically sound and has a direction. As far as I'm concerned there are no rules as long as it makes musical sense. So yeah. Please folks.. don't be so vague.


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## MaestroRoss (Jun 2, 2012)

It's art. WTF. Do you like it or not? People didn't tell Picasso and Dali how to make their art.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Since you plainly said that you don't know the rules, I advise that you learn them. You will thank me in ten years time.


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## chee_zee (Aug 16, 2010)

"I am very self-critical. This is good music."
You could not have contradicted yourself any quicker. "Everyone likes it" Clearly not, as there are already criticisms of it from people much more experienced and well-versed than yourself in the idiom (and composer of avante garde is in his mid-teens. have you ever listened to gyorgy ligeti let alone learned full well the idea behind parallel 5ths?) 

Parallel 5ths don't really have direction, not in the manner used here. I could see if you were doing some planing from high to low or vice versa to switch from say a motif in the bassoon to reach up to the same motif in the oboe or piccolo...it's very amateurish overall as is. the texture is too gray and switches from one thing to the next too quickly. it's not much in the classical idiom, more fitting as incidental music to perhaps a game or film trailer. 

Do you know about how many french horns it takes to be even in volume with a trumpet, assuming forte and assuming good register for both? do you know whether low oboe combined with low flute is a good and balanced combo, and why? do you know which partials are emphasized by flutes, which by single reeds (and do they change according to register and or dynamic) and which partials are emphasized by double reeds? Do you know the vibrating and nonmoving nodes of various shapes and sizes and materials of bells, gongs, and other idiophones? 

Do you know what an incomplete authentic cadence or a 12 tone row or an irregularly resolving german augmented sixth or a an oboe d'amour or an andalusian cadence or a sentence or a period or pre-core/core technique of development sections are? you probably have much study ahead, a thick hide, a humble demeanor, and a willingness to learn combined with patience are the minimum to be a half-decent composer. Also nutrition, sleep, and exercise are too ignored so don't get too caught up in it all. you didn't even post in the right subforum.


that being said, this shows promise overall, you've got a knack for writing that much is for sure. you are just new to it all and have much work ahead of you. it's not bad, it's not horrid, but it's not great and not everyone likes it. stick around and don't find yourself at youngcomposers.com lest ye be ridiculed beyond what is necessary. about the only thing we get here on TC is a certain mentally ill wagner fanatic. from about 2:45 on is pretty good, you have a sense of tension and relief and a bit of form, which is the most important thing for long works like a symphony or even really short works like the music to a video game trailer.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Hi, mentally ill Wagner fanatic here. 

Wagner's _Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg_ is the story of a talented but naive singer-composer, Walther von Stolzing, who upsets the guild of mastersingers with his beautiful but rule-breaking song during an audition for a songwriting contest, the prize of which is Eva's hand in marriage. He is ultimately allowed to compete in the contest, to the dismay of Sixtus Beckmesser, who is extremely well versed in the rules of composition but while he can compose "properly", cannot create music of the raw beauty and inspiration of Walther's. Ultimately Walther learns the balance between inspiration and the framework of the rules and traditions of old, defeats Beckmesser in the song contest, and gets to marry the woman of his dreams.

Both MaestroRoss and chee_zee could really benefit from watching _Meistersinger_.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroRoss, please to ahead and join www.youngcomposers.com The people there are very helpful and will criticise your very nice compositions to the extreme. I used to be a member there but I left because of the high amount of hatred I received.


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## chee_zee (Aug 16, 2010)

wait you received a lot of hatred? I wudda taught you'd be like the 2nd coming of jeebus or something over there, just by the name alone.


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## MaestroRoss (Jun 2, 2012)

LOL okay, moving on to another forum. Who are all you "Senior Member" dipshits anyway? Just a buncha fools with nothing of real value to add. BTW, ComposerOfAvantGarde - Get a real music program. That kids toy keyboard stuff on your soundcloud sounds horrible... This website is a joke!


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## chee_zee (Aug 16, 2010)

seeing as how he is 14, I doubt our marxist freund will be getting VSL or EWQLSO anytime soon, at least by legal means. Sibelius Sounds and Finale don't sound that great either FYI, so don't tell him to use their soundsets. I'm sure he'd be more than happy to scan up some of his scores to his computer and share them with you. You can audiate/score read can't you?


also, I think Mr Marchant's advice is more than useless. Can't improve our work if we can't look around the room and find some manuscript paper to write on if our head is so big as to fill the entire room, now can we?


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## Guest (Jun 4, 2012)

An excellent example of how to make a newcomer feel at home, well done chaps.


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## chee_zee (Aug 16, 2010)

the whole thread wasn't a loss though, we've a very sig worthy quote:
"It's art. WTF. Do you like it or not? People didn't tell Picasso and Dali how to make their art."


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## MaestroRoss (Jun 2, 2012)

Thank you. Besides your ridiculous comments below, this one was most helpful. I'm still outta here though. Why do such childish pricks in here hold the title "senior member".. That's the funniest yet saddest part of all.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

MaestroRoss said:


> Thank you. Besides your ridiculous comments below, this one was most helpful. I'm still outta here though. Why do such childish pricks in here hold the title "senior member".. That's the funniest yet saddest part of all.


If you truly feel that way, nominate the revocation of their seniority at the next tribunal


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

MaestroRoss said:


> Thank you. Besides your ridiculous comments below, this one was most helpful. I'm still outta here though. Why do such childish pricks in here hold the title "senior member".. That's the funniest yet saddest part of all.


Infantile petulance and name-calling are not endearing and will not move you forward. Either you want people's comments or you don't. If you don't, you shouldn't have posted. Most people, including myself, have not expressed an opinion on your music because it is not possible to express an honest one which you won't find disappointing and demotivating.

Contrary to chee zee's opinion of my remark, some self-criticism would have steeled you to the likely response to your piece and perhaps would have led you to improve it before posting it.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

chee_zee said:


> wait you received a lot of hatred? I wudda taught you'd be like the 2nd coming of jeebus or something over there, just by the name alone.


I went by a different name.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

This was going to be a nasty comment directed at MaestroRoss, but I know better than to put people down. 

MaestroRoss, if you want some real honest advice, don't hesitate to post here. If you just want to hear someone say they like it (and I must say I do like what you have written), show it to some of your friends instead.


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## chee_zee (Aug 16, 2010)

well the guy has contradicted himself, claiming to be highly self-critical when he is in reality so far from it as to not be possible to be any further from it. He's also putting himself on a pedestal by comparing his art to the level of picasso just because he received a tiny bit of critiquing about his odd use of parallels. I dunno, I just don't think if picasso were a composer that his clever cubism idea would've translated as poorly misunderstood use of free treatment of parallels

perhaps orchestral non-fusion of timbres or combining many styles of music into his own, or creating an interesting-to-normal humans atonal system, or proving once and for all that said task is impossible....or creating such awesome neo-romantic music that couchie would instead be a mentally ill picasso fan.


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