I tried to crosspost here from r/fountainpens but apparently that’s not possible.

When I first started composing, which pre-dates music setting software such as Finale, the standard method for finished scores was to use a fountain pen with a music nib, which was a kind of slanted stub, on velum, then it was sent in for processing and you’d get a score back that looked somewhat like a blueprint. I still have a few of them. I’m glad those days are gone.

However, I’ve taken a hankering for fountain pens and since they still make them with music nibs, I bought one a while back, a Sailor 1911 with a 14k gold music nib. I used to use it for my daily composition blog but once I got an Apple Pencil I abandoned the practice favoring my iPad and ZoomNotes which automatically backs my work up in my Dropbox.

Recently, however, I read an article the premise being future historians are going to have a real problem finding out what we’ve been up to in this time period since very little information is being preserved in analog / printed format, and they further stated handwritten accounts such as journals are going to be invaluable resources, which led me to realize - my blog and everything I’ve posted will disappear the instant Substack shuts down, and all the backups in my Dropbox are useless unless I have them all printed.

Do I really care if people in the future look at my music? I don’t know, but do I want it all lost, no, so I purchased an exceptionally good hardbound music book with 120g archive paper, loaded my pen up with Akkerman “Shocking Blue” ink and resumed composing by hand using ink. Unless it’s destroyed, centuries from now my book will still be readable.

Having just inked my first entry I’d post a picture here but there is no way to add it, just links, so here’s the finished score on my blog:

https://philipdewalt.substack.com/p/shocking-blue

The inked page isn’t there - to see it go to the r/fountainpens subreddit - it’s still near the top.

FYI, I compose these scores in one sitting with virtually no editing. It’s part of the aesthetic of composing with ink.

I know it's a bit odd to mix images of death with dancing, but Saint-Saëns did it before I even thought of the idea.

Score: https://musescore.com/user/118018538/scores/35827070

https://youtu.be/pieoGinFPEw?si=wHmGJXf2QJNpLhvA

score: https://musescore.com/user/23416646/scores/35863358 An old work of mine(2024), re-orchestrated. It’s on the play Antigone, you can see there are lots of themes and melodies re-used over and over again representing the key points in the play(kinda like leitmotifs of Wagner but not as direct). Now, my recent works are not this Romantic but still have a similar harmonic language.

hi everyone i'm a bit of a novice composer and wrote this for an assignment and was wondering if I could get any feedback on my piece before I submit it? i'm mainly wondering if the theme is restated too many times, whether or not it gets too busy at some moments, and if the overall form of the piece is clear, but any other feedback is welcomed. please help if you can!

quintet Google Drive link

I've been commissioned to write an electroacoustic piece for a solo wind instrument and spatial electronics. Unfortunately I have never dabbled in electroacoustic music, and my only real experience listening to it is from mid-to-late Twentieth-century Spectralist and Post-Spectralist music (Gérard Grisey, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Kaija Saariaho), which seems to utilise a lot of tape recordings and harmonic/timbral amplificiation; it's interesting, but I imagine the field has moved on from 80's tech at this point. So I'm trying to learn more about it and figure out how to make my own, but it's incredibly complicated and radically different from anything I've listened to in classical music before, and frankly I'm lost at where to even begin.

My idea is to have an interactive dialogue between the performer and computer, where the performer plays a musical cell and the computer plays back manipulated forms of it, with different cellular constructions overlapping into a big colourful textural breathing... Thing. That's a fairly vague plan but I'm not going to start setting lofty goals when I don't even know what equipment I'll need to pull off the basics.

Max MSP seems like the common option, and I can more-or-less afford it, but I don't want to use it on principle: I don't like the idea of my compositions being intrinsically tied to a piece of paid, proprietary software, where a performer has to pay a third party in order to play my music. Plus I'm on Linux and don't really want to switch OS just to write this piece. I'm aware I'm probably massively shooting myself in the foot by limiting myself here, but... Yeah. For that reason I'm looking at Supercollider or PureData, but I'm not certain if they have the required functionality for this kind of live manipulation, and I hardly know where to even start researching this stuff. I've done some surface-level research/messing around on both and I think I prefer Supercollider's approach even if it is incredibly complicated, but I'm open to learning either or.

I have to imagine the idea I'm thinking of has been done before, but I have no idea where to look for this kind of music; most electroacoustic music I've been able to find online is basically just performers playing to a backing track. That or positively incomprehensible barrages of scary synth noises in 8.1 surround sound with screechy violin played overtop - Not hating but, yknow, there has to be a middle ground out there that I'm missing. I assume I'm looking in the wrong place or missing the one term I need to search to find what I'm looking for. Like I said, I barely even know where to start delving into contemporary electroacoustic music. It seems to be a very niche genre encompassing a million subgenres, and it's positively dizzying trying to make sense of it all.

If anyone can give advice on how I can make some headway into this genre, through textbooks or software recommendations or anything, I'd greatly appreciate it. And of course I would love some recommendations for modern composers to check out!

Could you recommend music/pieces similar to this one.

Absolutely loving this piece right now. Any recommendations from any time period are welcome.

I want to study and write music similar to this. Any tips are welcome too.

Thanks.

Musescore Link

This is a new composition I'm working on for my A Levels. It's inspired by a wide range of recent events ranging from a girl I know (Regazza) all the way to the American Cemetery in Normandy that I visited recently (Garden of the Missing).

I'm a percussionist but have spent most of my time in my school's wind band listening to pieces such as 'Risk (Everything for a Dream)' leading towards some solos and such being written with performers in mind. The downside of being a percussionist is a lack of any harmony knowledge so any guidance towards this would be appreciated

Ignore all the rehearsal marks and titles for them as they are just for my organisation as I compose.

Any advice, tips or suggestions are welcome as I adore composing and want to learn more.

This is my first official composition, it is a very short piece for a cloudy day. Let me know what you think. (I am in the process of learning music theory.)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AVDZJK2VKAE&feature=youtu.be

Choral Fantasia No. 1 in B minor Op. 1 by Blumby

I will be posting more compositions on the same channel if anyone is curious. Please leave a like if you can. Thank you.

Hi all,

Does anyone have experience selling their arrangements through Hal Leonard's ArrangeMe self publishing service?

When adding a work you can add a YouTube link with a demo of your arrangement. Can this demo on YouTube feature the sheet music?

Thanks!

EDIT:

sorry for the typo in the title

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y_KDvoCQh0QA27o5weKETgl9ILE1vVBw/view?usp=drivesdk

I'm mostly interested in knowing if there are too many cautionary accidentals ? Also some of the Fbs and the Dbs have the enharmonic note next to it, is that clear ?

I originally thought it was better to just trust that singers will be competent enough to know that sometimes music gets weird and augmented intervals can "sound funny", but in a workshop for the piece, the sopranos sang what I thought was a not so complicated part very poorly, so I'm wondering if it's me.

If anything else catches your eye or if you have any other general feedback, I'd love to hear it !

How do you deal with it? I just spent five minutes composing and then 55 minutes troubleshooting Cubase and windows.

I only do the odd composition gig here and there, my main income is teaching, so every year or two when I boot up Cubase I kick myself for buying this ridiculous beast.

I can’t even figure out how to get it to route audio through my headphones. In the post Apple world this is kind of a joke.

People who have logic and a Mac, is ie better? I’m about to drop 2k and go in the hole on this project just so I can focus on the music and not the tech.

So the title says it all. I'm interested in knowing what you did, what inspired you, how you composed your piece, and if there are recordings we could hear! Maybe some of us can take inspiration and learn from y'all.

I'll start. My first award came from just playing around on the piano (it was a piano composition prize). Honestly, I was just burnt out from composing (stopped for two years in serious composing) and trying to find the spark I'd once lost. So for a few weeks, occasionally I'd press some keys whenever I passed by my piano or some pianos around the conservatory.

Eventually, my fellow composition students and I saw this call for scores in our country and decided to join. I thought that since I've been pressing some keys around pianos I pass by, maybe I could limit myself to a pitch-class set as few as the ones I've been pressing. By then, it got a little fun for some reason; eventually, it made me realize, little by little, the happiness I once lost in composing.

So I wrote the piece.... then totally scrapped it since it wasn't what I wanted. It had no inspiration and just felt like me composing to win, not to enjoy it. But I remembered I had a fascination with gongs and decided to try to create a piece that emulated them on the piano (i.e., using tone clusters, pentatones that still encapsulated the original pitch class set, rhythmic layering, etc.).

I just had fun. That's why I was so shocked when the prize commission emailed me to say my piece had been chosen.

What I learned: Composing should be fun, and many of us forget how to enjoy it during our composition journey.

What's yours?

Feedback is more than welcome!

https://musescore.com/user/123665411/scores/35849741

I'm not sure if this the best sub for this but it doesn't hurt to ask.

I have a piece I have transcribed and it involves a marching band ensemble. I have no problem transcribing, however I am a bit novice when it comes to engraving drumline notation. I couldn't find any suitable scores for score-reading due to college level marching band scores being impossible to find, and high school scores not being rigorous enough.

I have attached the score and audio of the entire piece.

[Full Score + Audio for context] (https://musescore.com/user/3674151/scores/35852300/s/NemAoP?share=copy_link)

[Drumline Parts Only] (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1abMFoQZQMD5kmIyQUTDBwrjvjnI-nOC4/view?usp=sharing)

Link to YouTube Sheet Music

My goal was to write something that could play quietly in the background while someone is just relaxing or studying

I need to just use standard fermatas and am doing that going forward on my newer compositions. So sorry about that in advance. Just hadn’t ever posted about this one here so wanted to get some feedback!

I know I should have done acciaccaturas when it’s just two notes, and I didn’t realize this until I had already uploaded it a while ago. But other than that, is there anything that seems off with the notation?

I also think the tempo could maybe be sped up a little bit

I’m having fun composing, and that’s what matters most!

Always like the feedback on this sub, so I’m curious to see what people think :)

I'm classical musician, and my composition last year accomplished to receive an award, and I never use any of these new A.I. tools. They were not a thing when I was studying.

Recently, I'm studying Max Reger and are studying his music to learn his style. Reger is an unusual figure, with quite insufficient research done to his compositional language, insofar that makes Regerian composers very rare. So I wanted to test what judgments and concepts copilot would make, and it comes up with a huuuge bunch of concepts of Reger-idiom, traits and to what extent they are closely related to Reger's idiom.

It proposes for instance way Reger would treat a harmonic field and 3 examples of how he would move the harmony.

This sounds absolutely crazy to assume. The thing I was convinced by however, was it's concept of how Reger's polyphonic style differs from the interval-driven Renaissance style, with quite good arguments. So more general ideas about style seemed good to at least think about.

Are there any classical composers who have experience by using these tools? I don't think classical composers should use it, but I have responsibility to actually critique it and give it a real verdict. The amount of stylistic traits it is able to present is overwhelming, and very hard to evaluate, especially since it's a lesser known composer.

Would love to hear.

I've just tagged the first stable version of my free software Justly for composing in Just intonation. Docs here and binaries here. Features:

- Support for Windows, Linux, and MacOS (both on Intel and Silicon)

- Importing and exporting songs in musicxml

- Live playback with all the instruments included in the musescore soundfont

Please try it out and let me know what you think!

I recently started using logic due to budget reasons is it good?

So I have a pretty extensive resume in Filmmaking, but for some reason, all of the people I've worked with haven't given me almost any response to me as a Composer, though they all still make films. I'm very easy to get along with, and I always got great compliments on all the gigs I've worked in Film. They'll say, "great, I'll let you know if anything comes up" at BEST, maybe the odd, "I'll let you know if I know anyone". I don't even know if any of them have listened to any of the music on my site, or if they're referring me. I'm in Los Angeles, and there are still PLENTY of indie filmmakers making films here every day, not to mention tons of festivals and students.

I came to Reddit because I heard it was a good place to get gigs, but I haven't been seeing much return as yet. Of the 20 or so DMs I've sent out, only a few have responded. I'm not TOO picky about what I work on, but I also don't want to do great work for a film that is just terrible. And, since I come from the film world, I can kind of tell right off the bat if it's going to be worth my time. I'm trying to be patient, but I"m seeing trends that make me question it.

I haven't tried cold-emailing much, aside from seeing film projects listed on here or Craigslist, but I've barely gotten any responses. I'm not sure where else to go from here in regards to cold-emailing. I've looked at groups here on Reddit, and there doesn't seem to be nearly as much activity as I thought there would be. Maybe I'm not looking in the right groups.

I would go to film festivals more, but I can't really afford to go to many. Like I was looking at a feature film festival coming up, and you have to spend $20 per film you want to see, and there's no guarantee at all that you'll really meet anyone who is actively making films. The last festival I attended was one that had a short I scored, and several people said, "I loved your score, it really made the film, I'll definitely reach out to you", etc, but so far I've gotten nothing. Of course, that's always been the filmmaking world for me, lots of talk and not much action. I'll reach out to people to see if there's anything I can help with, and they say they don't have anything, but then I see they have projects they're actively working on. It's befuddling, and after awhile it makes me wonder if it's me. Not to complain, but I'm sure a few of us have been through this situation.

I also don't know where to find student filmmakers, other than literally going to one of the local schools and talking directly to them, which is difficult because you have to BE a student to get into the building.

I knew coming into composing that it wouldn't be an overnight thing, but I'm just wondering how I can make it happen at all at this point. I love writing music, and I've actually been composing most of my life, but only recently got back into it after a couple decades not pursuing it.

Any advice, sob stories, tricks?

https://musescore.com/user/104541706/scores/35311877/s/zQNOSF

I've shared the 4th one on here a while ago, but here's the whole set!

I'm always curious to hear how other people perceive my music, so any feedback is very welcome and appreciated!

This February, I was fortunate to be the Artist-in-Residence at Zion. For three weeks, I stayed in the Grotto House, among towering red sandstone cliffs, by the trailhead to Angels Landing.

Here’s “Canyon Canticles,” for piano trio, commissioned and premiered by Trio Menil in Houston; a piece I completed during my residency:

https://youtu.be/IAftyIPcs0M?

Thanks for listening!

In a set of Fučík band parts from 1908, printed by a German company, there are two parts labelled "Piston in Es" (a.k.a. E♭) and "Piston in B♭". The parts are identical (other than being transposed); the score order puts this instrument below the trumpets, and above the horns. It is not just a reworking of one of the other cornet or trumpet parts. What is the instrument? (I don't think it's a valved horn vs a natural horn (cor à pistons vs cor simple); the Piston part in the score is much more trumpet-like than any of the 4 horn parts in the score.)

Having to post a composition daily causes one to take inspiration from wherever you can find it, like your tomato plants needing some help.

https://philipdewalt.substack.com/p/blossom-rot