as this forum seems to have died recently, I feel obliged to post something new. Well actually, it isn't really new but my String Serenade has been redone with a new chamber strings library and for the most part, I like the result. The piece is a bit lighter than many with a mixture of nostalgic sentiment and high spirits which shouldn't require much explanation. It's probably as close to Czech models like Dvorak or Suk as any (with perhaps a hint of Swedishness) and can be found here https://play.reelcrafter.com/dko22/latestworks.
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Don't know if the forum died, or people just got busy. I've been wanting to participate but haven't had the time. No time even to work on my own music, needless to say participate in forum discussions. Too many other things to do. :-(
Well, it's not for me, but I never liked Dvořák. Suk isn't my favorite either. There's no pleasing me, by the way, because the older I get, the more I value clear lines, counterpoint, and the elegance of the Baroque. Fat piano chords give me the shivers. It's the same with graphic art—line drawings are my cup of tea; paintings are too messy for me. I like it neat.
Still, I did enjoy your string quartet. However, since you're self-taught, there must be something wrong with it.
I don't think this forum is dead. It has its problems, but so do all forums for composers. Why would you post your work? If you're an amateur composer, you should get a teacher and let them deal with your problems. If you're a pro with formal training, you don't need help.
To me, a forum is like a café you visit once in a while, just to see what everyone is up to. I like to sit in the corner and observe the peasants. Composersforum is a nice café, and the drinks are free, so I guess I'll stick around.
well, I'm glad you'll stick around, Rowy, as you always have something entertaining to say. As you say, there's no earthly reason -- for different reasons -- why either amateur or professional composers should post work. Except, perhaps it the hope that a handful of people might enjoy it. I do feel sorry you have succumbed to the mindless tedium of much Baroque music and I'm afraid it's unlikely that any of it will ever influence me. So I guess we can only stick to our respective tastes.
Actually just dipping in from time to time is absolutely fine but as the majority of members have never contributed at all, it means that there's not that much going on.
Ah, well, I should have mentioned that by "Baroque," I don't mean original Baroque music, although I do enjoy it very much. Rather, I refer to my personal version of it. I've been influenced by J.S. Bach (you might have heard of him), English Baroque composers, and Michel Legrand (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, The Summer of '42), as well as the composers who wrote the music for those wonderful film musicals like Mary Poppins (the original) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. As a child, I was blown away by their music.
My father was a music teacher, which probably explains why I didn't like music at first. However, Mary Poppins captivated me, threw me across the room, and knocked me out of my socks. I never recovered from that, and now I have to grow old knowing I could have done something useful with my life if I hadn't seen that film.
I might have spent my entire life in blissful ignorance of J.S. Bach were it not for the fact that in certain forums he keeps on cropping up. And singing in choirs also makes it hard to avoid him. Perhaps I should have joined the Munich choir where I met my wife -- there all Protestant music was banned which included all the Sch's like Schütz, Schein and Scheidt. Still, Baroque is not a complete desert -- I really enjoyed Zelenka's "Missa Votiva" for instance, even to listen to. And there was one Bach Mass -- F major possibly -- I got quite a thrill out of singing.
I am lucky enough not to come from a family where anyone made money out of music. My Swedish grandfather was a friend of Alfven and a decent enough cellist but only as an amateur. As for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, now that was real music! However in my childhood, the title was somewhat different and would not be printable with the prudish censorship of the typical American web host.
I don't agree that Baroque music is tedious. Perhaps the kind of Baroque that's played in popular channels, which I also can't stand. But listening to the WTC fugues, for example, leaves me in awe at Bach's counterpoint. There's way more variety and color here than the average typical Baroque that you hear from popular channels.
I post my music because being more-or-less a closet composer, I don't normally have any audience for my music. So I post it here on the off-chance that somebody here might like it. Sometimes I even learn a thing or two from you geniuses here, which is a bonus.
we're not really that different, you and I! Except in musical taste. And even with Bach, I can see what people admire in him even if he's a long way down the list of my favourites.
This will probably shock many, but Bach actually isn't that high up on my list either. My taste in Bach is primarily in his fugues, and not much else (not even the preludes accompanying his fugues, lol). I'm much more of a lover of Beethoven-style music. Or, in terms of later musical styles, I prefer the likes of Sibelius and Bruckner over the ostensibly more popular Mahler. I do have my favorites among the Shostakovich symphonies, but they're not very high up on my list of all-time favorites, if I'm being honest with myself.
although in general I'm not a fan of listening to fugues (with some exceptions in the late romantic era for instance), I can get a certain thrill out of singing them -- this way it is indeed possible to admire Bach's skill in many instances, other than when he forgets he's not writing for the organ and expects the singers to manage irritatingly illogical sequences which happens from time to time.
Bruckner I regard as the greatest symphonist to have ever lived and Sibelius from no. 4 onwards at any rate is very competitive. Beethoven's "Pastoral" is work of genius well ahead of its time and at the same time, remarkably simple in many ways, but I can happily live without the others (though the "Eroica" at the very least is undoubtedly a towering masterpiece).
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