This forum seems to have gone completely to sleep -- either the participants aren't writing anything (and most members are making no contribution at all) or they don't want to share what they're doing. I have yet to start on a new work but perhaps to get the ball rolling again (or maybe not), I'd ask folk who have 40' to spare to listen to my first string quintet. Basically because it's probably my favourite chamber work. It was inspired by the mighty Schubert string quintet and at times, in its mood and melodically, it pays homage to him although there are many points of difference. Nevertheless, this work is among the more "classical" in spirit if you count late Schubert or late Beethoven as classical which many would dispute.
Just look for it from this link (bit more than half way down between the piano quartet and quintets)
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I've been busy with things other than music, sadly to say. Hence the silence. I do have a WIP fugue but haven't been able to work on it much. Well actually, I have several WIP fugues, but most of them are on the backburner at the moment. This one is more promising, but haven't had time to work on it.
P. S. In general, though, the life and death of this forum shouldn't depend on a single fugologist, so... what gives? :-P
Always nice to hear from you, HS, even if, as you know, I'm no fugologist! Of course this forum has always ebbed and flowed a bit and because it is specifically for composers will never get the traffic which a more general music enthusiast one will generate but on the other hand, I'm not quite sure I see the reason for joining something like this and not contributing. Perhaps I'm just naive...
We've had that issue since the times of the old forum. Many more members signed up than actively participated. In fact, this seems to be a common trend in online forums.
This forum hasn’t really gone to sleep—it’s just pining for the fjords
In my experience, most composers are quite self-centered, probably because the majority of them are men. As any woman can tell you, men tend to have big egos and are terrible listeners. That might be why female composers often stay in the background. Of course, I could be wrong, and I’d love to hear the opinions of other female composers.
And then there’s this. This is a forum for composers. I don’t write for composers—I write for musicians who enjoy playing my work. They visit my very busy website, where they download or purchase whatever they like. So, there’s nothing to gain for me by posting here. Now, if one of the many amateur composers in this or any other forum desperately needed advice on a theoretical or technical matter, I wouldn’t mind stepping in. However, I’ve seen too many posts where a complete beginner shares their unpolished and clumsy attempts at writing music and expects praise. In those cases, I prefer to stay silent because my honest reaction would likely come across as offensive (I’m not talking about you, David).
I expected this forum to have more discussions about music in general. Though, to be quite frank, I’m mainly here for the entertainment. A funny anecdote would be nice.
About your composition, I’ve listened to several of your string quartets, and I don’t think this one is the best you’ve written. Why is it your favorite?
Regarding virtual instruments, I read on Reelcrafter that you use VSL, Cinematic Studio, and Chris Hein. The violin is almost always problematic as a virtual instrument. Some music producers claim Chris Hein’s sounds best, but I disagree. The production of your string quartet could benefit from advice from the experienced music producers at Vi-Control. I used to be terrible at music production, but they helped me improve the sound of my string compositions significantly. Stupid me forgot that most of my audience plays piano or organ, so there’s little incentive for me to keep writing for strings. But at least now I know how to achieve a decent sound. I still suck, though—just not as much.
When working on a sound file, one tends to get absorbed in the process. After a while, it becomes difficult to judge the overall sound of the production. What helped me was switching between the sound in my DAW and a live performance by a string quartet on YouTube. The difference is immediately noticeable. It’s almost impossible to make a virtual string quartet sound exactly like a real one, but if the gap is too wide, it’s worth improving.
One general tip for writing a string quartet: let the violin remain silent every now and then—not just for a few notes, but for an entire phrase. I’ve heard most of your quartets, and it may be a coincidence, but the violin is always present, being its annoying self.
strangely I've never been to the fjords despite living two years in Sweden and having seen a fair bit of Norway. As my wife tells me, men have terribly egos and are terrible listeners. They also tend to dominate forums which is curious as women tend to talk more - guess they dominate social media.
Anyway, forums like this are primarily for composers who work in isolation and want to see if anyone might possibly enjoy their work, as well as perhaps soliciting practical feedback. I can't understand any possible reason why professionals would waste time here, unless they can't get performances of their work (hardly uncommon) or feel they might be able to teach us lesser mortals something.
Why is this my favourite quartet? Dunno -- guess it has one or two of the best tunes - something which is always extremely subjective -- and proceeds with an inevitability and focus from start to finish which is rare in my work. One or two have agreed but it's always interesting to hear divergent opinions. Which quartet(s) do you like the most and why? Incidentally, the initial theme of the last movement is written entirely in the lower strings so I'm not sure I agree with your complaint about the violin. At any rate, I tend to spread the melodic interest among the instruments somewhat better than a typical classical quartet where the first violin almost always dominates. But perhaps nevertheless you have a point there.
Regarding virtual instruments, there is no ideal string quartet. Think there is pretty well unanimous agreement on this at VIControl. The biggest problem with the "legacy" VSL solo strings used here is the rather nasal tone. The official demos are carefully chosen to illustrate "busy" music where the strengths come out and the weaknesses are hidden. The new Synchron strings are much better in this respect so far but we're still waiting for the viola and 2nd violin which will be released at some point this year. I'm not going to do an intermediate rendering of this work -- I did this already with the 14th quartet. Still, if you have some examples of your strings work with the libraries used, it would be interesting to hear! Chris Hein works best with expressionist music (such as my second "Easter" string quintet, I feel but is rather hard to programme. Not sure if Arne Wallander will be able to perform mircles with it if he starts to support it in the NotePerformer Performance Engine.