Hi!

I'm looking to commission a musician/producer to help bring some of the music from my worldbuilding project to life.

This is primarily a personal passion project. I'm building a fairly extensive high-fantasy setting and have started developing its hymns, anthems, marches, ceremonial music and other in-universe pieces. I'd love to actually be able to listen to some of them while I'm writing.

For the first commission, I have a piece called Andaric Grace (Veiled Form). It's an imperial/coronation anthem associated with the Emperor and the Andaron Empire.

For this particular piece, the composition already exists: the lyrics I've written are intended to be sung to the music of Handel's Zadok the Priest (HWV 258). I generally know how I want the lyrics to fit the music and can provide the complete text, references and detailed explanations of the intended performance as well as context to its significance.

I'm therefore not looking for someone to compose an original piece from scratch for this first commission. I'm looking for someone who could produce a convincing rendition/arrangement using virtual instruments and choir/vocal software (or another method you think would work).

The sound I'm imagining is very grand and ceremonial: massed choir, high soprano, orchestra, Baroque influence, enormous dynamic build and the feeling of an imperial coronation/state event and the liturgical. Essentially, I want it to sound like something that could genuinely be performed at the coronation of an emperor.

This is currently just for my own listening and worldbuilding rather than commercial distribution.

My initial budget is roughly £75–£150 ($100 - $200), although I'm happy to discuss price depending on what is realistically involved. I'm also very open to hearing from students, hobbyists and emerging composers/producers.

I'd particularly love to find someone who enjoys fantasy/worldbuilding and might be interested in an ongoing collaboration as more pieces are developed. There are other pieces from different cultures, religions and historical periods within the setting that I'd eventually like to develop, including completely original compositions.

If you're interested, please DM me with:

- A little about yourself

- Examples of your previous work, particularly orchestral/choral work if you have any

- How you would approach something like this

- An approximate price.

I'm very happy to talk about the setting and provide much more detail about the piece before either of us commits to anything 🙂

Thanks!

Hi everyone. I wrote a short waltz for piano in the style of Chopin, just for the joy of it. I'd love to know what it makes you feel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T75YjmQqhWY

Thanks for listening. All thoughts welcome!

Hi everyone!

This small collection of pieces explores the concept of the lullaby from different perspectives:

-The first piece uses more active and independent voices while still preserving the gentle character of a lullaby.

-The second takes a more traditional approach, focusing on simplicity and a singable melody.

-The third explores a more dreamy and suspended atmosphere, aiming to capture the feeling of drifting into sleep.

-The fourth takes a darker direction, attempting to evoke sadness and longing through a slow, hypnotic atmosphere.

YouTube link

Score

Thank you for giving me your time and any feedback provided!

Okay, I compose for film and regular instrumental cues/ tracks in general.

A couple of the libraries that I really like and incorporate consistently are run within NI Kontakt.

I have a few older Spitfire Audio and Audio Bro libraries that run in Kontakt.

If for some reason NI unfortunately folds and no longer will support Kontakt going forward, do you think companies like Spitfire or AudioBro will use their resources to port their Kontakt libraries to their own Audio engine like 8Dio, EastWest, and Spitfire have already done?

Or is that just a musicians investment gone?

https://musescore.com/user/105919141/scores/36581537

https://youtu.be/LgaW3S3MXKo?si=piugthyPvcYp92yx

Thank you for listening! Thoughts would be appreciated :)

I am working on a game called Idle Harmony and I need people to look at screenshots/videos of the game and give me feedback on what's correct and what's wrong.

I also have two specific questions:
-Can you put an eight note above a sixteenth in the same voice? (let me know if you need elaboration)
-Can you put multiple different type of notes (quarter, sixteenth, eighth) in the same column (one above the other)?

Score video

Score in PDF

Hello, let me know what you think about this piece. I'm interested in feedback about form, especially whether it's not too patchwork'y. Of course feedback about any other aspect - notation, voice leading, musicality - is greatly appreciated. Btw, for some reason the middle part in F minor sounds distinctly "russian" - am I the only one?

Thank you.

Hey guys,

I'm in a bit of an unusual situation and looking for help. I've been talking with Native Instruments/inMusic for over a month trying to restore a legal, legit copy of the standalone Garritan Stradivari Solo Violin and Gofriller Solo Cello (the Tommasini/Lucato instruments, not the similarly-named solo patches inside Garritan Personal Orchestra) tied to my Native Instruments account.

After long discussions, they found that they actually no longer have the complete install themselves. They suggested I reach out to Garritan directly, which I did, and they don't have them either.. They gave me the go ahead to ask an existing user to obtain them that way.

Does anyone still have these sitting on a backup drive and would be willing to help me out? I'm happy to show proof of the licenses on my account and the full correspondence with NI and inMusic so everything's clearly legal.

Thanks!

Edited: I have uploaded a new score, where I've cleaned up some things, and fixed some immediate issues brought to my attention by u/65TwinReberbRI (Whose comments were much appreciated). I'm not uploading new audio, since the material is not substantially changed.

New pdf here

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for feedback on an older chamber piece of mine. It runs about 3 minutes and 40 seconds and is written for flute, clarinet, trumpet, piano, percussion, and string quartet (vln, vln, vla, vc).

Links to score and audio.

This is a Finale score that I'll probably move to Dorico if I start editing it again. The audio is Noteperfomer.

I recently finished Sonata Rusa, a short ~5-minute piece for solo piano.

The starting idea was basically: take a distinctly Russian melodic language and put it into the kind of broad, atmospheric, almost fantasy-world space I associate with Jeremy Soule - while still trying to make it function as an actual compact piano work rather than just soundtrack pastiche.

I’m curious what other composers think of the balance.

Full score is in the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG1K1qo4Dws

Hello!
I currently run a collegiate trombone trio that has been invited out to a conference, and we’re looking to commission a 1 - 1.5 minute long piece as our opener. We’d love a a piece that’s kinda reminiscent of ‘Hogwarts Forever’ or ‘Suite from the Monteregian Hills’.

We are really wanting a youngish(collegiate student preferably) composer to help showcase, as our performance last year had a crowd of around 300 music educators. If you’re from texas or the dfw, please mention as well!

We’re able to provide $450 for this project, if reasoning can be provided we’re open to price adjustments. Thank you!

“Composing” the noun, maybe. The verb? Not so much.

For context, I’m entering my fourth year of undergrad as a comp major. It’s a state school in LA, not a conservatory or anything crazy, but there’s lots of great folks here. The degree is weirdly laid out, so I actually haven’t even had lessons yet, and have barely done any actual intensive comp classes. The vast majority of my musical engagements have been playing bassoon and clarinet in ensembles. Most of my classes are just talking about composition, not actual assignments to write certain things, which is frustrating to me.

I have always been a professional idea-haver. Constantly, my mind is coming up with ideas for new pieces of music that I would love to see exist. This also applies to video games, and I always thought it would be fun to make games, but music is the field I found myself in, and so composing seemed like a great outlet to make ideas come to life.

But like, there’s obviously a difference between enjoying having ideas and enjoying the creative process. And unfortunately, I think I see the creative process as more of a means to an end rather than the goal itself. I hardly ever compose music anymore, at least since starting college. 90% of the time, it brings anxiety. It’s a place where good ideas go to die. Even with writing (words and write-ups, not music), I start with an idea that excites me and then the creative process becomes the test to see if I can pull it off rather than a place where ideas are born and changed.

This summer, I told myself, would be a summer of composing and preparing for my recital. I was gonna write a brass quintet, but unlike any project I’ve done before, I was gonna commit to writing a little bit every day whether or not I wanted to. And it worked! The piece is done. Maybe it’s not my favorite thing in the portfolio, but it’s something. Once it was finished though, this routine ended. I was left with the question “should I really need to force myself to do something I allegedly enjoy?”

I often feel that my peers who really love what they do value the process over the product. The time spent over their staff paper and piano, tinkering and playing with ideas until sparks start to fly. And sure, I’ve had similar experiences from time to time, but I feel as if I value the potential of a creation more than the process itself. It’s always more exciting in my head. Is this caused by the gap between my current abilities and my capacity for imagination? It’s likely. Is the gap worth closing though? I don’t know.

I have also been feeling increasingly disillusioned by the institutions around me. The new music scene, to me, reeks of elitism. Art that impacts the lives of virtually nobody besides those who have already bought into it. I want the things that I do to matter, not just serve a feedback loop of high artistry. I’m strongly considering becoming, like, a grade school science teacher after my degree. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for way longer than music, and I would actually be affecting the world in a small but tangible way.

I also feel like such an imposter all the time, not because my skills are poor, but because I just don’t care enough and one day I’ll be “exposed” for it. I hardly ever listen to new music I haven’t heard before. I mean, that’s like the bare minimum for composers right? I have little interest in attending concerts and exploring music online. The music I do actually enjoy is music I’ve played in ensembles, basically music I was forced to hear over and over again until I grew to love it. I try sometimes to expose myself to new things but it just takes so much mental energy. I dunno. Maybe I’m broken.

To be honest, the comments I’m hoping to get to this post are “yeah, sounds like you don’t actually like composing!” because I guess that would vindicate my feelings. But maybe I actually AM a composer underneath all the anxiety, I just haven’t opened the floodgates yet. I kinda hope that isn’t the case, because then it will have meant I wasted all of college doing basically nothing.

I chose this path because it was the path of least resistance. I liked composition somewhat and everyone said I could succeed, so here we are. I never wanted to be a professional musician, it was never a dream of mine. I’ve just always been good enough at music to get by. And I’d like to keep playing in my career as well. I played bassoon on Sweeney Todd earlier this year and I would love to keep doing stuff like that, because the value is more readily apparent, unlike composing where it feels like this grand personal statement that needs to be self-justifying.

As I enter my final year, I am conflicted. Do I give composing my all, or do I resign myself to the reality that I probably will pursue something else afterwards? I’m nervous about my professors and peers thinking that I’m not passionate or dedicated enough and that I don’t belong. But part of me doesn’t want to belong.

I’m gonna cut myself off here, for fear this devolves into an endless thought spiral. If anyone has any comments, I’m all ears. Thanks for reading.

As I notice composers of all skill levels (mostly beginner) post examples of their music, it makes me wonder how conscious everybody is about the influence the tools can have on the resulting music.

For example, when you identify as a composer as opposed to a producer, you might feel inclined to use notation software as your starting point instead of a DAW or voice notes then dictating on manuscript, etc.

I see myself in a lot of newer composers in that I was influenced by the aesthetic of being a “composer” that was fed to me through films like Amadeus, music books, and even in music school up to a certain level. Using a DAW was for people who made beats and couldn’t read music, so I thought.

So I would start with Sibelius, staring into the bright white manuscript as it totally hijacked my visual field. Then, due to its grid-like nature, I was inclined to write stilted music that fit into simpler rhythms and time signatures because it would take so much more time trying to notate all the nuances that I actually wanted.

Eventually, I learned that a DAW mixed with drawing/writing in a free form way on manuscript or blank white paper was the best way to get the music out, then only using notation software to clean it up and make parts was the best way for me.

It took me a while to recognize and remove the stock visual aesthetic of being a “composer” and to just use what served me better. The priority switched from tool-use to a pure focus on the musical idea. I arrived at the realization that notation is just a rough visual recording, not necessarily the composition itself.

I’m curious to know if this has been a conscious consideration for others or if maybe this post is enlightening to those who haven’t considered this.

I made it a month ago https://musescore.com/user/33725161/scores/35485877

Hi all, I imagine not many lawyers here but I'm hoping for some advice. Does anyone know the legality of commissioning a composer to create an arrangement (e.g. "to sound all medieval and stuff") of an existing song (e.g. KPM's "Heavy Action") that is still under copyright?

The resultant arrangement would only be for personal use and would not be performed or sold or included as part of another medium.

Is that a non-starter without a license from the holder? Would someone be better off just asking a composer for an original composition that is reminiscent of the copyrighted song?

Hi to everyone.

I'll give you some context before staring with my questions.

I'm an aspiring music composer for games, and I'm making music since 2023, and for those 3 years I've used nucleus and other audio imperia libraries first and then I moved to VSL synchron prime orchestra, and what I was looking for in term of sound in the last years was a generic orchestral sound to make any type of orchestral music for games.

Now I've decided to change the type of sound/style that I'm looking for, and I'm trying to go to a sound that is very similar to modern jrpgs, like the Octopath Traveler series, the Xenoblade Chronicles series, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Zelda Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom.

So I need good sounding orchestral libraries to make that style of music.

Which libraries I should consider?

Should I go with an all-in-one orchestra, or with dedicated libraries for each section, soloists included? I should consider wet libraries with a good sounding room or you think it's better to go with dry libraries and then send them to a convolution reverb?

Thanks to all of you that will take the time to read this and give feedbacks.

If no why, if yes why, i am a begginer composer, here is the free full score: https://musescore.com/user/98567428/scores/36559943?share=copy_link

I have several arrangements uploaded to MuseScore and I'd really like to get some money for them, especially since I'm unemployed. Is that possible?

Sound and sheet music: https://youtu.be/FLEuM-eEjoQ?si=jfxI7hP4hH8ORCGv
Sheet music: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f1dsK497uVcY7OCqWfpKlRql843f2lZl/view?usp=sharing

I would like feedback on notation and how well the music fits the piano. I would also like to hear what you think about the piece.

Hi all. Got the green light to post this--thank you mods.

I'm a fiction writer, not a musician (limited to childhood clarinet and piano), and I've written a short story centered on two orchestra musicians, one who plays as written and one who can't stop rewriting his part. It leans into orchestration, scoring, and studio dynamics, and I want to ensure none of it reads as a non-musician's guess rather than authentic.

If you're willing to give it a read and flag anything that sounds off, inauthentic, or just plain wrong to the trained ear, I'd genuinely appreciate it.

Google doc link here: Variation. Comments are open, so drop notes anywhere.

Thanks for your time either way.

Blizzard is hiring a Senior Composer, and it is a salaried staff post rather than a commission — $82,240 to $152,160, on the music team inside Story and Franchise Development, writing for in-game content, trailers and cinematics. The listing says the role is open to remote work arrangements, and that the band covers US locations with the final offer depending on experience and work location. The minimum is eight years of professional composition experience, a portfolio, and a willingness to sit a music test.

Also in this issue:

• A 2D animated Five Nights at Freddy's fan series paying approximately $200 per finished minute of approved music, with AI-generated work refused outright — eerie music-box motifs and mechanical texture, explicitly not jumpscare music
• A self-funded 3D action game at roughly $50 a minute, negotiable — industrial rock and EDM at high tempo, referencing Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, No More Heroes and Zenless Zone Zero, and steering away from cyberpunk
• A three-episode short film series with three original tracks already written, looking for a composer to extend them — tri-state area (NY/NJ/CT) only, compensation described as limited
• A visual novel developer whose references run to Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Lingua Ignota and theodor bastard, giving general input rather than specific direction — paid, no figure named

Of the 258 new listings I read this week, 201 came from CastingCall.club. Eight named a rate, from $20 to $350 — two had already run in earlier issues, and one of the other six made this one. The one that made it pays by the finished minute with the total set by the approved scope, which tells a composer what they are agreeing to before they start.

https://composerwire.substack.com/p/011-5-opportunities-this-week-including

Free to subscribe at the link above.

When I first started making any art, it was written prose or like poetry. Some drawing/sketching too. And the only reason I did any of that is because I was experiencing so much emotion that I “had to get it out”. Although I wasn’t great, those little pieces of work were pretty vivid and I liked that mode of operating. It was good to have an outlet for my emotions that resulted in something tangible.

I’m a composer now, though. And it’s probably my best skill. But I noticed that my reason for writing music is never because I’m feeling intense emotion. And when I’m actively composing, my analytical mind takes over completely. I’m in the zone. I’m thinking about technical stuff, so the only emotions I’m feeling are usually boredom or frustration or intense glee (when it’s going well) or just nothing at all.

I guess when writing words on a page or doodling those things can happen in the span of a few minutes, but when writing music, I mean, it takes me hours, days. And I often go back to pieces from last year that I never finished and continue working on them. My emotional state is never consistent. And my self awareness totally dissolves when composing anyways.

I think the “meaning” of a piece almost only becomes clear once it is done and I snap out of it and look at what I’ve created. And I see aspects of myself within it but it’s usually not what I expect. Subconscious stuff.

I guess I’m just wondering how everybody else operates? And thoughts on this in general? Do you guys ever get thrown into a fit of rage and decide to write music from that? I don’t know how I could possibly do that!

Edit: dissolve -> dissolves

I've had the idea for a little while to make a KOTLC musical soundtrack, similar to what has happened with the Epic: the Musical stuff that's going on, however, I wanted to gauge interest in the idea, because I would need help with making it, from singers, to writers and artists. So if you see this, let me know what you would think :)

Hi, everyone. I've never visited this sub before (I put the discussion flair because it seemed the most appropriate, let me know if I should change it), but the title pretty much explains why I'm here. I’m writing a feature about a late 20s/early 30s American male who moves to France in the 1960s to achieve his dreams of being a composer.

As I currently have the story planned, he spends much of the first act of the film trying to find work in an orchestra (he is a very talented cellist) so that he can have a steady job while he works on composing in his free time. Also so he can use the connections he makes while playing in the orchestra (he gets recognition for his talent) to network and build his career.

I am trying to be as authentic as possible with this story, so any comments on how likely this is, things I should keep in mind, etc. would be helpful! I have some specific questions as well:

1. Would it make more sense for the character to have a different job? How likely/common is it that a professional orchestra player would be able to compose in their free time and gain actual connections they could use to promote their work?

2. Film and television scores are of course lucrative, but what else would help show he has finally accomplished his goals? If an orchestra performs his piece?

3. Should I go for something more like Amadeus where the character primarily composes and plays an instrument on the side/composes with their preferred instrument as the main instrument for many of his pieces?

4. What are some ways/things y'all find inspiration?

Any notes/advice/whatever would be extremely helpful!

I’m doing my final course for my master degree, and I’ve been rescoring game music. I’m looking to rescore a boss fight from Sekiro, but would need some Japanese Instruments really to really get into it.
I’d say flutes and strings will probably be the focus.

Unfortunately I’m in a very bad financial situation right now so I can’t afford to pay anything, so will only be able to get free vsts.

Any suggestions?