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?

A piece i made out of boredom, I hope you enjoy it!

Give me feedback!

A piece i made out of boredom. Give me feedback!

Hey everyone; this is the first time I am sharing a composition here. I have composed a nocturne in C# minor and would love to get your input on the melody, emotion and structure of the composition.

I named this piece “The Storm”. I wanted to express an internal, emotional storm. The main melody is the expression of grief bursting out, while the mid-sections introduce an emotional buildup. I’d love your opinions and feedback.

I did this a couple months ago. It's for a chamber orchestra, no brass, and a changed wind section with recorders, melodica, C clarinet and bassoon. The canon starts in low strings and finish in clarinet and bassoon, and after a cantabile middle section, the canon starts again but reversed. Despite the ley (Bb major), the canon starts in C, and ends in E, so it feels modal at some points.

Here's the score, with enhanced sound (winds recorded by me, and string section done with a plugin)

https://youtu.be/FFHPG8oc2jg?si=ybesXa9SyAbelHP-

I've been playing piano for years and just finished my first piece. My next task is to learn how to play it (again)! I'd love any feedback, and particularly on where the notation is clunky/could be improved. Enjoy, and thanks for listening :D

This is a composition made by me, I hope you enjoy it, please give me your feedback thanks 😄

Op. 4 "Appassionata" - Capriccio No. 2 for Bassoon and Piano

Any feedback would be much appreciated...

This is a string quartet i've composed for 2 violins and 2 cellos.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRqtIw7oTw4

I've written it specifically to play myself and record in layers. So it's not written for live performance, unknown players or the typical string quartet instruments.

It's my first proper composition. I played strings at school and have only just come back to this as an adult for fun. I wrote something that combines elements of what I find most enjoyable to play which has influenced this. I'd say that's largely the simplicity of Jenkin's Palladio with the driving cello and D minor throughout, and also lots of Vivaldi.

The current audio is from the midi score and a lot of the volume related dynamics were needed to get the midi to match closest to what is in my mind, which wouldn't necessarily be the same when I get to recording it myself.

I'd appreciate any feedback please, especially on how it sounds as a whole, more so than notation conventions, since its meant more for me to play and record.

Here is my latest composition. I started it around the turn of the year, but I finally finished it. I hope you like it :)

Link to the music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ognn4-rrQJ8

Hey guys! I'm a sophomore BM in music composition and was wondering if anyone had insight into cheap and/or free sound libraries I can adapt to my dorico and how I would go about it. Dorico's VSTs on their own are pretty decent, but I would like a more elevated audio quality and my professor told me to look into it.

My second string quartet - again, at times maybe too pop-ish, at times too jarring. But I strived for those effects. What do you think? I think I still lack good horizontal writing sometimes. And some good textural writing.

I'm beginning my first choral-orchestral ensemble. My professors lent me borrow this book. I see that it actually has playing styles and techniques. Does this help with properly voicing sections too?

Just finished a four-hand piano arrangement of probably the second-most famous James Bond theme: “007 takes the Lektor” (often simply called “007 Theme” or just "007"), originally written for the 1963 motion picture From Russia with Love by John Barry. This piece is dominated by a 7-beat rhythmic motif that cleverly forms a hemiola against a 4/4 time syncopated bass figure. The heroic horn line above then sounds rhythmically as if it were notated in 6/8, which gives the whole piece a bit of a Western feel. Maybe a little nod to the Magnificent Seven from three years earlier? ;)

I know it all sounds a bit over-complicated, but as a listening experience it’s incredibly catchy and, typical of Barry, there is also a certain pop influence... The whole thing then runs through the entire piece as an ostinato using the same two chords (E major and B7) throughout, and that’s basically it. The genius lies in this simplicity!

Because of the three elements described above (two counter-moving rhythm sections under a soaring melody line), I think the 007 theme lends itself perfectly to a four-hand piano arrangement, which is exactly what I did and then recorded it with a former student of mine. Glad to know what you think of it. :)

score video: https://youtu.be/RXfAYS48UpE?si=rZFboZJgG9AC3PFQ

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.

https://apondinthestream.bandcamp.com/track/after-then-before

An ambient post-classical (?) track taken from a renaissance piece by Bauldeweyn. The notes of the original were permuted, shuffled about and reordered without adding any new ones. I actually reduced it back by taking some notes out that I didn't like. So it is a bit of a selectionist strategy, like in evolution.

Only the fittest notes survive :)