I just started today and I wrote about 15 pages of score. Here is what I've got!:

http://www.box.net/shared/ax23dmyw4g


Piano Concerto No. 1 in F Major (A. Naji)

its nice, but dont you think 1:55 is a bit short for a concerto? and it would be nice to compose more solo parts for the soloist.

overall, i enjoyed it.

Isn't the music industry just a shambles!

We have people people buying Sibelius and calling themselves a composer.

hyonchingonchon, if you're serious about being a composer I think you need to go back to the drawing board. Before you do that, you will have to start listening to more than just Mozart and Bach.

If you would like my honest opinion; it was very dated, try like 150 years out of date. No publisher worth his salt would publish it and if you are serious about composition, you'll want published, right?

If so, you'll need to develop your own compositional voice and this can only be borne through the following things:

1) A study of all styles and idioms of music.

2) Analysis of others' and especially your own music.

3) Hard work and relentless dedication.

4) Forgetting about find admiration from forums like these; they can often create a false sense of 'goodness'. I for one am always honest and open on forums but many are not and instead offer polite and nice comments. So little people use forums for learning, they only use it to say "Look, I'm a composer, me. Like me. Love me.".

5) You seem a bit caught up in the grandeur of being a composer. Trust me, those who succeed work 'till they drop suffering endless rejection and relentless learning of their craft. It's all very humbling.

Hope you take these comments in the good faith I intend them to be.

I'm not sure what you're looking for. If you're looking for advice, then you need to finish it and upload a score as well. It sounds like it has an odd instrumentation and I can't really tell if the piano part is pianistic or playable. Right now, I think the only advice someone could give is "sounds fine, now finish it." Despite the title of the post, this is not your first real concerto. It's your first sketch of the opening two minutes of a piece for piano with some other instruments. Are their other themes and ideas sketched for other movements?

If you're looking for someone to get interested in performing it, then the same applies. Finish it and upload a score.

If you're looking for praise, then do the above and get it performed. I've been on internet music forums for a long time. I've heard a LOT of sketches and incomplete beginnings. Anybody can fool around with Finale and come up with two minutes worth of something that sounds okay. Not anybody can write the next 6 minutes, notate it, and get it performed. Even if you don't have the resources to get it performed, at least provide a recording that's a little more involved than simple MIDI playback. Balance, dynamics, mixing, articulation, etc... A MIDI file is a good start, but you need to put it in Logic or Pro Tools and refine the sound.

James, (devilishly publishing),

I'm not sure if your comments are exactly well intended really.

Why? Because instead of proving feedback (as your above poster did, even if limited) to the OP, you decided to provide an analysis of his 'ego' (like there are any signs on that), on his problems, on his phychological profile, etc... And spend NO TIME at all to the actual work!

I did a big analysis, etc... but...

I edited the whole post: I also saw kresiler proving the same feedback almost:

Guys, how do you know that this person caught up, or feels that he's someone he's not, etc? I'm not getting this vibe from this person. He/She just created a concerto (part of) and decided to share it... I'm not really sure that he's looking for job in pianoworld forums, or looking for publishing or anything. Just trying to see how we feel... :-/

Could be wrong though!

_____________________

Now, that I've spent so much time with the publishing guy, I think it's time to spend a little more time with the OP as well!

hionchingonchon:

I find that this is a very promising start. For me this sounds like the intro of a rather large first movement of a concerto for piano. At almost 2 minutes in the intro, you will need to have another 10-15 minutes of the actual movement, for good balance. (time indication is totally absurd, ok? )


The midi sound, certainly does not help, and it's hard to understand what's going on, even make out instruments...

The mix of major and minor chords sounds rather fascinating actually, if used right!

The intro, I find, contains enough material to use as melody, countermelody and move further. It has material for the whole movement. It is fargmented indeed, but it doesn't mean that you can't connect things the further you move on.

On a 'classical' concerto it's not quite usual to have the piano playing almost immediately, so I'm assuming you take your muse from more... romantic concertos (Grieg, Schuman, etc), rather than strictly classical ones. This is quite ok, actually, just 'make sure' that you are following some kind of form. At least on a personal level (which is what this comment is about), I find that following a form, even if roughly helps in larger forms. You won't find yourself going "hmm... what do I do know?" cause you'll already have presigned the form, thus yoru guidance to a larger form, which is difficult to be coherent some times.

Right now it is coherent as far as MY ears are concerned.

I do hope to hear the rest of the concerto, as well as a score, if possible! Good luck with it and all the best!