Very short notice (and perhaps a bit upstraight and rude):

If you're selling the score you should at least find a way to offer a way for us to listen, without having to register on box.net (1st case) or wait 45 secs (megaupload case).

I'll be back with comments on the music, I promise, but I might be a tiny bit late! ^_^

By the way, does anyone have advice for synching video and audio together. I have a Zoom H4n, my digital camera and a Mac desktop. I haven't been able to figure out how to do this - not too computer savvy. My intention is to record solo piano with the Zoom and camera for visuals, then synch them together so i can upload to youtube with a decent quality presentation.

So for me, it makes no difference if one has an 'original style' or not, as long as its new music and is pleasant then it should be fine.

And sorry for derailing the thread...

Then again the very begin is VERY close to one of the valses of Chopin (but can't recall right now what).

Hem... weren't you the one who was ranting all over the place about a certain composer in PW made a work that sounded like Beethoven? just sayin' ...

Now, the box.net usually does offer a way to listen without registering, but in this case it asked me to register, which I didn't have the time to do. So I went to megaupload, which after 45 secs and a tiny bit of spam allowed me to listen to the music.

It's a fine example of pastiche. It's lovely and I do think that many pianists would love to get ahold of the score and thus performing it. The fact that it reminds (all of us apparently) of Chopin is not bad on its own. Then again the very begin is VERY close to one of the valses of Chopin (but can't recall right now what).

The work featured some beautiful embelishments and some lovely harmonization and for that alone is worth it! The playing was also extra nice, which gives a bit more 'value' to the work...

EDIT: Dara, the software mentioned above are VERY complicated and VERY expensive. There are other alternatives that can work for you. Even Windows Media Maker (I think this is what it's called) can make simple videos and add some music on top. You don't need anything fancy really... There was also a software from Techmedia which was available for free at some time, but it's no longer available. I'll do a little search for you and let you know.

The criticism was not that it sounded like Beethoven, but it was bad music. If someone would compose music with the same quality of Beethoven but with new melodies, I wouldn’t mind that, in fact that would be nice, just look up Mendelssohn's B flat sonata written when he was 12. Sounding like Beethoven is not the problem, a bad copy is.

I'm still waiting to hear it from Youtube, but it seems like you didnt post it there yet...

This is Yahoo not youtube, and it doesnt play a thing...

Ok, I have listened to this piece, and these are my objective comments about it.

I think there is a huge difference between drawing inspiration and even sounding like a different composer here and there, and to sounding like him completely. This was not a bad copy but a good one, it actually did sound like Chopin, excuse me, It not only sounded like Chopin, but it was really 'Chopin', now I don’t suggest that you are his reincarnation for a second, but its something that he may have composed. But yet he didn’t, you composed it, drawing heavily and categorically from his music, and this is not just in style, character and motif usage, but actually quoting entire passages, and linking some of his ideas here and there and then tying it together into a new composition.

Yes Chopin didn’t compose this music the way it is, but he did compose this music though not in the same order. Meaning, I believe that you took entire parts of his music, and edited them , arranged them and presented them as your 'own composition', when the truth is that the arrangement of the music is yours, but I don’t think that those parts of music, those little scattered ideas of Chopin, are the fruits of your labor.

When I say that I don't mind if a composer sounds like a another composer as long as its new music, I meant to say that as long as the content , the music itself is yours completely, I don’t mind it if you have written it in another composer's style. But 'Style' and 'Music' are not the same. I'm against this glaring and obvious composer quotations.

Yes you have succeeded in putting different parts of Chopin's music in a cleaver way presenting it as your own original work, but for me, this is not a new composition per say, but an interesting arrangement of Chopin's own music.

So, I would be delighted to hear your own melodies even if they will be written in the style of Chopin, but the way it is now, I wouldn’t call this an original work, but an original arrangement of Chopin's music.

Now about the playing, I actually enjoyed your performance, it was interesting and engaging, and also lyrical.

Regards,

Saul

Thanks for your comments, Chopin did this too, if you know. His style comes from the John Field and Johann Nepomuk Hummel, so copying Chopin's style is not a wrong i think. I love his music even adore like a religion. My purpose is adding more compositions to the romantic piano repertoire. And composing some new pieces in the style of Chopin, like Chopin did in the style of Field and Hummel. If you listen Hummel Piano Concertos especially the fifth one, you can hear the passages that Chopin changed and used in his piano concerto no. 1 second movement.

Hello,

I said that I don't have a problem if you use his style, my only objection is with actual musical quotations from Chopin, I believe you need to easy it down a little , and try your best to create your own original melodies. If you'll do that, then I believe you have a chance to write something really good.

Hello,

I said that I don't have a problem if you use his style, my only objection is with actual musical quotations from Chopin, I believe you need to easy it down a little , and try your best to create your own original melodies. If you'll do that, then I believe you have a chance to write something really good.

You are talking like im copied the whole composition from Chopin's music but not thats wrong. I made very few quotations also the melodies are mine and original. If you are talking about rhythm similarity you are right but thats not an arrangement.

No I didn’t say that you copied the entire work from Chopin's music. I said that you edited Chopin's own music from the vast scattered compositions, and arranged it and put it together in a very cleaver and delightful way. It was done wonderfully as I said that its a good copy, but I wouldn’t call this finished product a new work, because of the vast quotations you have made from Chopin's output. I'm sorry but your 'original melodies' are not self evident, and are not obvious at all, I don’t hear them, for me its all Chopin. If you want to show some distinctive material, you need to go easy on the obvious and many quotations, and let your own melodies have center stage, but the melodies that you claim are yours have been drowned deep in this Chopin Soup, add some of your flavor to bring a New Taste, a taste we can recognize as truly yours and unique...