Opera - first attempt...so far as you know. My first pretend attempt not to write Opera obviously doesn't count. We are playing Opera 'you are allowed to forget one or more earlier catastrophic attempt' rules. Under these rules (which I made up as I went along)...the integer representing deniable (discountable) previous operatic atrocities can only increment. It cannot decrement. Hence, the number of deniable previous attempts may only rise.

Cinque Secondi

Short piano theme

Sonatas Op.2 No.20 - 4th movement

Experimenting again here with different divisions of strings. Why is getting the balance right so difficult? Part of the answer is that conductors (not composers) are the experts. They ensure, for example, that large numbers of divisions of second violins, avoid blasting smaller numbers of viola divisions into acoustic oblivion.

Small, medium or large orchestras plainly have very different numbers of divisions of the different string instruments. It is very complicated to get the balance right, to say the least. Conductors know how to handle all sorts of different orchestras (small, medium and large)...and therefore all sorts of different divisions, of all sorts of instruments.

The best way for composers to learn (from conductors) is to attend rehearsals of pieces made by famous composers. Making notes of everything the conductor says to the orchestra during rehearsals.

Gustav Mahler was a conductor who happened to compose in his spare time. Being a good conductor, in my opinion, is orders of magnitude more difficult than being a good composer. Controversially, I suggest good conductors should not be required (by the performance notes of a score), to adhere strictly to performance notes. Good conductors should be positively encouraged to interpret scores ad libitum.

Efforts were made in the above study to think about string divisions, in relation to other string divisions and piano. A technical study. Which became the first movement of my first piano concerto.

Piano Concerto No.1 (1st movement) Op.22

Improvisation Practice

Nocturnes Op.21 No.3

Sonatas Op.9 No.52

Nocturnes Op.21 No.7

Nocturnes Op.21 No.8

Study for Op.22

Jazz Nocturnes No.5

Nocturnes Op.21 No.10

Nocturnes Op.21 No.11

Second Engravings No.13

String Quartet and Piano

Mit forst gebunden

NEVER pronounce something a Symphony movement unless you have thought about it for at least six months (which I did not do). I have been reading a book by Rimsky Korsakov (again) about composition for strings. Hopefully some of what he wrote is beginning to sink in. It took me 1,161 other works before I attempted my first symphony movement...though in fact, I did not set out to try and make a symphony movement. It would be more accurate to say that it made itself, when my careless languorous muse was good and ready. I shall now engage in Symphony pronouncement regret syndrome, until I come to my senses and rename the piece.

Symphony No.1 (1st movement - Adagietto) Op.23

Nocturnes Op.21 No.14

Study for a Second Engraving

Nocturnes Op.21 No.15

Nocturnes Op.21 No.18

Études Op.3 No.60

Untitled

Polonaise No.35

Nocturnes Op.24 No.3

Nocturnes Op.24 No.5

Capriccio No.8

Polonaise No.37

Untitled 26.02.25

Sonata for Guitar No.17

Nocturnes Op.24 No.8

Polonaise No.41

Second Engravings No.14

Piano Trios Op.26 No.1

Five minus blue

Nocturnes Op.24 No.11

Nocturnes Op.24 No.12

Kind of Azure

Nocturnes Op.24 No.13

We get music wrong, and then, after thinking about it more carefully, we get music wrong again. Efforts were made in this piece to take a simple theme and get it right. Try this, with the simplest theme you can imagine, and you will see how difficult it is to get music right. It is so difficult that on the rare occasions it happens, we would do well to admit it mostly happens by accident. Anyway, I kept the piece as simple as possible, to try and decrease the probability of getting it wrong, and....after thinking about the piece more carefully... getting it wrong again.

Sundance vi

Shoeshine Rag

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Paul Maurice Roche, Composer

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