Pretty much just what the subject says. I wrote a piece for violin and piano today called “Habitat Loss” for a composition competition. And as I was listening I just burst into tears.
…
And no it wasn’t because it was so awful it hurt. 
Wonderful. Let us know if we can hear it sometime (even just an excerpt).
It has to be unpublished for the competition but I will release it if I don’t win.
Wonderful.
Violin and piano is a nice combo — I think of Fuchs and Fauré (who also wrote for cello and piano).
“You have to be very careful with the pronunciation of that first one” is the running gag in our music department. 
I like strings and piano as well. Also harp and strings.
Heh heh
There’s an expression, “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.” I imagine it must apply to music too.
Huh. I like that. Thanks!
Damn !
I hope you don’t win then !!
so what happens if you do win ? Do you lose the rights to it ?
It is for the Royal Conservatory of Music. So, if it is selected, then it will be published in their violin repertoire for the next 5 years as a piece to be used by music teachers to teach violin.
After the competition ends I can release it no problem. They stipulate that because they want new, original pieces.
(so that quoted message was phrased poorly, I should have said “I will release it after the competition is over”)
In that case, i hope you win !!
(i passed my grade V violin about 50 years ago ! (with 101, so only just))
Good luck on the competition!
I wrote a poem a while back that still hits me right in the feels every time I read it. It was done in part as an exercise in cheap emotional buttonpushing; I have to admit I didn’t expect it to work on me but there it is. Sometimes art just sneaks up on you and smacks you on the back of the head when you least expect it.
I know right?
My composition professor said that it is likely a result of having a genuine emotion while crafting it. That genuine feeling comes through. Perhaps it is the same for writing?
Great!
So five years of making students cry?
Victory for Vegeta!
Honestly, I don’t know if would make anybody else cry. As my professor said, I was undoubtedly feeling a genuine emotion about animals’ loss of habitat. And the nature of the song, plus my own genuine sorrow about the subject provoke the response. Most violin students would probably be like “Yeah whatever… the leap in m.20 sucks!”
One: Good Luck!
Two: When is the competition so I can look for it on Soundcloud?
It closes on March 1st. I’m not sure when we’re notified.
As I writer I don’t understand how anyone can write anything without feeling. Feeling is what guides the entire process for me. I’ve often described writing a scene as “moving a feeling through,” which is interesting, because I later learned that structurally, a scene moves from one pole to the other for some defined value. For example, your character could go from certain to uncertain, or indifferent to attracted, or from endangered to safe. That’s a scene. And you have to make the reader feel that shift.
And I think music is the same way. Because storytelling and the structure of storytelling is built into our DNA. Every piece tells a story, involves conflict, builds to a climax, and has a denouement. (Except for the really experimental stuff, I’d wager.) I have a theory, as far as I know unexplored, that our attraction to this structure is built on the cue response reward loop in our brain, which functions effectively the same way.
Full disclosure: I’ve never written music, though I once was an amateur musician. I played trombone.
I’m so happy that your decision to so radically change your career is bringing you satisfaction and great opportunities. Cheering for you to win this competition! Your departure from AI research is, however, undoubtedly a loss to that field.
I understand exactly what you mean.
Every piece of music I’ve written (even the earlier stuff that was not as good) was trying to say something and convey something. One of my professor said once “you have an audience for two to three minutes, and the goal is to take them on a journey”.
One of the things we’re learning about this semester coming up (I read the textbook already) is about the contrast of novelty and familiarity. Too familiar and it is boring, too novel and it doesn’t make sense. So I think you’re right that we enjoy structure. There’s a reason why there’s 800 trillion [citation needed] hero’s journey story across so many cultures. This is a something that appeal to us in some way, but it cannot always be the same journey, the same way.