# I wrote some music that made me cry **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 2, 2024, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526 "2024-01-02T23:04:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2024, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/1 "2024-01-02T23:04:12Z")
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. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2024, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/2 "2024-01-02T23:15:26Z")
Wonderful. Let us know if we can hear it sometime (even just an excerpt). ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2024, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/3 "2024-01-02T23:18:21Z")
It has to be unpublished for the competition but I will release it if I don’t win. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2024, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/4 "2024-01-02T23:20:08Z")
Wonderful. Violin and piano is a nice combo — I think of Fuchs and Fauré (who also wrote for cello and piano). ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2024, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/5 "2024-01-02T23:21:57Z")
“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. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2024, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/6 "2024-01-02T23:22:51Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#): > > “You have to be very careful with the pronunciation of that first one” is the running gag in our music department. Heh heh ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2024, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/7 "2024-01-02T23:58:23Z")
There’s an expression, “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.” I imagine it must apply to music too. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/8 "2024-01-03T01:29:57Z")
Huh. I like that. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/9 "2024-01-03T12:06:18Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#): > > It has to be unpublished for the competition but I will release it if I don’t win. Damn ! I hope you don’t win then !! so what happens if you do win ? Do you lose the rights to it ? ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/10 "2024-01-03T12:42:56Z")
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”) ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/11 "2024-01-03T16:53:28Z")
In that case, i hope you win !! (i passed my grade V violin about 50 years ago ! (with 101, so only just)) ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/12 "2024-01-03T17:00:41Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/13 "2024-01-03T19:53:11Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/14 "2024-01-03T20:02:12Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#): > > 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. Great! So five years of making students cry? ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/15 "2024-01-03T20:02:48Z")
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!” ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/16 "2024-01-03T20:20:25Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#): > > 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. One: Good Luck! Two: When is the competition so I can look for it on Soundcloud? ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/17 "2024-01-04T00:05:30Z")
It closes on March 1st. I’m not sure when we’re notified. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/18 "2024-01-04T00:46:00Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#): > > That genuine feeling comes through. Perhaps it is the same for writing? 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. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/19 "2024-01-04T00:55:32Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526/20 "2024-01-04T01:54:19Z")
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. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wrote-some-music-that-made-me-cry/995526.md?page=2)