What Was Your Very First Composition?

[Cato]

For all of you out there who have composed music: do you recall what your very first composition was? 

How old were you?

I was around 9 or 10, when I composed a piano work, which I proudly anointed with the title Charlemagne's March!

(Yes, in a Catholic school in the good old days, you would discover Medieval History in the Fourth or Fifth Grade, whether you wanted to or not!)

When I showed it to my pianist grandmother, she pointed out that I had neglected to harmonize it!   

So I tried it again: let's just say that the March was a really arthritic affair!   0:)

[Karl Henning]

If I should find the MS. (impossible) I should no doubt cringe, with possibly my life's last cringeing, but in high school I composed two (very) short piano numbers "for Hamlet."  My (11^th grade?) English teacher was very generous about the effort as a submission for the assignment, but nothing on the page was in the least memorable.

[Cato]

If I should find the MS. (impossible) I should no doubt cringe, with possibly my life's last cringeing, but in high school I composed two (very) short piano numbers "for Hamlet."  My (11^th grade?) English teacher was very generous about the effort as a submission for the assignment, but nothing on the page was in the least memorable.

Charlemagne's March I happened to find later in high school and immediately destroyed it, since - with classic adolescent arrogance - I feared some future musicologist would find it most laughable!   

Junior or Senior year sounds right for reading Hamlet.

[Karl Henning]

I did not hasten to destroy mine.

But probably I ought to have!

[ibanezmonster]

My first compositions were the instrumental rock albums that I played in my head before I could play any instruments. I would write down the names of the songs and albums in a notebook, sitting there for 20 or 30 minutes at a time to record the whole album.

My opus 1 I'm pretty sure I wrote 9 years ago. If not 9, then 8. (I've been at GMG that long?) 
Originally called Piano Sonata "Fall of the Emperor" (after the Digimon Emperor), then shortly changed to "Piano Sonata," and just yesterday changed to "Musical Portraits"- I. Piedmon's Revenge, II. Fields of Ice, III. Psycho Chickens.

Although before that, there were plenty of riffs, imaginary songs, writings in Noteworthy Composer, etc. that are forever lost.

[TheGSMoeller]

Non-classical: Around 7 or 8 years old. I was big into Neil Diamond and Lional Ritchie (thanks to my parents) and wrote a song called "Stick in the forest" inspired by these two. No sheet music, just lyrics and a melody. Needles to say it never made Bilboards top 40.

Classical: A brass quintet in high school (junior year), which I've recently resurrected and revised as a quintet for four winds and a double bass.

[Cato]

My first compositions were the instrumental rock albums  before I could play any instruments.

Greg!  You're in the club!   

Classical: A brass quintet in high school (junior year), which I've recently resurrected and revised as a quintet for four winds and a double bass.

Impressive!

Many thanks for the stories!  At age 14 I composed an Opus 1 (i.e. it would not have been painful or laughable to hear): a work for organ, a Prelude, heavily influenced by Bruckner and by the Tristan chord and Scriabin.

Not long afterward I composed the orchestral tone-poem The Trumpeter of Krakow which probably would have been painful and laughable to hear.   0:)

[TheGSMoeller]

Why don't we post them here for a listen? 

[Karl Henning]

Do it!

[Cato]

Why don't we post them here for a listen? 

Since you still have the manuscripts, sure!

[madaboutmahler]

Mine was a very simple piano nocturne, only 3 minutes long or so. Performed it in our primary school leaver's assembly when I was 11, and got some very kind comments!

[springrite]

My first was in 1986, when I was 23. It was a piano piece titled "Fantasy of an Incompetent Composer in B Flat for Unaccomplished Pianists".

It was not a big deal. I did learn that I should listen to music rather than composing it.

I did compose some better music later, including ones that were performed at decent venues. But I was also smart enough to know when to stop.

[Cato]

My first was in 1986, when I was 23. It was a piano piece titled "Fantasy of an Incompetent Composer in B Flat for Unaccomplished Pianists".

It was not a big deal. I did learn that I should listen to music rather than composing it.

I did compose some better music later, including ones that were performed at decent venues. But I was also smart enough to know when to stop.

We are in the same club!   

[J Joe Townley]

My very first composition was my Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor Opus 1

The music score is here:

http://www.scribd.com/_Joe_Townley

Here's the audio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJnEztMUQS0

It's about 18 minutes in three continuous movements like the Liszt and Mendelssohn 1st Concertos.

[Cato]

My very first composition was my Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor Opus 1

The music score is here:

http://www.scribd.com/_Joe_Townley

Here's the audio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJnEztMUQS0

It's about 18 minutes in three continuous movements like the Liszt and Mendelssohn 1st Concertos.

What is your background? 

[J Joe Townley]

What is your background?

I started piano at age of ten and got pretty good at it. Then at age of 19 or 20 (don't remember exactly) I pulled a dumb practicing stunt and permanently injured my right hand forefinger and had to give up piano, eventually music altogether after getting my BA.

Left music and went into business world. In 2002 decided to try to work up piano again and made a few videos that showed a very faulty technique but still possessing a fairly strong left hand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpg_UAVY3Rg

Still, the old injury resurfaced after a few years so I gave up piano entirely. Left business world (real estate) and basically retired. In 2010 got the idea to fulfill a dream I had as a kid piano student to write a piano concerto so the first product was a piano concerto (Opus 1). Didn't have any training in composition or orchestration so read a book on orchestration, got a sense of the instruments' capabilities and experimented with different sound combos on Noteflight while I formed the concerto in my mind. When concerto was completed in my mind, began the arduous task of writing it all down. Remembered notation from my piano days so that made it much easier. Transposing certain instruments was complex but eventually got the hang of it. Year later decided to write another piano concerto, No 2 in D minor Opus 2, a far better work and then Concerto Appassionata Opus 3, which I intended to make a full concerto but by this time I realized nobody was really interested in listening to them so I just made it a one-movement thing and retired from composing.

[J Joe Townley]

For anyone who might be interested I just found out about screen capture and so I put up the entire concerto's full orchestral score for perusal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clTDZfl9Oz8