Hi
If there are any composers here who would like to discuss musical ideas etc with me, add me to MSN messenger- musicgirl1000@hotmail.com.
Make sure you email me letting me know that you`ve added me, otherwise I`ll get annoyed and delete you.

A bit of background about myself.
I`m 19 years old, and I`ve been composing since I was 10. My first composition was a clarinet solo. I still have the music for it.
Some of my more recent (in the past couple of years) stuff has been
3 wind quintets
2 oboe concerti
4 string quartets
a viola concerto
1 1/2 bassoon concerti
2 clarinet concerti
a symphony
a Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano (I think that this is the best thing I have ever composed)
countless smaller works
At the moment I`m working on
A third clarinet concerto
Another symphony
A large-scale piano work
Another Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano
Incidental music to "Macbeth"
My compositions cover everything from complete diatonicism through to complete atonality. They also use the various modes. They use both metric and non-metric rhythm. A lot of my atonal stuff sounds tonal because I will build my chords on 3rds and 5ths.
I prefer chamber music to orchestral.

my sister and i have both composed a few peices, not nearly as much as u though. that is a good talent to keep upnot every1 can compose songs, exspecialy with more than 1 instrument, good job. the songs we have compsed for are:
a flute/clarinet/violin trio

flute/clarinet/bass clarinet/piano song

a flute/clarinet duet
and a few more with those instruments.

i could say we`re not nearly as talented as u.

how long have u been composing and playing music?

I`ve composed for 9 years, and played the clarinet (my main instrument) for 10 years.

Do you believe in atonality?

Of course I believe in atonality, I`ve heard it with my own two ears.
I do use it sometimes, but the great majority of my music is tonal or modal or at least has some kind of pitch-organisation.

that`s what I mean. As long as you have some kind of pitch or harmonic organization, it may not be diatonic, but it`s almost impossible to not have some kind of a tonal "center/focus", or multiples. Hence I dunno atonality actually do exsit...unless one throws in completely random pitches. But then, will we call that good music?

I think even such as 12-tone music, composers treat the pitches with a set hierachy, for structural and focus purposes. What do you think?

I totally agree ForeignCoffee. The whole idea of `every pitch being equal` seems to me not only a bit silly, but also something which quite clearly has never really been implemented, even by Schoenberg himself!

I think that the New Viennese School did attempt to do away with any form of pitch-structure, and that is why people have trouble understanding their music. I think that Berg and Webern may have achieved something closer to true atonality than Schoenberg did.

12 tone is pitch that is very structured, so i do not think that the 2nd (not new) viennese school tried to do away with pitch structure, it tried to do away with heirarchy, in my opinion 12 tone music sounds grey, its like throwing all the colors into a painting, it will just look ugly...not that i am saying webern, schoenberg`s or berg`s music is ugly, i like most of their stuff, but just not what i write or any composer of worth today writes because it has been done and exhausted nearly.

On the contrary, even if you find something simple (simple as in small instrumentation) like Webern`s piano pieces ex. op. 27 or some of his Lieder, the emphasis on certain harmonies and pitches is everything in the composition. Again using the cliche, "tonal center".

Perhaps some people don`t understand the complicated ways they used the tone rows and the new sounds they created. Neverthelss, people also agree that Schoeberg never quite perfected the use of, what we call today, "Set theory". (grrr I have such mix feelings about theorists)

Atonality to me would be like something that started from the middle of no where and ended abrutly when the story (if any) was barely told. Somehow Berg and Webern`s music don`t sound like, if judging by ear and without knowing the score. That`s just how I feel personally, I`m sure most people disagree.

Gilbert`s reply shows exactly how I hear atonality. I hear each key as having its own colour, so nontonal music does sound very grey.
Foreigncoffee is making some good points about this subject.