Adagio for Viola in Bb Major - Sentimental

mp3 link - Adagio for Viola in Bb Major - "Sentimental" - eSnips, share anything


This is a short (5 min) piece for viola with piano accompaniment, and is a departure from my usual classical writing. It is written in the romantic style.

I didn't spend a LOT of time on it ... just enough.

So, enjoy, and any comments would be appreciated

Score below:

This is a realy nice piece. The main melody reminds me of our notianal anthem, so maybe i'm a bit biased. I think the beginning of the development is a bit lacking in mood. You make up for along the way though. Overall it really enjoyed it. It's in an early romantic style. Are you planning on leaving your classical writting?

Some of the notation with the double stops is funky. You can't sustain all 4 notes for that amount of time in some parts (that section at 34). I know if something is written in a quicker temp you can write equal length notes from a quad stop... but not this slow... you are gonna have to make the bottom two notes shorter in length... an eighth or a quarter.

Some of the bowings would be awkward because of your slurs, I'll have to look back where.

Very nice otherwise.

The piano harmony is a little boring, and the arpeggios get a little old.

At least you inverted some chords :-p

Okay, I'm done.

Thank you!

Well for the quad stops, I guess I should have been more clear in my notation. I asked some players and they told me that a chord was fine, but I am going to change that so that the bottom two are gracenotes to the top two. That is what I intended in the first place.

Honestly, I really REALLY wanted the viola to be the spotlight, so I didn't try to make the piano part interesting.

Yah... chord inversions

I liked this piece, I love the viola so maybe I'm a little biased.
I agree with the things that the others have said, so there is no real point repeating them, but I just wanted to let you know that I thought that it is really a pretty little piece.

Originally Posted by maelstromtempest

mp3 link - Adagio for Viola in Bb Major - "Sentimental" - eSnips, share anything


This is a short (5 min) piece for viola and piano, and is a departure from my usual classical writing. It is written in the romantic style.

I didn't spend a LOT of time on it ... just enough.

So, enjoy, and any comments would be appreciated

Score below:

Hi there. my reaction might be more a result of my preference in style than anything else but the melody did not seem to have a natural progression that I could follow. The beginning has a hint of ave maria in it but then I'm not quite sure what to make of it. I'm not a stickler about scores and such, I much prefer to go by what I hear and feel. I would probably enjoy your classical pieces more.

This is a fine piece of music. And I'm waiting for a recorded version of it.

Got a viola joke for you...
How do you kill hundreds of viola players? By writing a piece for solo viola and post it in a forum, that way they all come flocking, and then you can drop a bomb...
Haha, I'm a viola player, so I'm allowed to say things like that. But the piece was really nice, seriously. The piano part, yes, was little elementary, but I think there are way to keep it interesting without stealing the spotlight. I mean, look at Glazunov's Viola Elegy as an example. Great piano part, but it's all viola... Same with Shostakovich's Viola Sonata (which I'm playing next spring for my senior recital). Speaking of which, I could definitely see myself playing this. If you decide to go all the way with this piece, let me know. Maybe I'll even commission a piece from you. :-) Great job!

I'm sorry, but the piano part for the Shosty is prettttty steep at times.

Nu uh, I'll record it first :-p

thank you all for commenting

first of all : lol at Chancellor's joke.

secondly: I'm honored that you all thought that this piece was good enough to deserve a recording! I actually think that, comparatively, this piece is very low quality compared to my other recent works, which is fine because if you thought that this was good, then I'm sure you would think my other pieces to be great. In fact, this lacks interesting harmony, melody, and the strong countervoices that are characteristic in my newest works. I guess that the performer's interpretation would have to make up for that.

Finally: I suggest that all of you intrigued by this piece should listen to my "Metus" overture, because I believe you will be more entertained by that!

Thanks!