"Epistrophe" (sonata for 'cello and piano)--Mvt. 1 Pesante: Lento con tristezza

Brooks, I listened to only the opening, it IS lovely. VERY lovely!

However!!!

Shame on you. The score is a mess.

Please, isn't it worth it for something beautiful like this to be treated with respect?

What's with the measure of 3/8+3/8+2/8???? it's a measure of 4/4. period.

Where are all your bowings?

Phrase markings in the piano part?

And the tempo is marked 66/quarter note, but the playback is set to 108/quarter.

Please, for me, I'd love to listen to the whole movement, but clean up the score. It will take you an hour at the most.

Why are the name "violincello" and "piano" off the page on the first page?

Why is the "pno" off the page?

If you need any help using Finale, please contact me, I'll be happy to help you.

If this is your first movement, it should have the "complete" title of your piece as a header, and underneath that the movement title.
It should be marked clearly what instruments are playing on the first indented staff (being a sonata, you can leave the staff names out for the subsequant staves, as well as on subsequant movements once it's all put together)

be careful of typos when you print to PDF - the movement is called Epistrophe on the 1st page, but the header for the following pages all say "Epsitrophe".


Beautiful music also deserves to be beautiful on the page.

I'm listening to your music right now, it must be the 8th time.

Well,
1) This is truly beautiful. In concept, structure and performance. It goes in my mp3 player.
2) The score is messy, as Cowboy stated. It's in awful need of attention.
3) I can't wait for the next movements.

Two thumbs up!

Wow! Thanks for lending your ear. It's really encouraging!

I am tending to the score; I should be able to post something much cleaner and communicative of my intent soon.

I'm not sure when I'll get around to the other two movements, considering my current college schedule. I do have some coalescing ideas for them, which I've expressed in an essay under the "Articles" section ("Genre for a Lifetime: Christian Epistrophe in Music").

Thanks again, Manossg and QC!

Well, I must say that I like this piece very much. However, I do have one complaint after viewing the score, and it IS a selfish one but; I am a pianist and I have relatively small hands. You have a LOT of tenths in there arghit! Do you have any idea how difficult it is for me to reach a tenth? It hurts! Ok, well, that's my only complaint. Good job on the piece overall though!

Originally Posted by JairCrawford

Well, I must say that I like this piece very much. However, I do have one complaint after viewing the score, and it IS a selfish one but; I am a pianist and I have relatively small hands. You have a LOT of tenths in there arghit! Do you have any idea how difficult it is for me to reach a tenth? It hurts! Ok, well, that's my only complaint. Good job on the piece overall though!

HAHAHA! Well sometimes composers tend to overlook, I do it all the time as you know I mistakingly put in a 15th interval for one of my piano compositions Jair..so I would much sooner have a tenth than a Fifteenth, I loved the cello piece, those harmonics at the end made me feel quite tingly....if that even sounds out of the ordinary...but I liked it alot.

Wow... I really hate starting off with such a vague word as "wow," but that honestly expresses how I feel. After having listened to this, I honestly have a new view on what is considered "virtuosic" writing. There's the kind that's full of dazzling orchestration that makes your head spin, complex rhythms and harmonies and blah blah blah... and then there's this kind of virtuosity. The kind where it looks so utterly simple on the page, but in hearing it performed by a pair of musicians who know what they're doing, you discover that, apparent simplicity aside, there's really something going on here.

The simple rhythmic accompaniment of the piano was simply alluring; add to that the cello melody which was at times just as simple and lilting, and at others complex in its own special manner, and you have the nearest thing to perfection you can get out of a duet. The increasingly dissonant coda (codetta?) resolved just perfectly at the end...

I really and truly was impressed. The best music does one thing beyond all - it speaks to one's soul. That's why there's not much of "the best music" out there. However, this is easily amongst the best of the best, in my opinion. I'd want nothing more than to see... and hear... the rest of this lovely sonata.

All the best,
Amitiés,

Dallas

Thank you, Dallas, for the listen and gracious words.

oh, and Brooks, don't let those tiny-handed wusses get to you... keep writing 10ths in the piano. They're a breeze for us big-hand folk!

Originally Posted by QcCowboy

oh, and Brooks, don't let those tiny-handed wusses get to you... keep writing 10ths in the piano. They're a breeze for us big-hand folk!

How very thoughtful of you Qc! Lol jk.

I can reach a 12th in my right hand, and usually an 11th in my left. ~random~ I have no issues playing through the piano part for this. But I can see how some might; that's solved with a simple interpretive arpeggio. Keep it up, Brooks, it's wonderful.