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

Many have praised you much with this piece, so I will restrain from is in order for you not to get 'soda water' in your head.

I have little criticism to give, apart from the score errors which Michel elegantly pointed out. I do not know if anybody else has commented it on it, but the cello was on a bassoon track, not a big deal - just had to point out something new.

Truly a golden piece in the Chamber Music sub-forum

EDIT:

...There's a violin in this?

I'd like to think that Saiming was referring to the cello... I still don't get the point about it being on a "Bassoon track," though... could you elaborate for us, Saiming?

He was (jokingly, I hope), referring to the tenor clef.

Hey Brooks,

Nice piece you have here. I like the style you were going for...its a mix of contemporary and deeply classic romanticism. It reminds of Franck in the latter sense. I think some of the harmonies are unwanted in this mixture, though. How do I explain this erm...well, for instance the opening 5 or 6 measures are pretty much "pure" chords, and then you have some dissonances in measures 7 and 9 and a few onward. Only these few instances were awkward, but the mixture really seems to work out in the end. I love the mixed metre sometimes, and the freeness of the cello intertwining with the steadiness of the piano, it really brings out a very flourishing flavour. I adored the overall mood of this piece. I suppose thats what my ear picks up first. I wish you had done a little more with that melancholy theme you had there, but I suppose a certain level of continuous simplicity is appropriately applied.

Overall, well done, I did enjoy this.
Nico

Thank you, Nico, for commenting and suggesting. I agree that the beginning can be more harmonically "obscure"--less "sharp," to better fit the rest of the piece. I might alter that at some point in the future--perhaps when the other mvts. are completed, since it will open the piece. I also agree that the themes are very short-lived: only 2 or 3 phrases, on average (except for the last dotted figure). I thought about going back and expanding, but that would take some major re-thinking of the pacing of the piece. Since it worked as it was, I decided to write off the "deprived" feeling as a support for the mood of despair that I was going for. I actually think, in that sense, that the "shortness of breath" does contribute positively.

hmmm...not sure about the bassoon sound. I had the playback set to bassoon at one point because it at least had some "spin" to the line instead of sounding like an aural ice-pick. Just now, though, I looked at the score and saw that playback was set to cello. Oh well.

Okay, bpopw750, after our discussion in the chatbox on 3/14, I took the liberty of orchestrating a small section of the beginning as an example. See this .pdf file. (forgive the formatting and any score issues, I just threw this together...)

MIDI file here.

Wow...that actually does sound ok! I didn't think that the piece would hold up that well when orchestrated (granted, that's just a small bit). I liked how you kept the heavy-pulse feel but also some forward motion. The enhanced rhythms kept things from being monotonous, and the additional dissonance (and just some of the countermelodic lines) colored things well. Thank you for showing me how it could be done. I certainly would like to do this, but I think I'll wait 'til I have the whole piano/cello sonata version completed first. A crystallized, essential accompaniment that has been fleshed out over the course of the movements will prepare me to expand well to expand to orchestra, I think. Thank you for your very practial take-it-to-the-next-level comments last night and for giving the time required to demonstrate this orchestration.