A Light in the Darkness, piano trio for two trumpets

First post!

Anyways, as the title suggests, this is a piano trio for two trumpets. The general idea for the piece is something of a "battle" (for lack of better word) between light and darkness, with one trumpet representing dark (playing in minor key) and the other representing light (you guessed it, major key!). Any feedback at all is welcomed

I strongly encourage any would-be reviewers to listen to the mp3 if possible... I feel the midi just doesnt do the piece justice...

Thanks!

A Light in the Darkness.mp3 - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage -- mp3

Welcome to YC

First of all, I like your idea of throwing light and darkness (or whatever you want) to "battle". Yet when you resolve to do this by juxtaposing mayor and minor areas, well, I find that resort quite uneffective. Specially since you aren't changing texture or whatever else, I can't hear a great contrast.

I found weird, on first listening, that you spent 55 measures without making both trumpets play together. Then when they do, the mayor-minor thing makes little sense I supose, since you're not being politonal or whatever.

Don't misunderstand me. The piece is nice, it has good moments, others that may need more thinking over. What I don't get is the battle thing, but a rather peaceful music. Hope to be of help.

Thank you...

"battle" was definitely a poor word choice on my part. I can see how that caused quite a bit of confusion. The two voices (light and dark) are not really meant to be in conflict... but in contrast... if that makes any sense. I understand that this definitely has no conection to battle or war or violence of any sort. Peaceful is a good description of it, I think. I definitely intended for a level of serenity in it.

As for the trumpets not playing together until the last half... Well, it definitely is one of my major concerns that the piece might be a little slow to get moving. Im currently considering a few ways to shorten it,including taking out some of the solo piano parts.

While I agree that polytonality would be very appropriate to the "idea" of light/dark, I find that it really doesn't fit within the stylistic realm of the piece.

I found your comments helpful and I once again thank you for your time in writing them.

The first trumpet solo section seemed like it was conveying the concept of darkness, but I thought it had a little too much motion. What I imagine when I think of darnkness musically are really lush, thick minor chords, and slow melodic movement. Your "dark" part moves pretty quickly, kinda sounds like weeping to me, actually. Frantic weeping. Very epic sounding piano intro, by the way. I was almost expecting to break into a rock ballad before the trumpet came in. I might suggest between the first two trumpet solos that you liven that piano solo up a bit. Give it more variation, make us think something is about to happen, then... whoaaaa, brightness. Big shift. With the brightness of course being very simple chords in major mode. I thought your "light" part was a little too "dark." Just my impression. Also, I would consider using different timbres for light and dark. You could have the "dark" trumpet cup or straight muted, or indicate optional flugelhorn. Just an idea. The more contrast the better when concerning two opposing elements like light and dark. It's a very novel idea, by the way. I like it. It could be done better yet, though. This sounds like a lovers' ballad to me --- more emotional than elemental.

By the way, is the balance between trumpet and piano okay in the mp3? My headphones are cruddy and imbalanced, not sure if you used pan, but the trumpets sound a bit quiet to me. If it sounds okay to you then don't worry 'bout it, could just be my headphones, like I said.

In the piano part I wouldn't use a reoccuring pedal marking like that the whole time. Just indicate that the pedal is on and don't bother indicating it any more after that. Any non-idiot pianist should know to manipulate the pedal as is needed, I don't see the need for specific markings every measure in this particular piece. In measure 2 have you considered an arpeggio marking instead of super-fast triplets? It might be more appropriate to just use that instead. In measure 5 and in subsequent measures you should have an eighth note/quaver rest above that whole note. We don't know how long to wait to hit the next note in the left hand if you don't add that rest in there indicating the value. Plus, these are two seperate voices --- the whole notes and the eight notes. Without the rest on 1 you have only 7/8ths of a measure for the upper voice there. In measure 32 in trumpet go ahead and beam those eight notes on 2 and the and of 2, I think it's easier to read, especially with the grace notes inbetween.

In measures 47, -8, and -9 we have a very interesting phenomenon in trumpet. Measure 47 is "light", 48 is "dark" and 49 is "light." Very nice, but I suprised you didn't use both trumpets to do this instead of just one. Very nice potential for the two to interact in situations like this, where you could have one trumpet call out a measure's worth of dark, and the other answer with the next measure in lightness. Like I said, a lot of potential, but you didn't fully take advantage of it. From pretty much measure 61 the right hand for the piano part gets a little tiring on the ear. It just pounds out the chords in the high registers. Maybe this would be okay to some people, but I think it wears off after a while and I started thinking, "why does he keep them all they way up there?" Maybe you're afraid the piano and trumpets mixing registers there? If that's the case there's really nothing to worry about, the timbres are so different that it's excusable. Just my personal thoughts.

Hope this helps with anything. Like I said, it's a very nice idea to base a piece on. Even if you didn't do the best to realise the potential of what you set out to do, you wound up with a decent piece. I haven't seen much for trumpet duet and piano as well. There should be more for it. =]