Piano Sonata no. 3, first movement.

Okay... so allow me to introduce the first work I'll be posting for you guys to tear apart.

This is indeed the third in line of my piano sonatas, but it's honestly the first of its kind (for me, that is). In this work, I've set aside all my romantic/post-romantic influences, my tendency towards extensive arch-forms or, on the other, my tendency towards a nearly stream-of-conscience free-form. The entire purpose in my writing this was to challenge myself to adhere - more or less - to the rules of the Sonata-Allegro form.

Which I hope I've done.

I know first impressions are lasting impressions, but I don't want this to influence the way you think of my too terribly much. I've gone rather minimalist here (again, for my style of music), stripping it down to something rather simple and classical, all in the vein of focusing entirely on the structure. In other words, it may seem a little dry, or maybe even a little cliché. So don't get too discouraged by it.

Well, I've defended myself as much as I can, and I'm sure it's all for naught, so here we go.

The Horrible-sounding Midi:
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*Those of you who have anything from Finale 2005 to the later versions, you should honestly just open the attachment and listen to it there; it'll sound MUCH better. I was forced to create the midi from a Notepad file, while the attachment is from Finale 2005. Don't ask; long, complex story.

I hope one or two of you like it. Not honestly sure if I do, myself. (Issues have I many, this is true. )

EDIT:

Oh, by the way. Ignore the titling of "Sonata no. 1" It's from my own system of categorization... it's literally my third piano sonata, I promise.

Well, Dallas...

I liked the introduction because you took advantage of the piano's rich qualities.
Issues/comments/praise:

I really liked the first few measures and the set up of the theme. Your harmonic progressions seemed to be focused on because of the lack of rythmic variety in the section between the intro and :56. It was great until :56... and then I was confused (about the style). At 1:37, the theme started to sink in. I heard your minor variation... though it was short and mainly in unison. After this... I am slightly confused (1:57)... but you do expand upon this later. I'm not sure if this is a variation of the theme (2:02), mabye you were mirror-imaging your theme (I'm not sure what the terminology is). At this section, the bass hand is not in continuous motion, which prevents this section from getting the energy and life that I think you wanted it to. At 2:26, the chromatic changes in the bass lend the section a feeling of urgency of motion, which is uncharacteristic of the surrounding sections (this might have been intentional). Use of low bass chords in sections like 2:55 can give the sound a gruff and indistinguishable texture, and you might have wanted this, but it sounds very heavy here. I hear an appogiatura at 3:03, which is great. And some beethoven-ish chromatic play at the end. Yes, a very sontata-ish ending. Okay, much of your piece is scales, which is a very classical thing to do. Your exposition and recapitulation were great. The beginning of the development was good, but I was initially lost in the second part of the development. Upon further listening, I was able to make sense of it.

I would love to hear more out of your sonata when it is completed. Good job at sticking to sonata-allegro form. I was a little bit turned-off by the usage of similar chord progressions through the entire song, but that is very minor. Good effort!

listen want.
pdf plz.

Hey there, Mael! Thanks for having taken the time to write such an in-depth review! I'll address some of your points in return... I see you've used the time indications rather than measure numbers and such.

Letehn, I had to read your review a few times, but thank you very much for it!

Speaking of which, how does one go about the creation of a PDF score? I'll look into that.

---

Okay, Mael, here we go.

First off, at :56, the exposition repeats; stylistically, a Sonata can have a repeated exposition, can't it? Maybe once I get a PDF up, that'll be more obvious. And once again, at 1:37, that's just the secondary theme being repeated. Hmmm... okay. At 1:57, I've simply introduced a few modulatory measures to bring in the next tonal focus in the development. I'll just admit now that in the development, I was unable to hold back a few of my more... um... modulatory tendencies.

Your comment about the bass losing continuous motion... well, yes, that was intentional, and I had hoped to make up for it by giving the running background which I'd set up to the right hand. Kind of an inversion of the theme, but not quite, you know?

Next, when I recap theme 1 with the low bass chords (you mentioned specifically 2:55, which was a very low-written A major chord)... yes, the thick feeling was very intentional. While writing this (I wrote it in the space of one weekend), this recapitulation was the one part upon which I spent the most time, for the simple fact that I couldn't decide whether or not to keep the huge chords down in the bass, lending the muddy texture. I played it on my personal piano both ways - using the current chords, and removing the thirds and fifths, leaving just octaves, and every way in between. In the end, I decided that I liked the muddy texture of the full-voiced chords. ; not sure why, it just gives such a powerful, growling aspect to what had been, in my opinion, rather dry music thus far. Again, .

Thank you for the comments on my adherence to the form - as I said, that was my principal goal in writing this. You say you would like to see more? Well, I had never given any thought to writing the other movement, but if this is well received, I'll go back and dress everything up; you know, actually spend some time on it and turn it into something "nice," if I can.

Again, many thanks to the both of you! Maybe I'll consider trying to get a recording of this, rather than the midi... maybe I'll do a lot of things. And for the final time, .

~Dallas

I liked the piece, but your modulations were not very cleanly masked. It was a surprise to me instead of a smooth and logical transition. Also, with the lack of bass motion, that entire passage lost depth and the right hand motion didn't really help. Finally, your development was not very recognizable, in my opinion. This could use some work but I liked it a lot

Okay, PDF uploaded in first post.

Mael - I may yet revisit this, dress it up, bring it out of the dryness with which I've currently presented it. I've said that I'm a romantic at heart, but as classical as this is, were I to apply myself to it, I'm sure I could do something with it. A lot of those big chords you were talking about would probably vanish, replaced with more flowing notes, and I'd probably go into big martellato jumps, hands crossed, in that part of the development where you said the bass's lack of motion brought the piece down.

At any rate, I'll take into consideration everything that you've mentioned. Thanks again!

Just a random note to everyone - I am indeed re-writing this. I've finished the exposition, and am soon to start the revised Development (barring problems with Finale, that is). The current Expo is mostly the same; the major differences are in presentation, handling of the instrument, etc. The development, however, will be nothing alike, so be prepared. Also, the recapitulation may deviate from the standard stylistic rules... who knows. And there will be a coda, further expanding on the the one-line introduction that I use.

Anyways.

I'll get back to you all sooner or later, I hope.

~Dallas

I've listened to this, studied the score and played it myself, and I have much praise for it - but if you're re-writing the piece, maybe I should reserve praise and criticism for later.

I probably need to step back and think about what I would say, because it is close enough to being what I would call an excellent example not only of Sonata Allegro form, but of a sonata movement as in a larger work, much of what I'd say at this moment in criticism would be along the lines of what I personally would have done instead, and I'm not sure that would be helpful to you. I'm a Classical-Revivalist obsessed with authenticity, and most others are more interested in the general flavour and not the details.

Suffice it to say, for now, that I was impressed. This is a quality effort.

Thank you very much, J. Lee Graham.

I knew you were a revivalist, and I've been meaning to listen to some of your music; unfortunately, my searches have produced results with link-less threads, etc. At any rate...

Thank you very much for the praise; as to it's being part of a larger work, well... now that I've applied myself, I have begun to consider a second and third movement (though at this stage, all I really have in mind are a few sketches, of course).

I'll certainly work on getting the revision posted; as I've said elsewhere, I'm experiencing a fair deal of problems with my notation software, but perhaps I'll get it sorted out, eh?

Thanks again,

Dallas

dude, I love it