Prelude in G Minor

This is my first post on youngcomposers.com and my first real piano composition. I would post more recent ones but I cannot play them yet and, thus, I cannot record them.

The piece has an extremely simple rhythmic structure, but I think the harmony works nicely in this simple structure.

I hope a myspace account will be adequate:

MySpace.com - mathbird - Santa Fe, New Mexico - Ambient / Experimental / Indie - www.myspace.com/mathbird

and if that doesn't work I can upload a midi file.

Thanks for any comments. I'm open to harsh criticism.

I don't know much about what a prelude is supposed to sound like but it sounded a little disorganized/sporadic at times to me

I also think it sounded a bit disjointed and erratic. You have some good themes here but it seems that before you elaborate on any of them you skip ahead to the next theme. You can obviously play piano ok. Not sure what sort of style you were aiming at though... a coherent piece or deliberate confusion?

The chord spacing makes it sound rather muddy - unless you are deliberately trying to make the chords sound incredibly heavy, I suggest moving some of the left-hand texture slightly higher.

Could you tell us what sort of style you're attempting to write in? What harmonic influences have you had in writing this prelude? It's difficult to offer criticism unless we're sure quite what you're trying to do.

Quite an interesting piece. Harmonically weird but I guess that is the style. And yeah, the piano writing seems a bit heavy for a short piece like this, but then again that is your call.

Thanks for the comments.

I'm not sure if I could explain the style or harmonic influences or why that would even be important. Shouldn't a work stand on it's own outside of any context of school of harmony or general style? I would like to hear more about that. I am quite an amateur and don't really know how all the music stuff works. I write what sounds good to me and relates my ideas (and is playable by my feeble (and full of tendonitis) hands).

I am encouraged by the comments about the harmony. I was rather worried I was using rather hackneyed ideas, but they still had an affect.

I actually look at the whole piece as a development of the initial idea, a simple rising melody--just played in different context, inverted, manipulated, etc.

I'm interested in the respons of "erratic", or that the themes didn't last long enough. I think part of the reason is that I spent so much time with the piece and knew every single note so perfectly that, for me, the piece didn't need repetition. There are a couple disjointed transitions I think but they still seem to be anticipated, or the new material is related to the previous material in a way that connects the two--despite the abruptness of transition.

The chords may be muddy, that's true. It may just be my performance of it though. The melody rings clear in my head, but does get lost a few times in the recording.


Thanks so much. You all have given some good advice.

-jesse