Preludes, moods and poems 5 & 2

These two pieces are part of a larger set of pieces with the name "Preludes, Moods & Poems" which I intend to keep on expanding as time goes on.

These two pieces are dedicated to an old friend of mine, and I kind of wrote them without really trying to get too intellectual or any of that (I tried, really!) As a result, the pieces were mostly built up intuitively when it comes to composition techniques and such.

The main idea (and experiment) behind these short pieces is one related to "open art", in a sense that they're free to be interpreted in whatever way anyone wants. It can be someone sitting alone and playing it to themselves, or something like what we did in concert (video below.)

So the text is not intended to be spoken, sung, or any of that, it's intended to just be there on the score and interpreted as desired. The text was written also by me, and of course anyone keen on Satie's piano music (specially the later works) will recognize this style of score layout.

Overall, the pieces as a whole don't follow any form or particular concept. These two are good examples of how different each piece is from eachother, keeping however a particular stylistic standard which is hopefully subtle enough but clear so that they can be seen as part of the same thing.

Concerning this particular interpretation of both, we came up with the idea of doing them this way because it just seemed like a good idea. Throwing in scenic elements into otherwise "audio only" music is something I'm fond of, so long as the pieces' context allows for such a thing.

Rehearsals were pretty tough, since the texts are in English both struggled a little with the pronunciation and coordinating with the piano was also pretty much done on as we went along.

So there you go, now with the video.

YouTube - Preludes, moods and poems No.2 & 5

Interesting stuff. I've never encountered anything like this before. The relaxed, introspective feel is pleasantly organic.

I thought the words sat better with the music in the first piece. Perhaps that's because they play more of a part and the (my?) ear gets used to them more easily, whereas in the second piece, I found the interjection of the voice to be slightly distracting. Which leads me on to the fact that your piano writing is very nice.

Thanks, I also think that the second piece could do without the voice, but the performance I thought was pretty adequate. Plus, it would've been sort of weird to just have them stand there while the piano went on and on alone.

So, well, different interpretations. Which is the point of all this~ And yeah, the pieces have a sort of introverted and personal character. So yea, thanks~

Finally got to listen to it! Fascinating. I really like the concept of "open art" you're using there. I had looked at the scores before reading your post or listening to the video, and I didn't even think of having the texts sung or spoken. They just seemed like verbal connotations to a piano piece. It was very interesting to hear it actually being spoken then (even though the pronunciation of the two speakers was at times a bit distracting Not that mine would be any better though). I like melodrams anyways!

I suppose you wrote the texts yourself?

You can definitely hear in that music that it's not too "intellectual" or constructed, but rather set directly from what "your ears told you". And while it really does remind a bit of Satie, not just from the look of the scores, but also harmonically with all these non-functional seventh chords etc., it still has a very individual tonality that unifies both pieces. It sounds like a very personal work.

And I can imagine it's quite fun to play too, with all the liberties you (apparently) leave to the performers.

Thanks, and yeah, I wrote the texts myself. I wrote these pieces to have fun, and I think that shows in some way or another. The rehearsals and the concert were a blast, so in the end even if what ended up on stage is not exactly what says in the score, that's the entire idea. Plus, the performers were all friends of mine (my girl being on the left!) so it was pretty neat~