Violin Sonatina in C minor

This piece is for violin and piano accompaniment. I was very limited in what i could write becasue I had to write for an amateur violinist.

Although it is titled Sonatina, it isn't exactly in traditional sonata form. It took about three days to write maybe four or five hours.

I would really enjoy hearing how I could improve this piece or what you thought of the piece. Thanks!

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Exellent work !! Good knowledge of clasical repertoire is obvious. Also, the harmony, the instrumentation, the form are all in place. Nothing stands out as being "not in place". You sure put a good deal of knowledge in this and every beat represents this. The main theme is very neat and simple. The piano writing however, in some places, needs a bit re-touch.

The repeated 8note figure of the piano, i felt, somewhat disturbing. 7 years ago, when I was studying composition, my teacher suggested me something exactly like the case of yours. He told me that, if you want your melody to have more importance and stand out from the rest, miss the first beat of the accompaniment.
As in your case, try putting 8th rest at the beginning of each measure on the R.H. See how that will sound. maybe you like it..

On m.98, there is a big leap on the RH piano. this may be a bit problematic when came to perform this piece. If you have a piano try to see it yourself, with this speed its quite tricky, if not imposible. Try writing convinient passages.
I liked the cadenza. It seemed you needed it there and it came right there! good thinking



Keep up the good work and let me know if my suggestions were any use to you.

***If this is the final socre, you need to put violin staff on top of the piano***

Actually, yes this was very helpful, probably the most informative and constructive reply Ive ever gotten here. Thanks! I'm going to take away the first eighth note chord in the repeating eigth notes section, it does sound better actually. And i fixed the part in that one measure.

I felt that the cadenza was needed as well, but if I have any complaints about it, its that the cadenza is too short, I just didn't know what I could do working with an amateur violinist. Thanks again.

Actually, this piece is rather dull. It was quite boring to listen too, and extremely cliche. The trills were annoying, and there was no development. Your use of the piano was not maturely done either. Your chordal structure was too simple, and the piece was too repetitive. I liked the first 2 notes, though.

I;m sorry.

Oh no, thats okay, i think you're probably right about the chordal structure and i think i did repeat the theme one too many times. Thanks.

I must applaud your response, sarcastic or not. It takes a lot of good state-of-mind and maturity to respond the way you did, and many should learn from you in that respect.

Actually, this piece is rather dull. It was quite boring to listen too, and extremely cliche. The trills were annoying, and there was no development. Your use of the piano was not maturely done either. Your chordal structure was too simple, and the piece was too repetitive. I liked the first 2 notes, though.

If you had suggestions why not give them so it can be any help to him rather than saying dull, boring, cliche. This way of reacting is extremeley childish and would not help anyone.

I liked the first 2 notes, though.

and what is this supposed to mean? humiliate ?

Fine.

Why it was dull: You used pretty much the same 3 or 4 chords, all in relation to each other: I V, IV and V/II (submediant). The melodies in the Violin were quite nice, though, but your piano accompaniment ruined it. These chords were also why it was cliche, and the trills seemed out of place.

Your piece was not structured. It was Theme, some weird thing you call a 2nd theme, and then repeating it a few times (whether in different ways or not). What this piece is really lacking is development. Some more dialogue between the piano and violin would be nice rather than pure Solo + Accompaniment.

Why the piano didn't quite work: The idea of piano as accompaniment is an unoriginal idea, albeit a common one. This could make for a farily good piece if done properly, but you didn't use the piano...i want to say correctly, although we all know there is no right or wrong in music. You had most of the time chords in eighths...yay. Even this could work if you put some staccati on them and put something interesting in the bass, but the way you orchestrated it made it sound monotonous and choppy. The overall idea you've created is fine, but maybe it was one of those "good in theory, not on paper." Or as I like to call it "Good on the page, not on the stage." We all have those.

Although from what other music I've heard of yours this is probably the best. So you're getting much better.


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How's that?

Good on the page, not on the stage.

LOL, exactly

Daniel, please forgive Nico. When he sees what in his oppinion is an overly praising review, he automatically feels the need to trash the composer of the piece in question's confidence. (This is just an assumption, of course, but I bet i'm right!)

Originally posted by Daniel Alley
This piece is for violin and piano accompaniment. I was very limited in what i could write becasue I had to write for an amateur violinist.

Although it is titled Sonatina, it isn't exactly in traditional sonata form. It took about three days to write maybe four or five hours.

I would really enjoy hearing how I could improve this piece or what you thought of the piece. Thanks!

From what you set out to create, I found this very fitting - it's very suspensefull on a small scale, and has a lovely feel to it. My only criticism would be that I found it to be a bit wandering (read:lacking in structure), but that's just the form not appealing to me. Good work overall!

Edit: I'm not one to nag about notational grievances, but why did you place the violin part under the piano part?