"Wasteland" in G minor

Ok, first of all... I must be sick.

I started jotting down whatever came to my mind when I started the first bars of this piece on the piano, and it eventually grew into this oversized mammoth of ash.

Finale's left hand does not help AT ALL, since it's too hammered and square. So it gets really annoying. I want a human player!!

Basically, I wanted to keep the same repetitive left hand pattern (without the annoying hammering) because it gave me the feel of... well... a wasteland.

This is nothing but wandering around in "tonality" much like if lost in an empty wasteland, interrupted by two very short waltzes of delirium tremens and three moments of delusions of insane grandeur, the last one supposedly the strongest yet the shortest.

I've already been told that it's too long (oh, so very long!), but I seriously have no idea of what to remove. It all seems so... grayish neutral.

And weird.

So there you go. Don't expect anything like I usually put here.

mp3

I feel that lenght is this piece's only flaw. The harmonies are wonderfully eery and all the waltzes and moments beyond the piece's main rhythm also work quite well. I think you should stick to this kind of harmonic language, since you managed to make an otherwise very repetitive piece quite interesting.

Fucking esnips doesn't work on my computer. -_-

I think it is pretty good but yeah the length... I mean the idea of a wasteland is really nice cause that is exactly what it sounds like, but I think you need to change the tempo up more without the space of long wasteland in between. Because really who wants to be in a wasteland for all that long... But overall a good peice and I'm glad you shared!

There're a lot of notation issues with your score.

Measure 3, right hand: when that rhythm pops up, use a dotted 8th note rest before the 16th note.

Measure 28, right hand again: you need to break the dotted 8th note into a 16th tied to an 8th.

Measure 50 and 52: the "rit" goes ABOVE the staff, not in the middle.

Measure 58, right hand: break the dotted 8th.

Measure 97, right hand: what were you thinking when you wrote that rhythm? re-divide that rhythm into something readable and logical please.

Measure 188, right hand: same thing.

Measure 132: the pedal marking goes beneath the bottom staff. Always.

Measure 134, right hand: do I need to say what the problem here is?

Measure 135, left hand: technically, you are supposd to avoid mixing accidentals. this SHOULD be respelled either all sharps or all flats.

Measure 150: why is there a "pedal off" marking right in the middle of that staff, and after a measure of silence?

Measure 156: guess what the problem here is?

Measure 158: here the problem is you're repeating yourself. No need for a second accel.

Measures 184 and 188: guess.

Measure 190: I highly suggest you respell the G flats to F#. It is more logical for the voice-leading from the E natural of the preceding measure, and avoids that notationally ugly diminished 3rd.


There's a whole bunch of the same notational errors repeating through-out the score, so it's up to you to clean them up now.

QC has picked up on all the notational issues now.

As to the piece itself, I found the main flaw was that the main theme was a little too dull.
Like Tomás, I also enjoyed the various waltzes etc. strewn throughout the piece, that kept up the interest.
Your use of harmony was certainly interesting, and actually a successful experiment. However, you perhaps need to work with a good harmony textbook for a while to solidify your understanding of harmony.
Certain things give it away that you're guessing by ear what notes to use, like a chord that was spelt G# C Eb. That's obviously an Ab major chord, and should have Ab, not G#.
I do hope you'll continue to experiment, and try new things. Even if they aren't successful, you'll learn something.

I think this is a rather decent piece. Just a little dull in places for me, and a couple of awkward bits, but mostly good.

I like some of the unexpected harmonic twists such as b. 8. I think you did a very good job of portraying a wasteland in this piece. Like 186-189, with that lone arpeggio circling up and down. And how it ends up in the same place as it began. It does have a very "wandering" feel to it. Very nice piece. I would have perhaps liked it to stray a bit more from the melody and accompaniment layout, and I also agree that you should check over your enharmonic spelling, and I agree about the long length. I think when pieces get this long they need to have more of a sense of where it's ultimately going, rather than "wandering around in a wasteland".

Heh.

About the notational issues and things like "a[n Ab] chord that was spelt G# C Eb", my scores are never clean unless I really need them for something (which hasn't been the case yet), and notating chords like that is finale's automatic fault, since I use a synth to write.
So I just strike the chord and it writes it. I don't pay attention to those notational things since I have yet to need a clean score for anything.

About the weirdly positioned pedal markings and stuff, QC, they're basically things to regularize playback sound, nothing else.

Rhythm division, however, is still completely alien to me. So that could be justifiably wrong, since I know nothing about it yet.

You mean you played it into Finale? I see. I think you should tidy it up a bit, I doubt I'm the only one who'd get a bit put off by the weird spelling of chords, while playing. At the very least, it'll look nicer.

I didnt' exactly "play" it. Finale can recognise notes from a synth. I choose the duration and, instead of using the mouse to place the notes, I touch the keys on the synth.