Alone, Yet Together

hey brah, cool stuff. i like where your mind and intent is on this piece - like you said, meditative and gentle. i can't really get on board with some of your note selection though...especially in places like m. 6 where you have a B-flat in the bass and a B-natural in the treble. before that measure happened my thought was that the piece had no melodic center, even though it seemed like it wanted one. when that measure came, it confirmed this thought. same thing at measure 9. it may have been all intentional from you, but on my end it didn't gel. just an opinion.

Nice piece AGAIN Alex! I like how the piece flows, and the slight dissonances and such.... just a good overall work. I think it gelled quite nicely actually However the ending came a little toooo soon for me! I wanted more of that stuff!

Other than that, I really enjoyed your work again!

Heckel

Thank you both for your comment! Jmontroy, such dissonances are part of my musical/harmonic language (you can listen to some of my other pieces in the archives to see what I mean). Also, I don't really understand what the term "melodic centre" stands for.

Heckel, it could certainly have lasted a bit longer, but having heard previous pieces of mine you must know that I am not really known for my long compositions. I don't really like developing a musical idea too much, but I do like variating it and using it in different pieces.

Alexander,

Very nice work here. I really like the bouncy feel a bit and, of course, the wonderful use of suspensions. My only comment, twofold really, is that the piece could be expanded a little bit (which is something Graham stated above). I'm not sure that variation would be the good means at doing that - it's such a fragile texture to start with. Perhaps you could utilize a modulation to another region and embellish your theme with counterpoint? Or... you could go for a slow build up? My other comment is on the choice of the D major chord at the end. It gave the impression that the piece was still going on - which I think is sort of in line with what jmontroy said. That said, I really did enjoy this. Hope to hear more of your works again.

Jason Allen Ogden Woodruff

Hello Jason!

Thanks for your comment! I was speaking about variating the musical idea in different pieces which are sort of related to each other (you can listen to my new submission to see what I mean). What you suggested, however, is something that I could do and I more or less did in the companion piece "Together, Yet Alone". The D major chord brings in my opinion a positive note and fits well with the title of the piece.

Thanks for listening!

To a point, yes, it does fit. However, I think one thing you could to make it a little less jarring is perhaps prepare for it a tad bit. As I said in my original review, the way it is currently, the D major chord almost acts as if it is a pivot chord - one that seems to lead to a new tonal region (like in a modulation). I'll check out your companion piece to this.

Jason Allen Ogden Woodruff

Alex- Yes I know what you meant! Your pieces are usually 1-4 minutes. nothing wrong with that!

i simply meant that i couldn't find something to latch onto, really. usually i can find some sort of rhythmic motif, related key, melodic motif, something that sorta centers the song. i couldn't find it here - all i heard was a pretty, mysterious piece that flirted around some dissonances for a minute, then stopped.

this sounds harsher than i mean it - i'm not suggesting to put in some big block chords or something. maybe it's just the piece needs some fleshing out to me.

peace and love!

john

Hi John!

There are two most evident rhythmic motifs in this piece and its companion one and the rhythmic/melodic motif on the right hand actually builds a theme. Also, if you have noticed the piece has a simple ABA form which means that there certainly is a degree of coherence and despite the ambient style the piece is written in, there is some structural presence to be found.

okay, let me try to say it this way: yes, there is the dotted eighth - eighth note motif in the treble clef the whole time, but since you fill in those rests with eighths in the bass clef, it sounds like a continuous stream of eighths the whole way. which, in my mind, doesn't really strike the listener as a noticeable rhythmic motif.

but really, it's your piece and your intent. i can only tell you what struck me, of course! it's a nice piece - subsequent listens have grown on me, but if it were my piece (and i can only ever review pieces with that train of thought in mind), i would try to define the piece rhythmically and melodically a little more.

anywho. i think that's all that you need to hear from me!