Harpsichord Sonata

hmm the piece seems to be lacking a pulse a bit...atleast for my feeling. there are bits and pieces which are very nice...but it doesn't seem to have a focused direction or real melodic outline. and I'm sure you could expand on it some more .

all in all a very nice start though, very atmospheric.

keep on composing ^^

I feel this piece can't really be called a 'Sonata', as we never get past the successive exposition of short motifs. It's much more of a slow-paced 'Prelude' or 'Impromptu'. In fact, if played in a piano instead of a harpsichord, it should sound a bit like a short character piece by Chopin. The harpsichord sound, though, has a hopeless 'baroque' flavor. Which drives me to think of this piece as a Romantically-conceived work played in a Baroque instrument and style.

As Beethovenbd noted, you should continue working on this, developing this initial material. Thanks for sharing...

Really, by the time it got to 0:50 it was really starting to get very boring...
This needs a huge amount of work on it.

I cannot add anything else as what has been written. At the opening I thought: "mmm nice beginning for a phantasy" but that was at the beginning up to about 15" or something like that. After that ... I did not know what you wanted to achieve; it sounded like a harpsichord tuner who tried to have his notes in tune.
As to your so-called sonata form .... cannot but agree with Austenite: this has NOTHING about a sonata, apart from its name. There are many sonatas published here, so have a look at these ones for a structure, or have a look at the sonatas by Mozart, Haydn or Beethoven to get a good feel of the form.
To conclude: Dan summed it up: ..... Either get rid of it or .... you have to put a hughe amount of work in it.


Kind regards

W.S.

Thanks for the reviews,
I don't know about you guys being strange or we just got a diffrent taste somewhat but i haven't got any bad feedbacks except for this forum but thanks anyways.

Lars Herman, høres norsk ut

Well, this is a nice little piece, the sound of it might not be too baroque, but as you said you have not been playing piano for a very long time

Austenite : If you think a an sonata, in early baroque, there was no sonata form as, im sure what you had in mind was the classical/ romantic sonata. Impromptu, did not exist in the baroque period, so be call it that would be very wrong. The name prelude might be better, if there where more movenetns to this, you could call this piece a sonata, if you look at Scarlatti, all his one movement pieces are called sonata

Thanks
SimenN

@Lars: don't feel discouraged at all. We may sound a bit harsh at times (some really harsher than others) - but we wouldn't really be truly friendly or honest if we focused on giving praises rather than pointing out what we think can be improved. Personally I want you to achieve your best as a composer; but if you sincerely believe your short piece can't really be improved at all, I won't get mad if you disregard my opinion altogether.

Austenite : If you think a an sonata, in early baroque, there was no sonata form as, im sure what you had in mind was the classical/ romantic sonata. Impromptu, did not exist in the baroque period, so be call it that would be very wrong. The name prelude might be better, if there where more movenetns to this, you could call this piece a sonata, if you look at Scarlatti, all his one movement pieces are called sonata :)ThanksSimenN

Thanks for your comment, SimenN. However, I must say that the term sonata (as well as Symphony)has now a meaning that it didn't use to have in the Baroque period. You can expect most people (not only me) to have a certain kind of piece in mind. So, unless we're trying to pose as 'recently discovered 18th century composers', it's better not to confuse our audiences.

My colleagues are definitely correct -- this is simply not a sonata, at all. Sonatas are, putting it over-simply/broadly, about well-rounded development of a theme, and its subsequent developments, over the course of several movements. This is much too short to be considered a sonata...

I do think what you've written so far, has potential -- I liked it. But it feels incomplete. This sounds like an introduction to a piece, rather than a full piece. I encourage you to try and make the piece progress into something "that reflects your take on life".

Thanks for sharing -- I look forward to hearing more from you in the future

Serge. What you say only applies to the classical era. Simen has a valid point that in the baroque time that form wasn't really developed yet.
But granted, this sonata doesn't sound like it is structured in a baroque form either. So the critique that is sounds somewhat shapeless still stands.

Lars. How do you evaluate the fact that you get 'bad feedback' here, and not elsewhere. I don't want to be harsh. But there are forums where people are so protective about their work that there is an attitude of only patting on the shoulder, and cheer for any note produced. I am glad YC is not like that. I find critique constructive, and it has helped me to broaden horizons and challenged me to improve. I hope you find the critique equally satisfying.