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UPDATE 9-30-23: UPLOADED GARRITAN Yamaha "CFX Lite" grand piano "CRYSTAL" mic/studio. Deleted older files. Corrections made to score, revised finish to better reflect my intentions regarding ritardanos. Definitely a deeper sample, much clearer/crisper. I like the damper effects. Still learning the player interface--something like 20 different studio mic/piano arrangements in the library. This one is very close to VSL's D-274. Just completed the companion piece to the Nocturne in G minor. This is my second solo piano piece. The goal was to use a different ostinato left hand accompaniment figure, create a bright piece with a different overall feel. I consciously used the little neighboring tone moment in the main theme as a thematic element. You can hear it in the minor key B section as a lead-in note, and in the appogiaturas throughout. It seems to work, and knits the piece together. The main theme seem to be a rather prosaic boiler plate romantic song, but is saved from banality by the NEOPOLITCAN CHORD and the closing phrase. This "hook" gets elaborated on as the piece progresses. I dedicated this Neopolitan chord to Henry, who suggested it for the first nocturne.. I do listen, it just takes a bit to assimilate. I like it, but it is very "spicy" and I think it needs to be used with great discretion! It really helps to give interest here and a novel twist. The c.1850 time frame I've assigned is based on the departure from standard John Field-type nocture style and inserting a somewhat dramatic, somber minor key episode. This would be expected in a slightly later time frame, with Schumann, Berlioz, and Liszt's progressive works starting to become mainstream. That said, it reminds me of late Schubert. The idea came from watching Khatia B. using some hand crossing, and I thought it looked very dramatic. How could I use it in my piece? How do I notate it? Whic hand does what? is it difficult? Turns out it is sort of a cheap Jedi mind-trick, and not too difficult. I assign the right hand the ostinato PPP pulse accompaniment, and the left has a bass melody/motifs and the hand crossing high ornaments. The thematic neighboring tone motif and the ostinato tie it in with the main body, and I worked EXTREMELY HARD on the transitions!! turns out everything had to be EXACT--CHORDS, RHYTHM, AND LEADING TONES. I spent a LOT OF TIME on getting a correct performance. The messy score is a product of using a second channel for the bass cleff staff, in order to properly assign two dynamic markings (It works, found the hack online). I absolutely needed a pianissimo right hand for the minor key B section. As such, the intent is to have the listener lean in... I work at a major university, and am starting to mull having an actual masters level piano student workshop the two nocturnes with me for playability, issues, notation. We will see. I figure I can't afford a $200k music education, but I can swing 4 or 5 hours of musician hourly time.... it would be very useful. Print Music really had a hard time with the last ritardando, and I struggled to get clarity and correct tempo, so this is a compromise. A real pianist would have no problem--- for example. [CORRECTED THIS IN VERSION A1--CLOSER TO MY INTENT] The deck is cleared to the Piano Quartet Allegro. Following that, I would like to do an Arabesque or Fanstasy for piano, and extend my education some more... Anyhow, I like the piece. I learned a ton. Please feel free to comment.

There is one major problem with the piece: it is unnecessarily fully orchestrated throughout. This is what me and my brother call 'teenager orchestration.' (I'm not assuming your age by the way, I just think it's a fun nickname for this kind of orchestration error I see so much.) There's no point in using so many instruments at once, especially when your wind and brass players would be completely exhausted from several measures of blowing hard and moving their fingers so fast, assuming they're super human and would be able to play it anyway. (The problem is not the dynamics or tempo, but just the duration each instrument plays). I understand it's supposed to be bombastic and crazy, which it is, but the orchestration is much too unreasonable. Plus, by thinning out the orchestration, you're forced to come up with more varied and interesting orchestration. For example, near the beginning starting at bar 14, I feel the winds are redundant as they're drowned out by the trumpets and don't add anything to the texture, I also think the horns could be reduced or removed for this section, the strings fulfill their role nicely and the horns might want a break. And later at around the 1:35 mark, I think it would work better if the melody was restricted to the horns instead of all that brass and winds. And possibly adding some more counterpoint and fun percussion would fit the piece well and greatly benefit it. Keep in mind, the piece really wouldn't lose much volume by making these kinds of changes, and in favor of making the orchestration both more varied and therefore more interesting to listen to, and also playable, I think it should be obvious why scrapping the constant tutti and updating the orchestration would greatly improve this piece. Of course, the specific orchestration ideas I gave are just my own thoughts and I'm not saying you have to take my suggested orchestration, I encourage you to come up with whatever fits your vision, but whatever it is, be sure it is both varied and playable, and stray away from teenager orchestration. I also suggest optimising the score, for example instead of writing out all 6 horns on different staves, write 3 staves, 2 horns each. I also see no reason to split the strings into divisi for the whole piece. This just makes the score look cleaner and easier to read. Have a good day and happy composing!

I agree with this general impression. The work starts out so powerful that it's hard to top it throughout its length. And it's true that massive dubbing doesn't lead to a concrete result. I have always studied that dubbing lines has to be for a justified reason. On the other hand I think the material is very good and particularly the handling of the brass is spectacular.

Thank you very much. This was really valuable feedback. Much appreciated. I was actually inspired by the Orchestration from the Krull score by james horner. He uses a really large orchestration but of course much better than i do. I have much more to learn. @ComposaBoi

I've purposely held off from commenting on this one and any other old pieces in my little online "archive" just for the sake of not wanting to keep bumping this thread. But just know, I read (and sometimes re-read) what you all have said and am forever grateful that this music of mine somehow speaks to you in whatever way. Thanks guys, ya'll are the best

Amazing! Please notate this, I wanna watch it unfold (and maybe send it to a competition because it has the quality and the edge).

I love this, devil's in the details they say, keep it up!

This piece has an undulating quality, like the waves on the ocean. I love the shimmering effect in the strings at 3.45. Is this a tremolo or trill? I've heard it a lot in movies, most recently in John Williams score for "The Fabelmans". For me the woodwind instruments each seemed to represent a different sea creature. The articulations seemed to mimic the way fish move through the water. Excellent work!

Very nice. It does reminds me La Mer by Debussy. Similarity without being the same. You really understood the essence of musical impressionism. Cheers,

Hey Vince @Thatguy v2.0, I'm digging the old works of you this time haha! Dang Vince you can write beautiful orchestral piece! The orchestral colour here is so varied and effective. Those high pitching violins and woodwinds to represent the danger are hidden under the (appearing) serene surface depicted by the low strings and brass, with numerous interesting orchestration here. Usually I feel bored when no apparent theme appears-- but this one is totally a jewel. Like what Peter said, it's real hard to write music without melody, but your harmony, texture and orchestration help so much to push the music like the waves of the ocean. Those tone and chord clash, for example in 1:58 when there's blurring of major and minor chords, don't appear very contradicting to me, but rather correctly depicting both the peacefulness and danger of the ocean AT THE SAME TIME. The music is just powerful and wow. I don't know why, the music reminds me of the music in Kurosawa's Ran, but there the music is to depict the cruelty of war, while here it's much calmer and natural. Thx for sharing and hopefully you will share more of your old works, or disappeared works to us! Henry

10-8-24: UPLOADED VSL rendering of PQ mvmt II with new SYNCHRON SOLO VIOLIN AND CELLO, Yamaha CFX. Sound great. Needs a few custom tweaks for playback, but really pleased. Almost ready for workshop. 9-18-23 : UPLOADED Vienna Symphonic Library SYNCHRON-ized SPECIAL EDITION V.1 LIBRARY EDIT. Much better than Garritan VST. Steinway D-274 "lite" very clear, and strings are exceptional with Cross-Fade feature and varied attacks based on velocity/dynamic markings. Very nice. Viola is particularly impressive, especially compared to Garritan. This is the chamber/close mic. setup. I've been mulling over a new project, but am too busy to do much with it. It occurs to me that time spent on shaping thematic material is well worth it. Major limitations with my compositions has to do with themes/lack of variety. So, I thought I'd throw this out there now. It is more adventurous with progression than my first efforts, while still solidly early romantic in style. In fact, I had to laugh it sounds so much like Mendelssohn, my favorite composer. What can I expect after hundreds of hours of listening? Clearly a hymn like quality. I'm excited about the prospects of adding a string trio and developing it further.... Anyhow, this is the main theme for a likely ABA andante for Piano Quartet. It is not intended as a demonstration of pianistic virtuosity, but just a laying down of progression and thematic elements. The simplicity, as all theme and variations composers know, allows for gradual heightening of tension and drama in subsequent iterations. BTW, the grand piano on Garritan sounds darned good to me. Messing around with pedal effect...