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Hello, I find amazing the level of symbolism showed in this piece, its concept is really scriabinesque. Not only it is thoughtful and precisely calculated, but it sounds quite nice. I think the decision to represent the flowing motif with perfect fifths is another extremely appropriate decision, given the external inspiration. It fits the primitive nature of the work I am curious about how you write your harmonies. Apart from quartal/quintal harmony there have to be other techniques. Thanks for sharing your music and congratulations for getting into the collaborative project

Thanks for listening! As for how I write my harmonies, it's not as sophisticated as I wish it was. I just go by if it sounds good. 🙂

Hi, Thanks for your comment! It's not counterpoint, it's just four-part writing. Counterpoint has more serious rules. Parallel 6th is not considered as a voicing error in four-part writing. My goal was to avoid parallel 5th and parallel 8th in this case. I think counterpoint is not exactly the same as four-part writing. As far as I know, four-part writing includes the following rules: avoid parallel 5th and octave yes, do not use tritone, or try to avoid, it's true in root position double the root in the first inversion double either the root or the fifth in the second inversion double the fifth (which is the bass) avoid large leaps between the notes if a step is bigger than 4th, the next step should be in the opposite direction But maybe I'm wrong... So four-part counterpoint has far stronger rules than four-part harmonization.

Hello Elias! Congratulations on making it into the Estampas de España selections! I like the pensive mood you created in this piece. It feels both modern and timeless somehow, like it could fit in a variety of settings, but the open voicings definitely evoke for me the way the paintings show the essential elements without excessive detail. I also hear the twisting of the animal figures in the changing harmony. I hope you keep up the good work. It's a pleasure to hear this musical vignette in full. 🙂 ~ Gwen

Hi @olivercomposer! Is this an exercise from a specific book/chapter? I am just reading through Kent Kennan's Counterpoint book myself and some things stick out to me. First off, the top two voices in the right hand stay in parallel 6ths throughout the first 3 and a half measures. Even though the interval of a 6th isn't a dissonant interval, repeating any interval like this too much still interferes with the independence of voices. In measure 4 beat 3 your alto voice skips to the leading tone from an F which is a tritone, and the leading tone is not resolved up to C, the way it would be expected. Your motion from a V to a IV in this instance is also weak, being a retrogression and for this reason is avoided because it is difficult to write without parallel 5ths or octaves. Also, at the end you have a leading tone that skips down to the 5th of the tonic chord. Even though your soprano voice moves to the root at that point, in this kind of part writing it is important to make sure that each voice, on it's own, independently of the others follows proper voice-leading rules, and the leading tone is a strong tendency tone that wants to resolve up to the tonic root note in this style of music. This is just from a short glance at this exercise, so I might have missed something myself. Thanks for sharing!

Hello @JorgeDavid, I find this piece really sorrowful and melancholic and I wouldn’t have been able to tell that you are not used to write slow pieces in minor if you hadn’t mentioned it. I find main theme specially beautiful in its simplicity, with a thin texture, driving harmony and a powerful message of desperation. I find it a perfect theme (and I emphasise the word perfect) theme to write a theme and variations piece. It has lots of opportunities to be transformed in so many different ways. I can think of: a quasi baroque flowing melody in a single line (something like this) form which could emerge other different lines, a climactic chordal bell-like passage, a complete nocrturne-like transformation to major, an even darker somber version in the deep register with minor chromatic mediants, a driving syncopated dramatic march, a triumphant transformation. And possibly, with such a versatile theme you can do practically everything. Maybe if you agree for your music to be taken to create a variations piece and @chopin wants, a competition similar to the Brahms lullaby one could be done by youngcomposers I also like the harmonic language that you employed here, chromatic, but still clearly tonal, typical from the romantic period. You could try experimenting with augmented and half diminished chords to create even more expression (sorry if you have done this and I haven’t seen it)