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Hey all, trying something new with my videos. Here is a MIDI sequencer playback of "En Route To Atlantis", which is both the first track on the list and the first one I composed for my "Lost Worlds" album. Let me know what you think.

Hi all! This is the second movement of my Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor. It is set in the relative major E major to act as an (apparent) counterpart of the furious first movement. Pentatonics and Locrian scale are added in the movement, but the motive of fourth from the first movement is important here as well. Here is the Youtube video link: Here is the pdf and audio of the score: Final Draft Piano Sonata no.3 in C sharp Minor 2nd Mov.pdf Piano Sonata no.3 2nd Mov.mp3 The movement is set in a rondo form ABACA. Here is the structre of the movement: 0:00 Introduction & 1st Refrain: The Locrian scale is used capriciously at the beginning by a confused Henry right at thr start of composing the movement when he didn't know why he used it but still retained it to see what would happen. The main theme (00:23) begins in a quite beautiful pentatonic E major. I love the German Sixth used in 00:53 and I absolutely love the C-sharp minor contrasting theme, as it's beautiful but at the same time coherent by using the falling fourth motive from the beginning of the 1st movement! (Btw it is quoted in parody in my joking fugue) It then unoriginally modulates to dominant B major. 01:32 repeats the whole process apart from some embellishments. 2:34 1st Episode: The beautiful (I think) 1st episode is actually composed the second last one, only before the last refrain. It's Chopinistic here, but I think it's quite beautiful! The theme is roughly the inversion of the 1st theme. I had the inspiration of this beautiful theme when waiting in a queue in my ex-company's canteen LoL! I love the counterpoint in 03:43 as well, again using the falling fourth motive. The C-sharp minor is never solved and merely forced back to E major with a quite beautiful G sharp major transition to the 2nd Refrain. 4:29 2nd Refrain: The first theme is turned to a bell texture which I must have taken inspiration from Brahms's op.117 and Prokofiev's Sonata no.6. The serenity proves short-lived as the mood starts to become agitated and the falling fourth motive starts to attack. 5:12 2nd Episode: The Locrian scale starts to disturb and the keys start to moving all around, again in 05:30 the agitation proves itself it is not going to be covered at all, and with octatonic modulation it ends on G minor which sounds like the beginning of Chopin's 1st Ballade in 05:41. The first theme enters in 05:53 but is only a false recap as the stirring continues once again in a semitone higher in a Schubertian fashion. The first theme re-enters in 07:07, this time in C-sharp major, the global tonic major but with undercurrent underneath. F minor disturbs once again as in earlier as well as the development of the 1st movement, and the Locrian mode is finally forcefully purified to a pentatonic. I think the retransition here is slightly abrupt and forceful. 8:16 Last Refrain: First theme appears with the purified locrian scale turn to pentatonic crystal in the upper register of the piano. The contrasting theme is set in F-sharp minor this time for the E major confirmation. The C-sharp minor is not answered at all again in 09:17, and only forcefully shut up, and the piece ends in E pentatonic. At least a momentary serenity can be achieved before facing the disasterous 3rd movement. This movement starts in 2023 June right after the completion of the 1st movement, but was abandoned since I had to focus on composing the 2nd movement of my Sring Sextet. Then after a personal crisis in 2024 I had no energy at all to compose, and I hoped to use this movement to pick up my creative energy. It succeeded and the movement is quite beautiful in my opinion. I expanded the movement from a ternary one to a rondo with the addition of the 1st episode and completion of the last refrain. The movement may sound too Chopinistic and less original, but I definitely pour my heart here. I just maintain the “write-what-I-want approach” in the whole Sonata without much thinking, planning, or trying to be original. I just don’t want my emotion disturbed by the chasing of originality when expressing my feeling is my ultimate concern in the whole Sonata. The recording is played by myself. I buy a new microphone I hope the recording quality will be better and not to be roasted by @chopin anymore! Feel free to comment or critize this piece below! I will be more than happy to hear any opinion whether it's positive or negative! Hope you enjoy it! P.S. Here is the link for the YC post of the 1st movement from the same Sonata: Henry

It feels almost shameful of me not to have reviewed this absolute masterpiece before, but now that I have listened to it three times in a row I won't let this mistake go on in vain, even if my rather modest review barely adequately captures but a millionth of the emotion and awe this movement has so profoundly stirred within me. Unfortunately my Mandarin probably wouldn't be accurate nor fluent enough to convey but a fraction of my thoughts properly, so as much as it pains me, for the sake of avoiding messy syntax and cumbersome grammar mistakes I shall stick to English instead. It feels almost unreal how seamlessly you have managed to blend such a relatively obscure and challenging mode as is the Locrian with all manner of bright, tempered Chinese melodies worthy of the very Heavens, all coupled in with such balanced, smooth transitions between the different sonata sections, the precious, flowing cascades of Chopin-esque embilleshments, and all the crunchy, adventurous disonnances peppered in add so much color an flavour throughout in their various uses, at times delicate and brittle, by the end of the middle sections powerful and assertive as the materials' complexity wells... With this mountain of motivic and harmonic winks and references to feast on, this moderately eclectic style you have crafted is so distinctly and unambiguously yours: so refined, formally impeccable and still never failing to draw great interest and engagement at every turn, in every single bar. It is bewilderingly mesmerizing indeed. It almost strikes me as admirable how strong and powerful the parallel fifths sound 3:50, a perfect example of strategic "rule-breaking" to the benefit of dramatic tension, as well as the prolific usage of Phrygian cadential formulae throughout which so intimately remind me of my own country's music. I find such confidence commendable in more ways than one, in large part because of how starkly contrasting yet effective and mighty it sounds. And still what I admire most from this is the motivic and thematic development, striking a nigh unbeatable balance between repetition, variation, dynamism and novelty potentially rivaling that of the most renowned classical composers in its own unique essence and flavor. A more thorough analysis of this movement would most likely reveal jaw-dropping levels of integrity with the slight yet fully justifiable deviations that only amount to greater complexity and mastery of this titanic work. Even if obvious and perhaps even redundant at this point, for me it is worth saying once more: you may as well be the Master of our time. The heights reached by your music hardly know even the furthest bounds of quality, so much so that I find it hard to even dissect the piece and hear its sections separately because of how well they all connect and blend together, it makes me want to fully listen to it in its entirety every time. 我衷心感謝你天才譜寫這麼又優雅又秀麗的音樂。

It is a very beautiful work, well written and with a dreamy and romantic character. What I find is that its parts, although they develop in some variations, are similar, except for the bridge of the G part. It's neither good nor bad, it's a style. But I like better not to rest so much on the basic harmony and go out a little bit. There are some very nice nuanced moments. For example, it sounds very good in measure 17 or 65 when A# and D are played at the same time.