Henry Ng Tsz Kiu

So maybe you believe Chrsitianity much like Kierkegaard's way. Can you tell more how your religion relates to your program and the acoustical aspect of the music? I am really curious on that.

Oh so how is your program related to Hegel's writing? I am quite interested in it to be honest.

Oh I would be very happy to see your music reach its final Hegelian Geist state! Keep going!!!!!!!!!!

It's great you have a great confidence in your own works. For me personally I like your earlier music than recent music written from the program, as for me the earlier music sound more beautiful and have more varities than the recent ones when the timbre of those program music are a bit piercing to me. But that's personal and I'm sure you won't mind my very personal opinion, given how much you like your own music. Henry

Well I just clicked into the post to listen it, unawaring the volume and my ears really got hurt by it for real!! Those shivering sound is annoying and damaging my ears to be honest! I really don't know what your theory is to be honest, but I know my ears are hurting!! 🤪

Hey Peter, thx for your quick review! I don't know how on earth do I get the idea from, maybe from playing the naughty @Thatguy v2.0's preludes haha 🤪! But I really love that passage too! This is wonderful and 10 times better than mine lol! I will if you commision me to write one and play me $99999999999999999999999999999! But I have to know how to orchestrate first of course! Yup, stupid me! I removed it immediately and thought no one would notice it, but thx to you everyone knows!!!! Waiting for your book-length review! Henry

Hi @ferrum.wav! Like Peter said I enjoy your orchestration very much by enriching the color without getting too heavy like many of the film composers do. Your music here maintains a sense of cute and beautiful naviety and freshness which I enjoy very much! Your orchestration is what I will have to learn from. I love your orchestral interludes after each stanza, and I love that imitation between the voice and clarinet in 2:01 in b.53, very clever! The modulation into E major is so well prepared and so well made, yet so refreshing and funny and doesn't sound you take a lot of effort into making it despite you must take a lot effort in it! I should be the one feel honored that you use my theme in a much more colorful way than I did. When my Image theme gets in at b.89 I just instantly laugh out because it's so colorful, and the horn color is so cute, and as a secondary theme it sounds like an old white rabbit assisting Alice in the wonderland! The run to Eb major is so so cute!! And one things I notice at the end: you use your motive so well and probably too well that I only notice how coherent and organized this piece is, probably because I was more attracted to the wonderful colorful at first and ignore the structual tightness in the beginning. This is so fascinating! Congrats on composing this and thx for sharing it to us! Henry

Hello @Rômulo Mello! I've listened to the first movement of the piece. The opening reminds me very much of Brahms' chamber music, especially his Piano Quintet and Quartets, given the thick texture, hemiolas and imitations of the instruments. A very nice transition to the 2nd subject and I particularly love how you let the always-neglected viola sing in b.70! I always love viola's particularly timbre in its high register, more beautiful than violin in the same register, but not as tight as cello! The development beginning is excatly what Brahms would do by dissecting the motives to different instruments, and the transition to b.122 reminds me exactly the development section of Brahms' Piano Quintet. The tension of the retransition from b.137 is greatly achieved, reminds me very much of the retransition of the 1st mov of Brahms' 3rd Piano Quartet. I like you arrange for cello to play the 2nd subject theme since it will be more fitting than the viola in exposition. Personally I would hope for a 2nd development section in the coda as in Brahms' work, by creating another climax before ending it! Yeah given how experienced you are in composing it would also marvellous too if you could offer some of your listener's opinion to other members' works as well! Thx for sharing! Henry

Hello @Valerio DallaRagione! Welcome to the forum! I have listened to the opening movement and I like how you set up the serene mood at the beginning with flute and clarinet melody. I really like the mood you create in the movement. Like you said the piano part in the first movement is not that virtuosic for a Piano Concerto first movement, but I think it quite fits for a slow movement when you really bring the signing ability of piano out. I quite like 5:55 when you have the gradual crescendo to a climax by the orchestra then followed by the piano solo. I would personally want a more virtuosic piano writing though as to bring out the drama and tension for a first movement of a Piano Concerto though. Your writing is beautiful, but for me personally to maintain most of the 11 minutes in serenity without more drama would make the music less attractive to listen to! The climax in this movement is mainly pushed by dynamic when you reach fortissimo and full orchestra, but I can you can also create climax by more exciting rhythms with shorter note values! Tremolos in strings would be great! The ending for me is a bit abrupt and you may also end it with more preparation! Your harmonic writing is nevertheless beautiful and I love your modulation very much! Thx for joining the forum and sharing your own music. Maybe take some time to look into other members' works and possibly review them as well! Henry

Hello! As a Chinese myself I understand Mandarin, so I enjoy this song very much since I know what this song is saying. But since most of the members here don't know Chinese, maybe you should include the English translation of the lyrics and the background of your song so our fellow members can grasp your song's meaning! Thx for sharing. Henry

Hello @Cafebabe, This piece reminds me very much of Scarlatti given its light touch, texture and also how you modulate to distnat key A minor in b.81 from F sharp major! The harmony in the piece is very fitting to the style and I love your German sixth usage. Thx for sharing this light hearted piece! Henry

For me this one is interesting as they are in major thirds like an organ. For you, what is the heart of music? I'm curious on your thoughts. Henry

This is the third and final movement of my Piano Sonata no.3 in C-sharp minor. It’s probably the most perplexing movement of music I have ever composed. For me it’s a struggle between Beethovenian heaviness (Es muss sein!) v.s. Unbearable lightness of blues (trying to imitate the style). Even though the first and second movement of the same Sonata has been commented as “random” before, I believe this one the most random of all haha. I once challenged myself whether to keep the eclecticism of the movement or not, but decided to leave it unchanged since all the styles were what I was thinking of and feeling at the moment. Here are the previous movements posted on YC before: 1st mov: 2nd mov: Piano Sonata no.3 in C-sharp minor 3rd mov.pdf The structure of the movement is a bit weird for me. It’s in Sonata form but the exposition and recapitulation never leave tonic key C-sharp minor at all, as the contrast of the 1st and 2nd subject is not achieved by key, but by style. In fact I only realized I was going for a Sonata form only when I almost finished the development section. Here is the structure of the movement: 0:00 Exposition, 1st Subject, 1st Theme: The falling fourth motive attacks immediately at the start of the movement in a passionate fashion, reminding himself of the pain he suffered after the more serene 2nd mov. It cools down in 0:31 and even keeps denying (or rather me denying my own sadness) by German sixth harmonic progressions, instead of normal dominant-tonic progression. 0:59 Exposition, 1st Subject, 2nd Theme: A deliberately repressed theme consisting of the inversion of a fourth, i.e. fifth, later gets more agitated with the Chopin Revolutionary Etude like L.H. accompaniment. It keeps on boiling until reaching the transition. I got crazy there thus I wanna try escaping… 2:28 Exposition, 2nd Subject: This section is made of 12 bar blues elements, thx to Arjuna’s @expert21 suggestion, although I already originally wanted some nihilistic jazz elements to contrast with the heavier 1st Subject. The pattern is repeated thrice, first just the “accompaniment”, then with the falling fourth motive theme added, and lastly an “electric-guitar-like” melody thx to of course my buddy Vince @Thatguy v2.0, as I won’t ever try to write something in jazz without his piano preludes. The locrian melody of course is a quotation from the 2nd mov opening! 3:46 Development, 1st Part: The opening falling fourth motive attacks again and modulates to keys I didn’t where it would go when composing lol, and finally reaches C# Locrian which confuses even me! It ends with a bridge of the locrian in L.H. quoting a little of the blues theme to the next part. 4:48 Development, 2nd Part: This part first develops the 2nd theme of 1st subject, then ends in confusion again. Suddenly a new theme emerges in the distant E-flat major and repeats again in relative major E major in a more passionate manner, until it boils down to a marvellously passionate retransition in 6:39 which I believe is the most beautiful section of the entire movement. It’s by composing this passage that I knew my creative power had finally come back. The passage ends in a desolation which leads back to the recap. 7:17 Recapitulation, 1st Subject, 1st part: A weird section. I finally could not refuse to admit my sadness by having a normal dominant-tonic progression, but still tried to escape by quoting the reminiscence of the blues themes like in a film montage jump cut in a Godard style (or, Stravinskian juxtaposition). 8:40 Recapitulation, 1st Subject, 2nd part: The 2nd theme of the expo 1st subject reappears in the L.H., and then a beautiful variation which I was probably laughing at myself for my weakness. The music goes on and gets more agitated until going to the 2nd subject. 9:32 Recapitulation, 2nd Subject: The previous “light-hearted” blues theme is transformed to an enraged Rachmanioffian roar. It subsequently cools down and tries to go for hope in the coda. 10:18 Coda, 1st Part: I tried to find peace by quoting the beautiful theme in the development plus 2nd mov’s 1st theme in counterpoint, repeat twice, 1st time in major and 2nd time pentatonic. The Locrian theme in the exposition is then transformed to a pentatonic plus the blue note of flattened sixth, signifying my attempt to find peace… 11:16 Coda, 2nd Part: However it’s futile. I realized that my sadness could not be “transcended”, at least not here, and finally realized my pain. The heavy falling fourth motive keeps attacking, and finally I was able to make a simple dominant-tonic chord progression to admit my pain, when the question is laid unanswered from the beginning of the entire sonata. The movement and the whole Sonata ended in utter desolation, as I had no energy anymore to fight as in the 1st mov and 2rd mov, nor create an imaginary utopia for myself as in 2nd mov and 3rd mov… The movement was primarily composed from Dec 2024 to Jan 2025, under a state of depression and confusion, due to what I had suffered in my full time job. I struggled a lot whether I should have a happy or sad ending for the whole sonata, but my mind gave me the answer. I could not pretend to be happy or hopeful at that time by forcing a meaningless Picardy-3rd at the end as in many of the Romantic Sonatas or pieces. I had to admit my sadness then. Paradoxically by doing that, I left all the negatives here so I had the 200% positiveness for my Sextet, which is my best piece and probably the most optimistic piece I ever composed. I tried my best at playing the movement already despite some slips haha. Hope you enjoy the movement and even go back to the 1st movement to listen to the whole Sonata! Thank you for listening,and possibly reading through this and commenting!!!!! Btw, here's Vince Preludes which inspire me: Prelude no.7: Prelude no.9: Prelude no.3: Henry

Hi @Layne! This is an impressively exciting track. I really love the intense opening and the sliding figure in 0:29, reminds me very much the dangerous scene and music in the famous shower scene of Psycho. The 1:00 theme reminds me of both the finale of Tchiakovsky's Fourth Symphony and Prokofiev's 6th Piano Sonata. You also provide contrast in 1:40 with the bassoons and flute as well as other quieter instruments. What I love most is that you don't go for a clichetic gradual crescendo till the end as many boring and uncreative trailer music does, as the music ends quietly with confusion and mysteries at the end! Thx for sharing, I like this! Henry

Hello @Marc Deflin! I really enjoy this classical style movement. I love the imitation between instruments in the piece, particularly when you give the theme to viola, the poorly neglected child in a quartet in b.17! In theme C in b.61 you give the theme to cello which is a great variation to me! Also your usage of pizzicato is good, I love it. Maybe one thing is the melody of the piece, as both themes A and B is more motivic and less melodic, but this is personal. Thx for sharing! Henry