Henry Ng Tsz Kiu

Hello @K. A. Frayre! Welcome to the forum! I haven't listened to your music yet, but I have seen that you put each page of the score as JPG here, and the resolution is very clear. Would you instead upload the pdf file of the score so that viewers can look into the details in your music more easily? Also, it saves up space for your post haha. Thx for joining our forum! Henry

Is that the secret manual for understanding this Scherzo 🤪

Yo Peter! Sorry I have been late to the party, due to laziness lol. Although I have listened to your excerpts tons of times, this is the first time I listen to a movement in full and with score. I must say, it sounds even more fascinating with a score at hand! I thoroughly enjoy this even though I have zero exposure to FF world, thx to my strict mum (time to blame your mum for a miserable childhood when you fail yourself in your real life lol!) I cannot and will not distinguish those 8 themes haha, just like Wanger's Leitmotifs which I can never remember their originals when they reappear at all lol. My most familiar theme is probably the Terra's theme because it usually starts a variation in imitation. I think this one really fits for a Scherzo. It sounds like an adventure and joyous wanderings but there is dark power underneath though not very apparent at the moment I guess. Btw, what are the short forms for the code of each of the 8 themes in the rehersal markings? The whole orchestration for me is fascinating and I will for sure steal something from here to my orchestration variations on your themes lol. lemme just take note of some spots I like: Beginning: I love all those imitations for the Terra Theme, it sounds like each team member is following the team's footstep into a journey to fxxk off the monster or final big boss, and the stretto treatment of the imitation gives excitement right at the beginning. The marching rhythm underneath with Timpani, Tuba, Cello and Double Bass is a pattern I should steal, though I may use add a bass drum to the snare drum as well. I also love both the Dorian C# and Phyrgian F natural in your themes as it really adds the folkore colour in the work. b.21 R Var.3: Love the very low register oboe, sounds dark to me. Since I'm also using harps in writing your variation, will you also follow the performance practice to the pedals the harp is using at the moment? You know what, I always get headached when I need to check whether the pedal notes of the harp is right. b.42 ES: Love the wind sextet setting, and then the string quartet plus horn setting. Sad the weird Musecore string sound sample which ruins the melody by always sliding ludicrously! b.72 FP Var.2: Love you start introducing the polyrhythm in flute in b.81, which will be used later for climax. Also, I really love the parallel fifth bass in b.89 as it sounds so prefectly disturbing! b.97 EA: I absolutely love the buildup here with both the tempo acceleration, tremolo, shorter and closer notes and more dissonances. I like the cilmax in b.117 esp. with the electric bass. Though, will it be great to add some brass here as well? It sounds a bit thin for a fff dynamic here for me personally. b.117 Scherzo beginning: I love the beginning. Though maybe for me I would also add a harp and a piano playing the low E here for that particular timbre, if there's not cost adding them haha. The new theme sound so peaceful, but the BD theme sounds greatly weird haha. I love the tremolo beneath and also your modulation to other keys here in b.170, since the music more or less stays in the tonal centre E for couple of minutes and it's the right time to add new things into it. And that G-Bb reinterpreted as G-A# to F#-B in flute, wow. b.180 L Var.3: Nice counterpoint between winds and horn themes even I forget where do the themes come from at all, and nice clash in b.183. b.196 FA: I really love the modulations here towards the hexatonic keys, they don't sound cliche as in many film music. The harmonic colour here is fascinating! Though, I may add a cresc. to ffffffff before the rests in b.207 and 211. b.218 AS Var.1: Nice relaxation! Nice imitation throughout as well. The polyrhythm from b.81 reappears as well. And that goddamn modulation to Db major in b.258!! It sounds so magical and refreshed after all those sharp key areas! But, it's so short!!!! And ruined immediately by the Kafka theme. Love the outburst of hextaonic G# minor and F minor at the end. It sounds unfinished which it should be for there are movements to follow. I remember Peter has an entire excel spreadsheet for all the themes he uses in each of the variation LoL!!!!!!!!!!!! Honestly I didn't remember any details in it due to my lazy nature lol. Very enjoyable! Looking forward to your other movements!! Henry

Hi @ferrum.wav! Nice reorchestration for the wip1, nice build up at the beginning. Nice cor anglais/oboe(?) at the 0:40 passage, and also the underlying clarinet! Like how you keep the opening string accompaniment underneath to provide motions to the variation too, also the drum is slowly reintroduced at the end. You don't waste any of those interesting elements even with just a small time span. Nice job! Henry

Hi @therealAJGS! Nice vibe! I feel like the music is played when the main character is walking through some gloomy corners or some remains and relics of the world. Thx for sharing! Henry

Hi @Churchcantor! This one doesn't sound like a Waltz for me without the waltz rhythm haha. The chords are completely playable with my big hands haha. Some chords with more than an octave like in b.16 can be difficult for piano players with smaller hands though. For me persoally this waltz is a bit too long overall, maybe I will cut those returns of the A sections to just a few phrases instead of quoting the whole passage. Thx for sharing! Henry

Hey Peter, I always told you I have no interest in microtones at this stage of my life, but I really find this one more accessible with less apparent usage of microtones, either putting it in the accompaniment or just a bit of taste of it in the melodic part after the tonic key is established. The microtone creates the mood of repose well-living between conscious and unconscious, thus tone to microtone! Henry

Yeah me too, I only know that the old horn notation in bass clef and the actual pitch perfect fourth higher instead of treble clef and perfect fifth lower nowadays is obsolete. And, Chinese always have little to no contact to the rest of the world lol.

Yeah I think writing with motives is probably the easiest way for me to write! You can just copy and paste and also have coherence haha! Yeah this one is fast, since I consider this Sonata an easy piece to work on! I seldom make sketches too!

haha thx! In this video the audio is generated by my bro @Thatguy v2.0, but it's playable for me haha. As long as I remember, I took 2 actually composing days for each of the first 3 movements of the Sonata, and took two weeks (around 7 days?) for the last movement. I usually work really slow on my writing, like I took 2.5 yrs for my String Sextet and 6 yrs for my Clarinet Quintet! Henry

This is the fourth and final movement of my Violin Sonata in B flat major, commissioned by and dedicated to Arjuna Clark (lately Archie) @expert21. This movement is in Variation form which is my first attempt on the form in a movement, though I already use quite some variations techniques in my old pieces. I choose the form because rather than another narrative sonata form movement, a variation movement exploring the possiblities of the ARJUNA motive is much more appropriate for me. Again, thx to @Thatguy v2.0 for making the audio. I try for some strict procedure in each of the variation, as I use Prime and Inversion form of the ARJUNA motive for the 1st half of a variation, then Retrograde, Retrograde-Inversion and Prime form of the ARJUNA motive for the 2nd half of a variation. Even though the motive itself is short and easy enough to achieve this kind of treatment, still I wanna use them for coherence. Because of this, this one is probably the hardest movement in this Sonata to write with. Here is the YT video and pdf scores of the movement: Violin Sonata in B-flat major 4th mov.pdf Here is the structure of the movement: 0:00 Thema: Allegretto Commodo. A rather simple and easy-going theme for later variations. 1:16 Variation I: Allegretto con moto: A funny variation. Introduces G-flat major for the 1st time in the movement. In the second half, each two bar phrase is the retrograde of the two bar phrase corresonding to the first half, e.g. b.26-27 correspond to b.17-18. 2:13 Variation II: Allegro con energico. A variation heavily inspired by the 2nd movement of Beethoven's Razumovsky Quartet no.1, which is also in the same key. End of the 1st part and begins 2nd part with variations begins in different keys. 3:03 Variation III: Andante Comtemplativo. A variation begins in D major and makes chordal usage of the ARJUNA motive. Briefly reintroduces the 2nd movement theme in 4:04. Ends with a dark transition to C sharp minor. 5:08 Variation IV: Adagio Doloroso. A variation begins in C sharp minor. I make use of the Beethoven op.135 theme again as in the 3rd movement, but this time in minor mode and all sorts of dissonances, since it reflects the dark mood I was having then. The use of ARJUNA motive is saturated here; I even use all four forms of the motive together in b.110. Ends in Picardy third and modulates to the next variation. 6:44 Variation V: Andantino con moto e tranquillo. A variation begins in G-flat major and modulates through D major before returning to tonic B-flat major. I quote a lot of pentatonics and quartals here to show the influence of my String Sextet. 8:10 Variation VI: Fugato e Coda: Allegro Vivace, con brio e energico. Even though it 's a cliche to end a variation in a fugato, I still use it here nonetheless. The fugue subject makes use of the prime and inversion form of ARJUNA motive, while the countersubject the retrograde and inversion of the motive. The episodes also make use of the motives too. I even quoted my Clarinet Quintet main theme in 8:47. Waltz rhythm gradually returns and polyphonic texture changed to a homophonic one, just like the ending of Beethoven's op.110 Sonata. More affirmations of the ARJUNA motive comes and ends the music in a high energetic way. I quite enjoy the ending not to lie. Thx for listening and hopefully you will leave some comments here! Henry P.S. Here are the previous movements posted on YC forum: 1st Mov: 2nd Mov: 3rd Mov:

Nice! I really wanna try to write more accessible music and I think this one is a good try! Yeah an advertisement on what I’m writing!

Yeah that’s the same Arjuna motive throughout! And there will be the final movement which I post today!

Haha thx! Yeah I try to be playful here which sounds quite Haydnesque. It's not finished! There will be a fourth and final movement and stay tuned! Henry