TheGreatEscaper

Hey everyone 🙂 I've been slowly plugging away at a cycle of 24 preludes. I got pretty slow with this (ending up only writing like one prelude per year for the past couple of years) so hopefully I'll pick up the pace now that I'm pretty close to the end (8 left to go!) Bb Minor is maybe my favourite key signature, so it was pretty hard to decide what this prelude would be like. The theme is 'Masquerade', and I think the personality of the piece is quite hard to pin down, a mix of sarcasm and earnestness. Hope you enjoy! 🙂 this is my first piece I'm posting on this forum, but obviously feel free to check out anything else on my channel + especially the first fifteen preludes in the cycle so far, haha

p.s. i hope you don't mind, I attached a one-shot sightread of this piece. obviously a lot of mistakes as completely unpracticed, but I like playing through scores I like as it builds my familiarity + understanding of the piece. I think I feel less strongly about most of my above pieces of constructive feedback having played through the piece, other than still thinking that page 2 is unnecessarily floral for what is kind of a simple theme and the fugue does feel a little underdeveloped. Warning in advance that there are lots of mistakes but I think there are also lots of parts which alright and you might appreciate hearing someone else play through your music 🙂 you can hear me get a lot more confident at the recap -> coda I think.

Oh this is awesome 🙂 very full of life and joy, lots of humour in the modulation that never gets too excessive but remains very deft and fun throughout. Everything phrase feels very deliberate and rewarding! It is hard to pick any favourite moments given how well considered the whole construction feels. Entrance of the main theme reminds me a little of I think Stephen Heller's piano sonata no.3 in C major, 1st mvt. 🙂 edit: forgot to mention, final 2 bars are an absolute delight edit2: it's piano sonata no.3 not 4, i misremembered

To be clear: this is a really awesome and impressive work. I have included a bunch of constructive notes in this since you seem keen for some 🙂 listening/reading notes: Introductory page is extremely beautiful. Love the improvisatory nature, spacious without feeling empty [Have to say I am not a huge fan of the F major melody on page 2, it feels a little straightforward to me] Modulation in bar 26 is very nifty 🙂 Love the bass motif in the main F minor subject, very characteristic and memorable Reappearance of the intro subject at 67 is great, everything up to the build and surprise Bb chord (fun trick) at 94 is awesome [95-108 is a little meandering for my taste] Modulations through 117-143 are very compelling and exciting 160-163: *chef's kiss* reminds me of some Rach climax harmonies here. Arpeggios at 165-180 are a little extravagant for my taste Fugue at 181-196 has a nice idea, you have a great subject, I just wish it had a little more time to breathe (4 voices enter on the subject without any development time between their entries). in this area bars 190-195 feel the most effective to me because they feel the most balanced; the voices here have rhythmic variety to distinguish themselves clearly and there's a little more negative space to guide the ear. I feel like the classic fugal structure of introduce voices 1 and 2 (maybe 3 if you're feeling brave), and then have some development time before introducing more voices, would work well here. It feels a little more like a gesture towards a fugue than a fugue (maybe it's a fughetta). Recap is great 🙂 i do like this theme a lot. The crunchy move in bar 229 is great 263-290 feels like it could be trimmed. We've just heard this theme in the recap a few moments ago anyway, and the straightforward dotted rhythm is not the most exciting thing to zone in on for several more bars. It feels the movement on top of the tremolo is a bit slow. But the exit out into 291 is very beautiful. I love the intro, so obviously I love the outro too 🙂 And to be fair, the F major theme from the start pays off pretty well in bars 317-318, great way to finish. (Maybe just something a bit briefer / less extravagant than page 2 would suit me.) I really like this piece! I think there is possibly a 12-13 minute version that I *love*, but it is not my place to play editor haha

harmonies in bar 3 (loove the surprise Csharp) and 34 (yay raised sixth!!!) are my faves 🙂 whole thing has a wonderful melancholy vibe. the tresillo rhythm of the middle section is a fun vibe to bring into it