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A wonderful video sprang across my YouTube feed a few days ago. All the information in the video was news to me -- essentially, the claim is that we've been playing the Beethoven "Moonlight Sonata" the wrong way for two centuries, inspired by a poor nickname that really doesn't fit the piece at all! The professor's fresh interpretation of the first movement at the end of the video suddenly inspired me to try to orchestrate the piece, as I was having a lot of interesting ideas I thought I might try in order to create a really unorthodox interpretation. Before this week I had always thought Moonlight was a sort of cliched piece, but the professor brought it back to life and showed me it's famous for a reason.... The work was surprisingly quick, even though I was also trying Musescore 4 for the first time. Figured I'd give it a whirl on a short side project rather than a main composition. (Spoiler: it's actually pretty awesome. The sounds are amazing.) My overall aim was to recreate some of the tragic funeral march character that is usually lost in most modern interpretations, but also to emulate the "ghostly" quality of which Carl Czerny spoke. I've accordingly created more active, dense, even "smeary" textures instead of transparent and simple ones. Overall I want to kill the whole notion that this piece is supposed to be "relaxing"! This was a great orchestration challenge for me. Some of the creative decisions I made were born of necessity; others were just pure indulgence on my part. I actually took a lot of liberties; the piece is faithfully adapted insofar as the overall structure and proportions are preserved, but I freely modify harmonies and add new voices and contrapuntal layers where I see fit. The bass clarinet and contrabasses both need low Cs for this transcription.

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Hi, "Piano Miniature" is a composition of mine that I wrote some years ago. George N. Gianopoulos was kind enough to publish it on his Youtube channel. I hope you like it and would be thankful for any thoughts.

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Hi Everyone, here's a piano piece I composed about walking in the woods. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

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Hi, I've been workin on this fugue, trying to apply my new knowledge. It's in G major, and there's controversy. In the subject the dominant note (D) appears quite clearly in measure 3. Is it supposed to be transposed tonally, i.e. a fourth up (G) instead of a fifth (A)? I didn't. As you can see in bar 8 it is as an A. It really is an ambiguous case "by the book". Since the D appears prominently but already in the third bar. So I tried to make the answer as you can see, and as it sounded good it stayed that way. The structure is: Exposition, where the 4 voices enter and the countersubject is written in invertible counterpoint. Divertimento, sequence or episode (measure 22) that modulates to the dominant (D). Counter-exposition (measure 26), using inverted subject and countersubject. Divertimento (m. 36) using Corelli's Leapfrog with the subject motive with other schemata and Cudworth cadence (which I like to use a lot). Stretti (m. 44) and mini-exposition with pedal note. Divertimento (m.58) in the subdominant area with plagal cadence and new Cudworth to return to the tonic. Coda (m 65) with perfect authentic cadence. As always happens to me, I'm sure I've missed parallels all over the place. But hey, someday I'll get closer....

15th PIANO COMPOSITION COMPETITION FIDELIO 2022 VIA THE INTERNET 15th PIANO COMPOSITION COMPETITION FIDELIO 2023 VIA THE INTERNET (Divided into musical styles) Entering this competition is very simple, all you have to do is to record your own piano solo composition and send the audio file to one of the following email addresses: concursofidelio@gmail.com You don't need to submit the score, just the audio file. In this competition you are both a competitor and judge, choosing the winner by voting at home for the best work. All the voting results are sent to you via email so that you can check both, the votes given and received by everyone.. During the voting process the contestants also receive comments on their works. The organization has decided this year for the first time the following change in the voting system: The results of the first, second and third round and semifinal round will be decided by the participants, on the other hand the results of the final round will be decided by the participants and also by an external jury of composers. Very important: The composition submitted cannot last more than four minutes and forty seconds. Only the entrants vote to choose the winners. Prizes: 2000 euros and more divided into two categories. Entry fee: 25 euros per one composition submitted. (maximum allowed per category: 5 compositions) 15 euros each submission for two or more compositions You can participate with your name or pseudonym. You must be the author of the composition submitted. The competition is divided into four styles or categories so that you compete against works of similar style: 1. Tonal, Classical, Romantic,Jazz, Impressionist, Ragtime.Minimalist, Experimental, New Age...any style is accepted 2. Atonal, Contemporary (Some Tonal parts are allowed) No matter how far you are. This Competition is via the Internet. Pianists from more than 30 countries join this competition every year. You participate from your house. ENTRIES DEADLINE BEFORE STARTING TO VOTE: September the 29th 2023 Click on the following link to register in case you are interested. You can also listen to the past year's winning works: https://concursodecomposicionparapianofidelio.com With best wishes Antonio Ruiz Asumendi (organizer) Organized by Taller de Músicos y Artes Plásticas, Centro Integral de Música y Artes S.L de Madrid www.tallerdemusicos.com Fidelio edit. Deadline: 29 Sep 2023 Entry Fee: 25.00 Currency: Euro (EUR) Web site: https://concursodecomposicionparapianofidelio.com/

A bit of a throwback piece: I believe this was the second piece I wrote after coming out of a rather worrisome bout of composer's block, some time around February 2023. I was in somewhat of a rush to write this piece (for no other reason other than I wanted to get it done as soon as possible so I don't fall back into a creative slump), and I had gotten it done in three days. After finishing the piece on the first day, I was compelled to add more and more content until it felt right to me, and spent the third day adding finishing touches. It is my longest piece to date (so far), at around 7 and a half minutes. Compared to my earlier pieces, this one is more harmonically diverse, and contains several modulations to different keys (shocker!). This piece is written in a (sort of?) ABCDA form (although I did not envision it as such at first): I named it 'Contemplations Atop a Mountain High' as I felt the piece's meandering nature sort of felt like the remembrances of a person contemplating the nature of their existence before rejoicing in it as the dawn breaks. I was inspired a great deal by the works of Liszt (especially the Allegro pastorale from his Album d'un Voyageur) and the nocturnes of John Field; I lifted the name 'Idyll' from a piece Arnold Schoenberg wrote before his plunge into atonalism. Would appreciate some feedback on this!

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Here comes the 3rd movement. I needed to post this so I can move on with my life lol. Links to previous movements. Hope you would enjoy and comment. Btw I should hold my promise, see if I can tag you @Awsumerguy

Link to first movement: The second movement to my C minor piano sonata is a work of great trial and error. For those just simply want to listen, please do. For those tempted by spoilers, here's such: I managed to record a semi-decent playing of the 3rd movement, so that should not take too long to be released later.

so umm... music is one of my ways of procrastinating, believe it or not This sonata is written with my friends and my own struggles in mind. I won't go through the details of the piece as I believe analysis should be objective, but I would offer some of my experience and comments about this piece. fingerings and metronome marks are for guidance only, even I myself am not able to don't follow everything on the score. my recording of this movement takes 10 minutes but it's only 6+ minutes played by the computer, so seems like I took quite some time irl in playing the piece I find it very hard to interpret this movement, there is a lot of silence and "nakedness" if you get what I'm saying... but I don't do music for a living, so I'm not going to suffer from practice-till-perfect "ad lib" - add your own cadanza bars 161-163 - feel free to turn the bass into an octave if you play the Bosendorder imperial lol it seems like a problem for me is that my first movements are full of dissociated ideas (just like me as a person...) The introduction part of the movement had been set in stone for a while, but the exposition and recap of the movement was rewritten for a 3rd time, I basically discarded the first two ideas... but managed to fit the entire development section from how I wrote it the first time, so in fact you could even say I wrote the development of the sonata before the exposition, and it really shows. feel free to comment or critique, hopefully I'm receptive (you could tell I'm a rather stubborn person...) EDIT: I found out the spoiler function, so I will provide some more aspects regarding the creation of this sonata. Be warned though, spoilers ahead, even when this is just a discussion of the first movement, it will touch on aspects in later movements, not just the first one. If you prefer to listen to the whole thing before reading, you might want to do so after I have posted all the movements. 1. overall structure of the movement. I won't state bar numbers because I think the double barlines do a great job already 2. harmonic motifs Tell me more if I have missed other things in my own music (that is if you are prepared to be spoiled for this movement and the next ones..) Link to second movement:

I wrote this in 15 minutes, and you can definitely tell. I hope you like it though! I tried playing around with some interesting rhythms in this but I hope they don't detract too much from the actual piece. prelude.mp3

I've just finished a new piece today! Here's a waltz that I had written for a competition (I didn't submit in the end, the entry fee was too costly), in Ab major. At first I had planned for it to have been for solo piano (inspired very much by Chopin's waltzes), but eventually I added a solo violin part for (at least some) more timbral variety. Would appreciate some good criticism: this the first waltz I've written, and also the first in my (obviously limited) oeuvre to 'explore' the circle of fifths. Hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think! 🙂

Yet another improv, i worry im boring people with these! I'll stop doing it soon, I.promise! I've started writing down my compositions/improvs again. I have a couple of minuets I'll upload soon, I just get so distracted when I sit at the piano. I've composed, via improv, a piano sonata in C major, I was thinking of the third movement when I improvised this. It reminds me of Haydn, I want the third movement to be light hearted and playful because the second movement I composed is in c minor and I use every trick up my sleeve to pull on the heart strings. I wish I recorded myself playing it, I worry my memory of it could get corrupted because it has more complex counterpoint. The first movement is like a piano concerto and is full of flashy runs in both hands. It has a Mozartian air and I use some of his signature moves but it has enough of me in it so it's not a cringey pastiche. Well I hope not! The improv here is a 'first run' so it's full of hesitation and mistakes but it made me smile when I listened back to it so I thought I'd upload it, I've been quiet for a few days so why not. Cuckoo!

Here is a score I composed half on keyboard and half on computer. Enjoy!

Hi everyone! I am presenting the fourth movement of my Piano Sonata no.2 in A-flat major. The previous 3 movements are now all sorted in the post of the 1st movement one so if you are interested, go and check them out! This is my favourite movement of the entire sonata. First it's in C sharp minor, my favourite key. Second it really has something personal in it. The structure of it is very simple: 00:03 First Part, melody in right hand and octave accompaniment in LH 04:13 Second Part. original melody to the right with added Lamentoso in RH 07:34 Coda. Is that a dark reply to the first movement? The movement is named a "Lyrics" for me. Chinese poems are known to be lyrics, rather than long epics like those of Homer or Milton or Goethe. I'm trying to adapt the rhythm of Tang Poem, Lüshi here which contains five or seven words in each sentence with standard rhythm to recite it. It also contains many couplets. With reference to it I have a standard rhythm maintaining all over the movement and is having many couplets musically. In the first part the LH keeps having the octave accompaniment which can be boring but for me it helps create an unsettling feeling. In the second part, the original melody in the RH of the first part is transferred to the LH, while a lamentoso is added in the right hand. The coda returns to the first part version of the meldoy, but look at the ending. Is that a dark deeply or quotation to the con delore section of the first movement, b.82-98? The tragedy uncertain there is confirmed here. I myself feel like this movement is quite unrelated thematically to the rest of the sonata. But it's related in a different way. It represents the real hurdle in the subconscious finally emerges in front of you. The unsettling C# minor (Db minor) is hinted all over the first three movements: The con delore section (b.82-98) in first movement, that surprising Db minor cadence near the end of the second movement (which by the way is the answer of why there's agitation there), and the coda of the third movement tainted by Db minor. All prepares for this movement. I find this piece somewhat similar to the second movement of Schubert's D960, which is also in C sharp minor, but only after finishing this sonata. The movement for me is very dark hence very personal. I'm sure I have something dark personally and here it's expressed authentically. I literally get depressed every time after listening to this movement. How do you feel? Do you feel this movement boring or so with so slow a tempo and unchanging things? Let me know! As usual I'm going to attach the PDF and mp3 of the movement: Piano Sonata no.2 4th mov 26-04-2023.pdf Piano Sonata no.2 4th mov.mp3 (Please ignore the first three lines of p.1 as it's from 3rd movement!) And as usual I will attach the youtube video here of the scored version of the movement. There's some delay of the visual here though LoL... Please subscribe my channel! (Self advertising LoL!!!!!!!!!) Hope you all "enjoy" the movement! The fifth movement and the finale of the sonata will be a long way to go, as I don't start practicing it due to busy schedule and other accompanying stuff to do. See you soon! Henry

Edit: I changed the structure of the piece a little bit after posting this on youtube and used the fast section as a sort of coda for the piece. The new final version is attached as an audio file.

Brand new release! 11 Variations on an original theme for solo piano. Starts Classical, becomes Romantic, and ends in 7/8! Hope to lift your spirits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3coQsksLiE Thanks!

Hello everybody! This is my new piece as a result of my orchestral piece break. I said in my latest post that I was going to upload a prelude, that is still coming, but I kinda wanna try composing a vocal work, so here it is! Searching the material for this work was tough, but I stumbled upon an impromptu poem performed by a character (Scrump Toggins) while watching a roleplay session on WildRP. If I get enough material, maybe I will make a full song cycle, but who knows. Also, there's a quote from a piece that I've uploaded here somewhere in the piece, have fun finding that lol Anyways, this is my first time ever trying to compose a vocal work, so all feedbacks and opinions are appreciated. Enjoy! (P.S Y'know, if anybody wants to sing this I'll gladly provide the instrumental version 👀)

Here it is, as short as possible to say something.