Sunset/sunrise, river, mist, bridges, Satie, French.

Hiya, haven't posted in a while.

This piece took me several weeks to complete. I had little bits everywhere and I struggled to put it together. I took inspiration from a documentary I saw a few months ago about Paris. There was a scene where the sun was setting/rising (not sure) and the River Seine stretched to the horizon with its many bridges arched across it. In the background was Satie and it was a very beautiful shot.

The official title for this piece is 'Prelude' but the title of this thread is its nickname. I didn't want to arrange it into a sentence as I felt it expresses itself better this way.

Comments,criticisms and irrelevant insults welcome but not always appreciated, especially the last one.

Prelude.MID

Prelude.MUS

To the review...

The beginning is almost, hm, a direct quote of Satie, rhythmically and melodic-direction-wise. Of course the chords are different and the melody notes are different, but I'd be careful to avoid looking like you plagiarized.

I really like the feel at 29 through 40, and the change in the rhythm is nice at 40. However, from 40 - 51 it feels like you modulate between the same chords too much (same at the beginning).

51-68 was nice, it change enough that it kept interest. 69 sounds welcome, but I was expecting a chord change at 77, and it was the same.

103 is a nice chord change too.

The ending isn't bad, although it seems slightly abrupt.

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I like it, it's very Satie-like, but not Satie. My comments are suggestions for improvement, not meant to be negative.

I think you could use more harmonic variety, in many places you modulate between two chords for 16 bars or so, without any break.

Regarding the harmony, and left-hand, the root position-feel chords in the 2nd and 3rd beats (5-3-1 fingering) seem a little simplistic most of the time. You should try some inversions, and possibly using a different inversion between the 2nd and 3rd beat of the measures, or even use some leading notes into the next harmony.

Hope that helps some (I do like it though).

On second listen, without the score, the middle sections I really like... for the most part. The Oom-Pa-Pa in the left hand gets a little old, but the harmonies are beautiful.

During the ending, section... roughly 132 is where I heard in my head, a new melody line that I think could continue the piece and bring in a new theme. I'll try and get a recording and maybe midi for you, so you can see/hear what I'm talking about.

Really beautiful though.