The Dance of Untruth (piano and orchestra)

This is an older work of mine, which I've been busy cleaning up and modifying. It's actually one of my most dissonant works (which isn't really saying all that much).

The Dance of Untruth, opus 24, for piano and orchestra, is basically a symphonic poem with piano obligato. It loosely follows the action of a chapter from a Stephen King novel (The Tommyknockers), from which it gets its title.

Six continuous sections (the recording, in two parts, breaks between the 4th and 5th sections):

Molto rubato - Lento

Allegro feroce

Molto calmando

Scherzando

Cadenza

Allegro furioso

The thematic material is two-fold: a tone row that generates a lot of the shorter motivic material, and a longer "lyrical" theme that relies heavily on major 7ths.

With the piano solo, there are 1 piccolo, 2 flutes, 1 oboe, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 2 bassons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets in C, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings.

I've included both the full score and the piano reduction.

There are certainly some discrepancies between the two scores, however, the orchestral score is the definitive version.

The recordings are of sections 1-4, then 5 - 6.

part 1

Part 2

I hope I'll make it in time first!

This is FANTASTIC STUFF!

I will edit (or repost) when I've heard the whole thing, but wanted to make sure I'm the first to comment :w00t:

Recording GPO? If so it sounds fantastic as well! HELL IT DOES!

This is SO totally my style! The more I listen to it, I'm stunned! WOW! It's bloody marvelous stuff! For me this is completely fresh (although it does remind me a tiny bit of Scriabine, but who cares (?)) and I find it much more energetic than your later works (not that this is a bad thing).

I keep with the edits, see? :evil:

I think that this is a masterpiece! A great work! I find that it is mature, and fresh as well! I listened to it and will listen to it more tonight. It is music that I LOVE listening! I hope you get a live recording, because it would simply be stunning!

and now that I'm jealous and done with my own orchestral with piano (what a coinsidence! Exactly the same forces :D 3ple woods, etc) I will make the rendering to post in the forum! (there we go... once more speaking about myself in someone elses thread! bad Nikolas! Bad! I'm just excited with this marvelous music I heard)

I liked it less than Nikolas did, but I still liked it.

I was mightily impressed when I first downloaded this.

The whole piece gives me the impression of a stream of consciousness, what with the wonderfully relentless creativity. Top quality piano writing combined with lush orchestration, mixed with rich harmony!

I had to refrain from commenting immediately because there's simply so much to take in. I was worried I'd miss some important bits. Now, several listens in, I'm beginning to build up a clearer picture, but it's still sounding fresh, which is great. ;)

Nothing else to add except a question: may I ask when you wrote this work (the original)?

thank-you Niko, Sphere, and Mike.

Mike, I originally wrote it in 1999.

It's gone through some gradual modifications over the years, and a rather major overhaul (particularly the orchestration) in the last month.

There are still a few minor spots where I think I could adjust it (there's one little spot in the final section that's nagging at the back of my mind), but I'm actually very proud of this piece. It's quite different from my other music (as Niko remarked), but I think that it's still a good reflection of who I am musically. Particularly the constant search for "consonance" that threads its way in and out throughout the whole piece.

This is a great piece, Musically there's not much to complain about, personally I love when you start the M7 part of the piece where you start phasing, the way you work in and out of it is great. The motives you use throughout are for the most part easily recognizable, at least during the piece so its not like as a listener I'm fighting to hear some resemblance of cohesion. If I were you I'd be proud as well of this piece. the way you use the percussion is nice too, you dont' hear a lot of decent percussion writers on this or any forum. Great job.

Very nice, QC! I particularly liked your use of the split root chords (Bb D F B for example). I also enjoyed the flute solos in the first third of the piece. I'd enjoy seeing a full score to check out your orchestration.

Bravo! :)

full score is on its way...

I just HATE all the nitpicky detail work that comes with writing a piano and orchestra piece!

One word: Fantastic!

This is going on my ipod.:D If I can find space...:)

For anyone interested, I've now uploaded the full score of the concerto.

Some minor changes have also been brought to it, though they are probably not reflected in the recording yet (probably tomorrow when I get the chance to upload the new recordings).

Again, thank-you for all the very kind comments.

This is one of those strange situations where someone says "hey have you ever..." and it gets you thinking, and you pull out an old score you hadn't really thought about in a long time, then you get to work on it 12-14 hours a day.. and it ends up like this! :sadtears:

Thank you for the full score, QC! I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that uses a separate staff for each instrument. It drives me crazy to have to use separate layers in Finale when there's more than one instrument per staff.

*studies score*

Nice orchestration and good contrast between movements, very good!

Liked the interplay between piano and orchestra!

I like this Piece Very Much.

Good Job!

Very exciting and interesting piece.

thank-you all for the compliments.

Speaking of Stephen King, I'm hoping to get permission to turn Dolores Claiborne into an opera.

wah .. it is ..... good music ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, i love it very evry much

your music .... i already print it out for study .... i hope some someone will actally perform for you

i highly respect you and your work

i even i think i cannot wrote that kind of music in my life ,.. it is too good

Wow, this is a really amazing piece of work. I like it the best out of all that I have heard of you. It inspires me to work harder on my concerto. Thanks for sharing.

WOW!!! i gotta say this is Amazzzzing work.:toothygrin: I love the music so very much. THis is a grandslam in the bottom of the 9th inning of the 7th world series game, trailling 3 to win it all! TRUELY STUNNED:O

well, Pianist and Eagles... thank-you for the compliemtns (and sports metaphores!)

Funny isn't it, this isn't even a piece I was ever really fond of.

It's actually the very first piece I wrote when I moved out of my parents' place (I was 27.. after finishing my bachelor's). And it's, how to say... more "adventuresome" than most of what I've written since. I've written various atonal pieces, and relatively dissonant works, but this is pretty much the largest "modern" work in my catalogue.

I'm glad people are enjoying it so much. To be perfectly frank, it's a tiny bit unbalanced, in my opinion, from a performance point of view. The minimalist section is a tiny bit "too easy" for a really satisfying concerto. The rest of the piece balances out nicely, however. The cadenza is a lot of fun to play.. especially if you schmaltz up the tempo and make it even more "romantic".

...Oh, mon Dieu...

I've listened to this twice, back-to-back... and I'm honestly flabbergasted, Monsieur Edward. I'm absolutely in love with that which you have here, but I'm going to have to listen to it more carefully several times before I can hope to offer any honestly worthwhile input.

En ce moment, j'ai d

merci Dallas

pour la d

This piece is obviously a major accomplishment from an experienced composer. I enjoyed, as someone else pointed out, the stream of consciousness feeling to it, although I would like to comment on some issues I think have been caused by this. Please don't mistake any of my criticisms as 'I know this and you don't', as I'm sure you have acquired much more experience than I have in your composing life. I just mean everything as suggestions!

The idea of a tone row creating the melodies is a great starting point for a piece, but I don't think you've used it to really create a melody. It seems to twist and turn, always keeping a memorable shape to it (which is possibly the only really striking motif in the piece). But I think you went a little overzealous in your development, creating masses of moving lines and constantly shifting tonal centers and such, losing content of melody and thusly, losing me!

This happens in another way, in your softer, slower sections. It seems to get too tonal. Not to tonal for me, but rather too tonal for the piece itself. And there is seemingly no transition between these sections and the more dissonant ones. Going into 165 is a great moment, with heightened tension all the way from 155, and not too commotion going on to mask the row in its twisted glory. But what is 165?? Suddenly we are supplanted in a completely different tonal world and a different texture, all at once with no warning. I'm not sure if you had an answer for this when you composed it, but I feel it's too much change at once. Perhaps if you treated this more as a different movement, you could develop what you have in this section at 165 more thoroughly. What I mean is that I don't think it fits between the surrounding material very well.

As for orchestration, I think it's fine (except for some range issues - particularly in your brass and clarinets - too high!), if not a bit overly rambunctious as far as counterpoint and individual lines go. There might be too much going on in certain moments, although I'm not sure whether a live recording/performance would clear up some of these moments, or add to the confusion. From my experiences hearing orchestra readings of some of my colleagues, too much stuff going on always detracts from a piece, although this could just be my particular taste. Still! It's harder on the players! ;)

But aside from all that, I think it's a wonderfully crafted piece, obviously having had the thought, work, and love put in it that a great piece of music needs.

Greetings,

Though I am not much for overtly chromatic works, I think this is an excellent twenty-forth opus! I have been poisoned by early listening to Schoenberg and Sorabji, so this music reminds me of their... unique music. If the War of Tonality were to come up again, I'd stay on the tonal side. Thankfully, this music does not intrude on atonality to an excessive degree. The sevenths, diminished, and augmented chords do not resolve in a way that fits my personal tastes, but as a STYLE you have certainly found your own. There is a grandiosity mixed between Rachmaninov, Bart

This is pretty amazing. Like Nikolas said, its really fresh and its just so cool and interesting. The stuff you are playing around with is just so amazing. Great themes, orchestration. I can't say much more.

Great Work!

thank-you for the comments all.

Oingo, just a tiny explanation: this is a pretty old work of mine. I revised it last year, but made no changes to form/structure. Mostly the orchestration and some minor internal details.

I agree wtih you that the form isn't always the most convincing, from a purely structural point of view. Mind you, it was meant as a sort of programmatic work, so the extreme contrasts WERE what I was aiming for at the time.

I think had I written this more recently, there would have been a bit more blending between the disparate elements.

I WILL, however, take exception to the "too high" comment regarding brass and clarinets. To the best of my knowledge, this is all written well within the normal playable range of the instruments. Would you care to point out any particular measures that raise a red flag for you?

Thank-you for taking the time to comment in-depth.