Nocturne No. 2 in E Minor

My latest nocturne, in e minor. As far as nocturnes go, it is fairly short at 2.20. It took about 4 days to write, i came up with the melodies and chords on the piano and then arranged it on finale. The last 2 days were spent especially on the final part of the piece, i just couldnt seem to find an ending that did the piece IMO justice, i felt it needed some power, to make the overall piece less bland, although excitement is not at all what this piece is about. I will go back to this piece eventually and 'meaty' it out a bit and work especially on developing the main melody and working on the coda. Please review and comment. cheers

ljoekelsoey

e minor nocturne.MID

*sigh* i really would appreciate at least some kind of feedback please:blush:

I think the left hand chords are sort of bland. It sounds like good voice leading, but it gets just a little too repetitive. I really like the melody though, especially at the end with the tempo increase.

Maybe you could try making the harmony more melodic although I like how near the end and middle you varied the rhythm of the left hand.

...i felt it needed some power, to make the overall piece less bland...

ljoekelsoey

First of all, a composer should never be satisfied when he/she believes that their own piece sounds bland, even the slightest bit.

I think that the melody is beautiful, but the accompaniment simply doesn't give it justice. Possibilities: make the left hand broken, maybe 8th notes or triplets. But if you decidedly want the quarter note rhythm, maybe you should use slightly more complex chords, maybe a min7, min9, or a maj7 here and there, as long as you don't saturate the piece with them. Also, what I like to do is add subtle harmony in the left hand, where the top notes harmonize with the melody. From what I see, the top notes so far are almost all b's, a's, or c's. Making those notes a harmony line in itself can really make a big difference. Finally, at the end you ended on a Em chord with a B for the bass note... no feeling of finality there, it leaves the listener with a longing for something more, but that they can't get since the song is finished. I know I haven't referred to the middle section at all, but that's just because I don't have any ideas about it yet (that's not saying it doesn't need work of course).

Anyways aside from all that, I think it has the potential of being a gorgeous piece, and I really love the little Chopin-istic chromatic runs on the 2nd repetition of the theme. Keep it up!:thumbsup:

Wow this forum is dead in responding to composed pieces... I expected at least 100 posts per piece but I was wrong... Nice piece, but it needs some umph to it, just like what vaelrix said using slightly more complex chords.

I love this!

I don't know how I missed it before.

I think I might have downloaded it and forgot to open it since it was already on my hard drive when I was saving it again.

Now, I'm quite patient to sit through a several minute piece that explores one emotion as long as it grabs my interest. I don't find this bland at all.

The melody is delicate and I like the ornamentation on the repeat.

I also like your choice of accompaniment. It's ponderous nature contrasts with the melody and the ear connects the deep bass notes in a pleasing countermelody.

I liked the way you brough back the main theme. It wss kind of sneaky. The middle section was slowly recast into an extension of the main theme, ending with the same melodic gesture before the full reprise.

I guess the ending technically shouldn't work but I'm fine with it.

The whole melody was so cautious it seemed natural for it to end with a bit of uncertainty. Also, there was a decisive landing on the tonic before the final extension which ends more tentatively. The effect is like a movie with a open ended little scene after the ending credits that leaves the continuation to your imagination.

Greets, there!

The melody is gorgeous and the overall feel is very sentimental.

I liked its simplicity, although the constant oom-pah accompaniment got tiring after a while. The chromaticism was used very nicely!

Cheers!

the ending technically works absoultely fine, i made sure it was easily playable, have you tried to play it? becuase i have no difficulty whatsoever playing it, thanks for all your comments

ljoekelsoey

the ending technically works absoultely fine, i made sure it was easily playable, have you tried to play it? becuase i have no difficulty whatsoever playing it, thanks for all your comments

ljoekelsoey

No, it's not unplayable mechanically.

I was alluding to the previous poster's comment that it ends on a second inversion. That's usually discouraged but I thought it worked in this case.

I have to agree, the melody is fine, and the chromaticism was really chopinesque.

The problem i agree, is mainly the left hand, it needs some variation, apart from that pretty nice piece.

I guess the ending technically shouldn't work but I'm fine with it.

The whole melody was so cautious it seemed natural for it to end with a bit of uncertainty. Also, there was a decisive landing on the tonic before the final extension which ends more tentatively. The effect is like a movie with a open ended little scene after the ending credits that leaves the continuation to your imagination.

i don't understand what you mean, could you possibly explain further, i thought when you said "techincally shouldn't work" you meant literally 'technically' (which i presume i mistook for mechanically) i'm guessin you are referring to the ending on the 1st inversion of e minor? (no it doesn't end on a b)

i don't understand what you mean, could you possibly explain further, i thought when you said "techincally shouldn't work" you meant literally 'technically' (which i presume i mistook for mechanically) i'm guessin you are referring to the ending on the 1st inversion of e minor? (no it doesn't end on a b)

I was using technically to refer to compositional technique. Your piece really does seem to end on a second inversion because the bass G doesn't sustain when viewing through Noteworthy and I don't have an actual score.

But it really doesn't matter. It sounds fine to my ear. I was just following up on what vaelrix said.