February 16, 200818 yr Hiya. I'm not sure if I posted this. If I did then I'm sorry. A difficult piece! I wouldn't be able to play it, but I was always told to not simplify the music of my own pen just so that it might fit my hand. What do pianists think of the difficulty level, here? If you think it's playable then I might even be persuaded to clean up the score! (don't look at the score if you're sensitive to bad score formatting!!)
February 16, 200818 yr Wow, Anders...all I can say first of all is that taking a look at your piece has exhausted me!! I'd say that's a partial compliment, but also something to consider as you strive to take the piece to the next level, should you desire to do so. What I mean is that, as a pianist, I find the work contains, while being far from simplistic (bravo for creativity!), quite a number of challenges for the player. As I mentioned to you, obviously you are the composer, and an Etude gives you license to challenge technique, as many others have done before (benefitting pianists greatly). However, here's the key point to bear in mind: KEY: I would advise you to consider limiting the number of challenges to a specific type, as etudes often do, to keep from overwhelming. You need to choose the "battles" you give the pianist to fight, so that you do not seem to overwhelm them with what will appear (however intentional it is) to be poor pianistic writing. I will list the places I noticed that presented such challenges worth considering: 21--at such a brisk pace, a glissando over one beat is difficult to begin with; however, when you add the inner voice, one must also bring up the left hand to catch the last two eighths of the measure. 35--here, the LH must start the descending line, because of the upper voice half note. However, the RH must finish with the last 2 eighths to allow the LH to catch the added lower voice. The only other option would be for the LH to continue but play both voices for the last beat, which would be awkward. 42-3--fast trills with the 4th and 5th finger while playing other notes in the RH would be your only option here, which would be a great stretch of technique. I would advise you to drop the middle voice or omit the 16ths underneath it in the LH, so that the LH can catch it. 42-3 simply has some unplayable notes beginning with the D in 42. Also, you vary the use of octaves and other intervals here. I thought this might be an input mistake. You'll just want to double check and make sure. 49-50, also 55--though the triplets start in the RH in ms. 49, they have to be played by the LH on beat 3 to enable the RH to reach the upper voice. Same in 55. This switch of hands back and forth so quickly may be unneccessary and able to be avoided. 62 and following--the 16th-note jumps of more than an octave in the upper voice are exceedingly difficult up to tempo. 62-65 will require more tedious swapping of LH and RH to negotiate the inner voice. A couple additional notes: 1. Use of voices: Two notes here. First of all, make sure the voices indicate the lines; in other words, does the melody really stop and start in ms. 1 as is indicated by the rests in the upper voice? If not, delete the rests and change the stem direction to show that the melody continues to the 3 D's. Second, I think a main cause of some of the "difficulties" above may be an overuse of multiple voices. Inputting software can be a temptation to create cool-sounding but killer voice complexities :). So just be careful. 2. You'll want to clear up the overlapping items in the score and just get it more "clean." I know you know this, but in the process, I believe you'll solidify the definite ideas you want to get across to the pianist. You've got great expression markings, etc. Just double-check to make sure every mark is what you intend. 3. I'm sure you know that only pedal will enable some parts of the piece to be played....I would suggest you indicate some of these spots to aid the pianist, as well as adding in stem directions and LH/RH markings for some of the inner-voice spots as a further assistance. 4. 36-7--this transition seems a little too harmonically out-of-bounds when compared to what surrounds it; see the note below NOW, you've endured all that, so some well-earned praise: -54 falls under RH well and provides a good "etudish" exercise -I LOVED your creative use of dissonance and where you left the harmony unresolved as opposed to resolved. One example would be the ends of the A theme, which were different each time A returned--a good contrast! -19 and following: a beautiful, pentatonic sound! -the simple variation between g minor to G major chords in the A theme was very distinctive and tasteful -34--wow! You even experimented with quartal harmonies! *Oh--a side note--you are of course free to mix however many compositional techniques you want, but you might want to take stock of the different "sounds" and make sure everything hangs together. Don't sacrifice cohesion by throwing together too many sounds in a 4 minute piece. -the middle section, marked "whatever speed..." is a great, almost comical contrast...fits the playful mood -good transition from the triplet to duple feel at 59ff -wonderful rhythmic creativity and variety, esp in variations of A -interesting Dohnanyi-like sound at the end w/ fragments of thematic material BRAVO ;) Brooks
February 17, 200818 yr Wow, Anders...all I can say first of all is that taking a look at your piece has exhausted me!! I'd say that's a partial compliment, but also something to consider as you strive to take the piece to the next level, should you desire to do so. What I mean is that, as a pianist, I find the work contains, while being far from simplistic (bravo for creativity!), quite a number of challenges for the player. As I mentioned to you, obviously you are the composer, and an Etude gives you license to challenge technique, as many others have done before (benefitting pianists greatly). However, here's the key point to bear in mind: KEY: I would advise you to consider limiting the number of challenges to a specific type, as etudes often do, to keep from overwhelming. You need to choose the "battles" you give the pianist to fight, so that you do not seem to overwhelm them with what will appear (however intentional it is) to be poor pianistic writing. I will list the places I noticed that presented such challenges worth considering: 21--at such a brisk pace, a glissando over one beat is difficult to begin with; however, when you add the inner voice, one must also bring up the left hand to catch the last two eighths of the measure. 35--here, the LH must start the descending line, because of the upper voice half note. However, the RH must finish with the last 2 eighths to allow the LH to catch the added lower voice. The only other option would be for the LH to continue but play both voices for the last beat, which would be awkward. 42-3--fast trills with the 4th and 5th finger while playing other notes in the RH would be your only option here, which would be a great stretch of technique. I would advise you to drop the middle voice or omit the 16ths underneath it in the LH, so that the LH can catch it. 42-3 simply has some unplayable notes beginning with the D in 42. Also, you vary the use of octaves and other intervals here. I thought this might be an input mistake. You'll just want to double check and make sure. 49-50, also 55--though the triplets start in the RH in ms. 49, they have to be played by the LH on beat 3 to enable the RH to reach the upper voice. Same in 55. This switch of hands back and forth so quickly may be unneccessary and able to be avoided. 62 and following--the 16th-note jumps of more than an octave in the upper voice are exceedingly difficult up to tempo. 62-65 will require more tedious swapping of LH and RH to negotiate the inner voice. A couple additional notes: 1. Use of voices: Two notes here. First of all, make sure the voices indicate the lines; in other words, does the melody really stop and start in ms. 1 as is indicated by the rests in the upper voice? If not, delete the rests and change the stem direction to show that the melody continues to the 3 D's. Second, I think a main cause of some of the "difficulties" above may be an overuse of multiple voices. Inputting software can be a temptation to create cool-sounding but killer voice complexities :). So just be careful. 2. You'll want to clear up the overlapping items in the score and just get it more "clean." I know you know this, but in the process, I believe you'll solidify the definite ideas you want to get across to the pianist. You've got great expression markings, etc. Just double-check to make sure every mark is what you intend. 3. I'm sure you know that only pedal will enable some parts of the piece to be played....I would suggest you indicate some of these spots to aid the pianist, as well as adding in stem directions and LH/RH markings for some of the inner-voice spots as a further assistance. 4. 36-7--this transition seems a little too harmonically out-of-bounds when compared to what surrounds it; see the note below NOW, you've endured all that, so some well-earned praise: -54 falls under RH well and provides a good "etudish" exercise -I LOVED your creative use of dissonance and where you left the harmony unresolved as opposed to resolved. One example would be the ends of the A theme, which were different each time A returned--a good contrast! -19 and following: a beautiful, pentatonic sound! -the simple variation between g minor to G major chords in the A theme was very distinctive and tasteful -34--wow! You even experimented with quartal harmonies! *Oh--a side note--you are of course free to mix however many compositional techniques you want, but you might want to take stock of the different "sounds" and make sure everything hangs together. Don't sacrifice cohesion by throwing together too many sounds in a 4 minute piece. -the middle section, marked "whatever speed..." is a great, almost comical contrast...fits the playful mood -good transition from the triplet to duple feel at 59ff -wonderful rhythmic creativity and variety, esp in variations of A -interesting Dohnanyi-like sound at the end w/ fragments of thematic material BRAVO ;) Brooks what's left for me to say?
