Mirage for solo 'cello

Mirage -- a little piece I've written just for the purpose of escapism. If this piece distracts the listener from his life for just a few minutes, or provides any enjoyment to him, then the piece serves its purpose, and I'll be very happy!

The recording is bad, but I couldn't get full GPO to play back dynamics, so I used the built in one.

Listen with the score -- and let me know what you think.

Thanks :)

Mirage - mp3

Mirage score.pdf

Daniel, you've moved into a whole new way of composing compared to the last works of yours I heard a year or so ago. Surprising and refreshing. Is this the direction you intend to take? If so, I congratulate you, but not without a little sadness at your taking leave of the fraternity of revivalists.

I enjoyed this piece. Your writing for the cello is idiomatically quite good...there are moments that might be a bit challenging, and that's as it should be, but much of the time you give the player freedom to concentrate on making the most of the instrument's rich tone, and much of beauty to work with.

Thanks for your comments Lee.

Yes, I have slightly changed direction, but I'm still searching and experimenting - have been for at least a year now. I still enjoy writing the occasional classical piece when time and opportunity permits (I wrote a little march at Christmas for a gift).

I'm glad you enjoyed it; I realise there are some bits which aren't totally enjoyable - the A flats in b.21 are harsh, but I believe necessary. Also, there are some bits which aren't yet as good as they should be - b.106-113 isn't quite right.

Thanks for listening though.

I really liked this piece, even though the mp3 you have didn't do it justice. In solo pieces the whole point is for the individual expression of the performer, and obviously that's not present with this synthesized version...

Still, I'm knowledgeable enough to hear the piece for its merits, which were plenty :happy:. I really enjoyed the less active parts (like the beginning), I was connected more emotionally there (or would especially be from a live performance :P). The busier, more rhythmic sections did a great job of portraying the theme of a mirage and escapism. The changing time signatures and chromatic melodies all fit well for that theme. There are some spots that could flow a bit better, I suppose, though given the nature of the piece (context of the actual music) I suppose this is to be expected. Most of the time I thought it flowed well, though.

Will this be performed live (sorry if you already mentioned this :P)? If so, I can't wait for a recording :D.

Great job, an excellent solo cello piece, I think!

I realise there are some bits which aren't totally enjoyable - the A flats in b.21 are harsh, but I believe necessary. Also, there are some bits which aren't yet as good as they should be - b.106-113 isn't quite right.

Thanks for listening though.

I'm not quite sure why you find the A flats at measure 21 "harsh".

They seem "right" to me.

I think they're right too. I also think they're harsh - straining against the listener briefly. I feel music needs some of that - that's why it's there. (it's there for other reasons too in this case)

Thanks for listening, all.

Verdi - there's not live performance planned, but I tried to write it sympathetically for the 'cello (although a few places do strain the player). It's not intended for performance as such, rather for a 'cellist just to play the piece privately, and hopefully enjoy it, or feel something.

And yes, the mp3 is perfectly horrible! I will see what I can do about tweaking the file (along with any musical tweaks I'll be making.)

Again - thanks you three.

This piece is very soloistic and very beautiful. I agree wholeheartedly that the mp3 doesn't do this piece justice. I like how you stick with the motif exemplified at 2:10 and constantly develop it until they reach a climax. Despite the non-classicism of the piece, I felt that this piece was extremely coherent (I usually find such pieces disorganized). The use of the cello was pretty idiomatic, though I wish you could have used the higher range and singing voice of the cello.

Overall, I thought it was excellent, especially with your handling of the motif.

hmm I don't really see where this piece is going. Its very much like raving to me... I don't know. I'm a cellist myself so maybe I should give it a try, but frankly I can't find any strong statement in this melody...

This piece allows the cellist some definite freedom. The flow and ebb of the piece worked well, but it did not seem to go anywhere in particular and a central melody line was hard to pick out, but was that the intent? 'Mirage' sounded almost like a daydream, hence the title, but even daydreams normally have a purpose of some kind. Also, some parts sounded as though the pace could be easily picked up to add a bit more excitement. Since I am a cellist, I enjoyed the musicality of the piece with its lush melodies and well-placed notes. Good job, but a central theme would be nice.

Thanks for the listens and comments, guys.

maaton - Yes, I think you should play through it - it is likely to make more sense that way than through a GPO recording which barely plays dynamics and phrasing.

Either way, I can't imagine how you would find it 'raving', but each to his own adjectives I suppose!

HEFree - glad you liked it. I understand your concerns - I'm afraid the only central theme of which to speak is the rising 6ths motive in the Allegro! It's just not really a 'theme' kind of piece, just as daydreams don't have plots. (Not that a plot equates to a theme though.)

Did you think the 'cello writing was good?

Glad you two liked it, and do have a play through, maaton.

Listened to it and read the score.

I must say that this is a fine piece of music. Being a cellist of moderate ability and having an affection for more contemporary approaches to music, this piece is quite attractive for me.

Some negative feedback; the violoncello writing, isn't quite good. Your using a lot of open strings messes with the tone a lot. And I feel that a nice (not-open-string) tone might be necessary for such a piece. And the violoncello doesn't seem to sing in this piece.

Cheers!

I assume you're referring in part to vibrato? I happen to like sections of non-vibrato, as well as with vibrato in my music, but I realise lots of people aren't used to this. (open strings of course mean non vib.)

Thanks for listening though. It's up to the player to make the piece sing! Although yes, the piece *could* do more in the way of lyrical melodies. GPO in this case certainly doesn't let the violoncello sing.

Thanks. :)

I assume you're referring in part to vibrato? I happen to like sections of non-vibrato, as well as with vibrato in my music, but I realise lots of people aren't used to this. (open strings of course mean non vib.)

Thanks for listening though. It's up to the player to make the piece sing! Although yes, the piece *could* do more in the way of lyrical melodies. GPO in this case certainly doesn't let the violoncello sing.

Thanks. :)

I'm referring in part to vibrato. But it's not just vibrato. Open strings just sustain their sound a lot (and they simply tend to sound awful), whereas you have much better control when you finger a string. Furthermore, non-vibrato in fingered strings can be achieved with the intruction 'senza vibrato', as you already know.

:)

Would it be okay if I transcribe this for viola and play it?

I might make some edits to the senza vibrato sections... or if a note is stopped or open though.

I can record it for you Daniel... :)

Yeah, sure, that'd be really cool!

In fact, I could re-do it slightly, for solo viola; there are a few bits I want to edit anyway. (And I can certainly alter any senza vib./open string bits according to what you want.)

:)

For some reason, I can't load the mp3. Do you have a link to your soundclick page?

OK, now I was able to listen to it. There are a few spots where it might be helpful to put in some cautionary accidentals - like in bar 53 with the e natural. Also, you might tweak with the score to fit it neatly on four pages, since the last page only takes up two systems - you could even resize the music slightly or something. I've always hated the GPO single string sounds.. although regular midi is even worse! I do agree with you that this needs a live performance - since it can be quite dissonant in a few pages, melodically at least, it needs a performer who can give the phrases the breath they need to sound convincing - I do think that many of the leaps and phrases in here sound awkward only because a real person isn't playing them.

So I am confidant in saying that you should definitely have this performed so you can hear it as I'm sure you imagined it! Writing for a single string instrument is a challenge, one I have not attempted, but I think you did a good job here.