Prelude in A

My first attempt at a piano piece a couple of years ago - just a little prelude.

No real structure, at the time didn't understand all that, I just found a melody and then a bass that I felt fitted it.

Interested to know all your thoughts :)

Thanks,

Ferret.

No. 2 Prelude in A.pdf

Prelude in A.mid

All right, I'll comment. Not from a highly technical perspective, because I don't have that, but from one that is fairly broad musically.

No, it's not particularly developed, but for an early effort, it sounds rather sophisticated to me. I'm sure you could do more with it now if you chose. As it is, it seems like a film music cue...have you looked at the film score and incidental music board yet? Pieces of music that are not developed in themselves can still be absolutely valid as part of a larger whole, or as an aid to a larger dramatic work. This piece reminds me a little of the score Burt Bacharach did for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." No doubt before your time, since it came out in 1969, but since "film is forever"( as the American Film Institute likes to say), nothing that is still in existence and can be viewed and heard is before your time. If you haven't seen this film, you may wish to give it a listen.

Now that I have commented on yours, could you please return the favor and comment on mine? It's in the post titled "Here's One of My Piano Compositions." I said then, "...be honest, but be kind. I'm new at this." Well, no one has commented and I'm getting frustrated, so be cruel if you must, but you are encouraged to say something. As far as educated listeners are concerned, I compose in a vacuum. No one in my immediately vicinity has the knowledge, perception and inclination to offer anything relevant about my increasingly numerous piano compositions.

I thought my sister would, but she informed me that, although she has studied music, can play the piano and currently sings in a choir, she doesn't respond to instrumental music. "I need words," she said. And this is from someone who's got a good ear and enjoys listening to music. Imagine the lack of response I get from the tone-deaf.

So humor me and listen to the thing, then give me your impression. Technical analysis is also desired;I won't understand most of it immediately but I can look up the terms and study the concepts. I'm an intuitive composer and don't compose by historical formulae because I don't know them. I know a few chords, scales and modes and my sight reading is so slow as to be useless. I have no desire to become a clone of some perfect, conservatory-trained music student, but I would like to know what it is I have been doing, so that I can become better at whatever it apparently is my destiny to do.

Thanks.

Walter

i would prefer you expand the melody and bass you found.you are going well at your first attempt.Do you have the harmony with you/chords.I like it very much

There certainly is form to that piece: A B A' Coda.

I think it is great in the short presentation that it is. Not everything needs to be developed for 15 minutes... :)

Heck, look at Chopin's C Major or A Major Preludes--short, complete pieces.

The piece definitely has form and it's an excellent first effort. I have found in beginning composing that following an established form (e.g. a march or dance) is very helpful. You have two melodic figures that are, in themselves, good. The first one is repeated quite lot (as in too much) in the beginning and end, the other one in the middle section. If you wanted to keep working with this material, I would suggest working both figures into the beginning and follow Classical/Romantic period practice of elaborating a little and then more extensively. The middle could go into a different key, for example.

this piece of music is pleasant to listen to, but it makes me emotions go like this: --------------------------------------

i would prefer something that makes my emotions go up and down more.

The biggest problem I have is that it's too repetitive. Basically same figure/motive repeated and slightly varied harmonically but not rhythmically. Then similar thing happens second "phrase".

I bet if you add more rhythmic variation it could be much better. I went ahead and messed with it a little but didn't pay too much attention to what I was doing. Just tried to show you that a little more interest could be added by varying the idea a bit. Almost all of it involved just filling out some intervals. I didn't even worry too much about the harmonic consequences. I tried to mess with the dynamics but didn't have much success since I imported the midi.

(good dynamics are just as important as good notes as even monotony can sound good with the right dynamics.)

The second midi (A1) are just some ideas for you to play around with. It is not at all complete but is meant to show some ideas you can use on your motive. (the point being is that there are a lot of possibilities and I just gave a few(I would give more but don't have time))

The main problem I see is that your piece doesn't have clear directional development. It just noodles around on the same idea but their is no point of departure(And hence no point of return). Sure you start a new "phrase" but how did you get their? Sure it's similar to the original in some sense but maybe too similar? You need someway to keep interest in the piece and your not using any of them ;/

One technique that is used a lot is to play the idea in different octaves and or double it at the octave, 3rd, or 6th(this is hard since you already double but you can separate out a single note line from it). Instead of playing the same idea exactly if you do this you can easily create interest. You'll find this technique used by just about every piece by Beethoven and usually in the first few phrases. It probably won't create enough interest in a short piece though but it definitely can help lengthen a piece and lead to more development.

Prelude in A.mid

Prelude in A1.mid

Hey guys,

Thanks very much for the feedback on this piece - I never expected to get a review like this !

What i think i may do is have the piece as the introduction to a larger work, like a ballade, not as a seperate movement but as one large piece, and hence use all these suggestions for development within.

Thank you again for all the feedback!

Ferret,