Prelude V in G Minor

Hello all! What a great forum this is. I've been here for a little while now, but I haven't uploaded anything I've written yet. I consider myself very much in the learning stages of composition, and I still have a great deal to learn. I will be studying composition next year at college.

Anyway, here is one piano prelude I wrote a few months ago. I apologize I don't have a good recording to go with it; I would record it myself, but I'm at the grandparents and I don't have any equipment here. I'm not even going to bother uploading the MIDI because it's so bad and I don't know how to fix that....I will try to get a recording up if I can.

Thanks very much for your criticism and feedback! I will take it to heart.

-Joseph

PreludeVfinal.MUS

Even though you think the recording of the midi might be bad I still recommend you upload it considering I (and many others) don't have Finale and they take little to no time for users (especially those with dial-up) to run. Midi's aren't about recordings per se, they're just used so we can get the jist of your music. Scores help too.

Vince

OK, but it's a pretty awful rendition, and in a couple cases the midi file actually plays an incorrect rhythm....but like you say it'll give you a gist anyway. Thanks for the advice.

PreludeVfinal.MID

And here is a quick screengrab of the score.

Thank you in advance for all your feedback and criticism.

I would love comments so that I can improve my compositions in the future:)

That bad, huh?

This forum is not a professional review committee.

All the members have lives, and they do not revolve around reviewing pieces on this forum. You posted your piece yesterday and got a response within a day - that's rare in itself. Needlessly bumping your thread multiple times within a single day just because you haven't received a flood of comments within 48 hours of posting is annoying, unnecessary, and requires that a mod subsequently clean up the extra posts when someone does reply.

So kindly be a little bit more patient with us, as a community. We DO want to help, we DO have the expertise or at least goodwill to give you advice and comments, but we do NOT have the kind of time required to produce said comments immediately after you post your piece.

You can occupy your time in the interim with commenting on other peoples' work and getting to know the community. People are far more likely to comment on your work if you comment on theirs, and if you've talked to them a bit in the shoutbox perhaps. So talk to some folks, set up a review trade, browse through the posted pieces and leave your thoughts, but please do NOT senselessly bump your own thread. It is one of thousands. Just a friendly reminder.

Thanks, and welcome to YC! :thumbsup:

This forum is not a professional review committee.

All the members have lives, and they do not revolve around reviewing pieces on this forum. You posted your piece yesterday and got a response within a day - that's rare in itself. Needlessly bumping your thread multiple times within a single day just because you haven't received a flood of comments within 48 hours of posting is annoying, unnecessary, and requires that a mod subsequently clean up the extra posts when someone does reply.

So kindly be a little bit more patient with us, as a community. We DO want to help, we DO have the expertise or at least goodwill to give you advice and comments, but we do NOT have the kind of time required to produce said comments immediately after you post your piece.

You can occupy your time in the interim with commenting on other peoples' work and getting to know the community. People are far more likely to comment on your work if you comment on theirs, and if you've talked to them a bit in the shoutbox perhaps. So talk to some folks, set up a review trade, browse through the posted pieces and leave your thoughts, but please do NOT senselessly bump your own thread. It is one of thousands. Just a friendly reminder.

Thanks, and welcome to YC! :thumbsup:

OK, no problem. Sorry for my impatience. Thanks for your response.

I will review other folk's pieces as well. I just feel that, being new here, I don't know how qualified I would be to critique other people's work. But I will give a try.

Thanks:)

Don't worry, that's a common thing. You are just as qualified as anyone else on this site: people who post their work acknowledge that the commenters are (for the most part) probably NOT going to be seasoned veterans (it is YOUNG Composers, after all) and so what you get is just an honest, subjective, and well-wishing personal response which anyone is qualified to give, regardless of their seniority on the site.

I'll review this piece as well, by the way, just not tonight.

I'm surprised this hasn't really gotten any real feedback yet. I've seen far worse on pieces get much more attention. Overall, I thought it was a nice solid piece. At times, your harmonies were somewhat odd and not with the tradition I expected them in this kind of piece (I assume you're influenced, at least partially, by the Romantic era). However, it's always nice when someone breaks tradition and rules for the sake of what they think sounds good. The few problems I have with the piece probably more MIDI related. One, there is a complete lack of dynamics. Everything is at the same volume. There is also a lack of expression, for a piece like this, I can hear plenty of rubato and expressiveness but in the MIDI, there just isn't any. The performance is very flat. And finally, I felt the piece to be somewhat incoherent. There are long pauses of nothing, where I'm guessing the notes are meant to be sustained but even then, an abrupt stop every 15 seconds is not something you should rely on. I should know, I do it myself. >.>

Anyway, overall, I did like it. If you want more comments, I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you the same advice I give all newcomers to this forum. Give back as much as you take. Comment on other people's work. People will be more inclined to return the favor if you listen and comment to one of their pieces. And for me personally, I usually make it a point *not* to comment on someone who has the large majority of their posts in their own threads. Anyway, hopefully you don't leave. We haven't sustained a new member since December of '07. :]

I'm surprised this hasn't really gotten any real feedback yet. I've seen far worse on pieces get much more attention. Overall, I thought it was a nice solid piece. At times, your harmonies were somewhat odd and not with the tradition I expected them in this kind of piece (I assume you're influenced, at least partially, by the Romantic era). However, it's always nice when someone breaks tradition and rules for the sake of what they think sounds good. The few problems I have with the piece probably more MIDI related. One, there is a complete lack of dynamics. Everything is at the same volume. There is also a lack of expression, for a piece like this, I can hear plenty of rubato and expressiveness but in the MIDI, there just isn't any. The performance is very flat. And finally, I felt the piece to be somewhat incoherent. There are long pauses of nothing, where I'm guessing the notes are meant to be sustained but even then, an abrupt stop every 15 seconds is not something you should rely on. I should know, I do it myself. >.>

Anyway, overall, I did like it. If you want more comments, I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you the same advice I give all newcomers to this forum. Give back as much as you take. Comment on other people's work. People will be more inclined to return the favor if you listen and comment to one of their pieces. And for me personally, I usually make it a point *not* to comment on someone who has the large majority of their posts in their own threads. Anyway, hopefully you don't leave. We haven't sustained a new member since December of '07. :]

Thanks very much for the feedback. I hate the MIDI; it is nothing like how the piece should sound. I didn't even want to post it. There is rubato in the wrong spots, too long pauses, no dynamics like you said, etc.

I will try to make a quick recording myself on the piano and get it up by the end of today. Thanks again:)

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EDIT: I found a piano and made a quick recording:

Prelude

Thanks again for your comments.

I must say, i am very pleased to have heard this piece, and you did good posting it.

i heard the one with finale, and it works quite well, the only thing i didnt like was that you didnt put many infos about the pedals, so when i heard it, was not a pleasant thing because on the long run, overlpped too many notes. if you had used the * simbol to stop the pedal, in the right spots, would be ok as an execution... unless you really wanted that effect.

but i think the piece is great. nice music :)

wonderful job.

Hi Joseph,

I really enjoyed this, even from the MIDI playback. The section from measures 32-37 was the highlight of the piece for me.

If you have time, a recording on an acoustic piano would be very nice.

Thank you for your comments Punkititi and Clark:) And thank you for the advice to more clearly denote pedaling. I was about as vague as you can get. I will definitely pay more attention to that in the future.

I did make a quick recording on the acoustic piano using my laptop's internal mike. It's on the first page, but here is the link again:

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

I'm glad you liked the piece. Thank you again:)

This piece is quite nice :) Reminiscent of late Chopin, but with a definite individual vision. Some of the harmonies in the middle are quite jazzy!

One critique; sometimes, in the recording, the tempo changed drastically (at one point almost three times as slow for one measure). It sounded fine, but made me wonder if perhaps you forgot to put in a rubato indication somewhere or something.