Elegy - for cello and piano

Elegy - for cello and piano

My first fully-dissonant piece. It's about my feeling in the autumn (2008). I started to write this piece in Italy, and finished in Hungary. But.. I don't want to choose this style, because it's not so popular. Although, it's expressing, you can hear the meaning, but a person who doesn't know contemporary music well, can't feel it. I'll continue the half-dissonant way of composing.

If you want, I can write the feelings I had while I had writing this piece.

I hope you enjoy it, however you must have experiences of the contemporary music to value it.

I uploaded the score, but it's unfinished, there are some mistakes in it (for example in the palm-accord).

Comment please!

elegia.pdf

Not really the type of piece I am into. My own personal opinion says that this piece is almost annoying/boring to listen to. It is also unpleasing to the ear. The piano part sounds like random notes.

I'm sure you don't know Ligeti's cello concerto :)

I understand your opinion about the piece itself, but there aren't any random notes in the piano part (and of course in the cello part neither). Anyway, D-E-Gis-Ais-Cis-Dis is my favourite accord in the dissonant style.

You can feel it boring because of the tempo (we played it a bit faster on the concert) the long notes and the repetitive (and at the and annoying) theme. But anyway this slow, languid tempo wants to show you the feeling.

In the contemporary music, you don't express your feelings with a major or a minor accord. John Cage used the technique of the silence, I'm sure you know his minimalistic style. For example the the piece called "Four (4)".

Thank you for your comment. It shows me, that if I don't write down the meaning of the piece, it's almost understandable, although you almost understood that. :)

But I put your comment in the "audition-reaction bag". I'm more interested in those comments, which are those people, who have experiences of the modern music (if you had experiences, you wouldn't say "random notes" :) ) AND who are in the same or almost the same style.

Wow, this is awesome. I really like what you've got going on here. Did you have a specific approach to composing this piece? Were you consciously concentrating on certain intervals, pitches, rhythms etc?

The dynamic and pitch range you explored with both the piano and the cello made this piece the most interesting for me. Though I have to say, I am also fairly partial to the crunchy clusters and intervals throughout this piece.

Is there a reason you want to continue writing, as you say "half-dissonant pieces" as opposed to what you've got here?

I don't actually listen to much contemporary music but I enjoyed this. I think you've got some great sounds/emotions happening. I'm a cellist myself be the way, have you written much for your instrument?

I'm sure you don't know Ligeti's cello concerto :)

I understand your opinion about the piece itself, but there aren't any random notes in the piano part (and of course in the cello part neither). Anyway, D-E-Gis-Ais-Cis-Dis is my favourite accord in the dissonant style.

You can feel it boring because of the tempo (we played it a bit faster on the concert) the long notes and the repetitive (and at the and annoying) theme. But anyway this slow, languid tempo wants to show you the feeling.

In the contemporary music, you don't express your feelings with a major or a minor accord. John Cage used the technique of the silence, I'm sure you know his minimalistic style. For example the the piece called "Four (4)".

Thank you for your comment. It shows me, that if I don't write down the meaning of the piece, it's almost understandable, although you almost understood that. :)

But I put your comment in the "audition-reaction bag". I'm more interested in those comments, which are those people, who have experiences of the modern music (if you had experiences, you wouldn't say "random notes" :) ) AND who are in the same or almost the same style.

I just meant that they sounded like random notes. Obviously, I have had my share of working with contemporary music, not my favorite type of music, but it will do. I was trying to put it at the perspective of someone in the audience. What are they going to think, let alone, are they going to know that, lets say, a chord can be diminished.

Oh my God! :) Thanks!

Andy1044:

I just wrote down my feelings. Okay, I write it to you. I haven't fallen in love since september, and this feeling is so strange for me, because I always loved somebody for about 5 years. So I feel now some hollowness, or I don't know what, and that is the feeling what I wanted to show in my music.

About the rhythms: Yes, the slow rhythms are the most important things in this piece. The long notes are able to show the hollowness, and maybe you can think that the player doesn't know the next note. We played it faster on the concert, so you can't feel this on the recording.

About the notes: I always liked to use the whole instrument. You can see it in the piano and in the cello part too. Maybe I was a bit venturesome, with those high pitches at the end of the piece, but I think it's a good effect, it sounds good on the cello, and it's impressive.

Anyway, If you look at the Guillotine piece, which is just a character-piece, you can see this whole-instrument thing too.

Austin:

Well.. I wrote some little pieces for cello. I have two solo cello pieces, and an other cello-piano piece, but... This is my first piece for cello, which has a meaning, you can think about it if you want etc..

My favourite instrument to write for is the flute. I started composing when I wanted to write a piece for a flutist girl. So my first piece was my flute concerto (you can find it on you tube) which is in romantic style. I write an other piece for her called Confession, which is post-romantic style. And now I write mostly half-dissonant pieces, which is my own style. But in the spring I had my first Ligeti experiences, and I started to write more modern pieces. So I follow two ways in composing now :)

MathWizard:

Well, that is a question which is the right style to compose in. :)

Thank you for your comments!

Ignore the first critic - he obviously doesn't like contemporary music - as this is actually a very well-written piece. As a cellist and composer myself it's good to see something for my instrument on here that isn't written in a rather bland 'tuneful' style and instead explores a wider range of effects. In fact it was modern without being weird or completely random; whilst atonal, it used traditional processes of construction and well-controlled pacing. I loved the opening chord of the piano part and its entry was approached very effectively. The style reminded me of Bartok, Ligeti and Kadosa, but not too much that it sounded like pastiche. The false harmonics were also a good way of closing.

My only suggestion is that you could now explore a wider range of extended techniques, such as different types of bowing and chordal effects. I am currently composing a sort of free fantasy for solo cello in a similar style - it's been a bit on-and-off so hearing your piece should prompt me to finish it!

Actually, I wonder if I might ask a small favour of you? I posted an 'atonal romantic' piece for clarinet in the chamber music forum and it has so far failed to attract a single comment, possibly because of 'the A word'. If you have the time to take a look and comment I would be very grateful, since you have written for winds and are more sympathetic to music of this type.

It's here: http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/iljanne-clarinet-solo-17693.html

siwi:

Well I think I know all extended techniques, I just didn't want to use them in this piece. For example a spiccato or a col legno or a knocking part would make this piece worse :)

siwi:

Well I think I know all extended techniques, I just didn't want to use them in this piece. For example a spiccato or a col legno or a knocking part would make this piece worse :)

Oh yes, one should never use extended techniques just for the sake of sounding modern, but only if they add something to the music.