February 21, 200917 yr Finally, after much stress over dead computers and breaking the bank for Finale... I have music to show you people. This is the first full piece that I have written upon the turning of a proverbial new leaf in my composition. I'd been studying 20th century harmony and the like, when I decided to simply throw caution to the winds and just have FUN writing for once. I never would have expected the ease with which ideas greeted me and the speed with which I assembled this little Pr
February 21, 200917 yr very nice! I liked the chorale like i told u on facebook. =) Its very dynamic. It does grasp the listener but not in the average way. Its more of the fact that the listener is always on the edge of their seat, waiting to hear whats next. It makes one uncomfortable because it is so hard to predict anything. The uncomfortable factor is not bad though. It really cool! overall, goo job! keep it up and congratz on finale 09.
February 22, 200917 yr Wow. Once again, I don't usually go for contemporary pieces, but this is amazing! Especially the way you handled 5/4. Is it a live recording?
February 22, 200917 yr Dallas - There are some wonderful concepts in this peice. I love the idea of throwing caution out the window and just composing. Even though I'm a pianist I find it so hard to compose for piano because, I would guess, my own limitations stop me from composing how I could compose for it. Anyway, about your piece, I think some of you ideas aren't right for the piece, in other words, I think you need to develop some of the concepts you have and unify the piece in a way that it'll make sense. For instance, while measures 39 -42ish is wonderful material, I just don't think it belongs in this type of piece. That or I think you need to provide a smoother transition to that point. So I think unity is the biggest thing that takes away from this piece. However, other poeple might disagree. Great Concepts! Good Piece!
February 22, 200917 yr I like your treatment of harmony. I would carefully scrutinize bars 68-74 as juxtaposition of diatonic and dissonant harmonies is distracting. My biggest reservation is that although you make the effort to contrast slow and animated episodes, you lose momentum in the animated episodes (particularly bars 13-30 and its repeat later). Syncopations kill momentum. Also, it doesn't help that both lines (left and right hands) follow in lockstep rhythm throughout the piece.
February 28, 200917 yr I just had to reply to this because I am a composition student at the University of South Carolina. Let me first off tell you that you will absolutely love it here; the composition faculty is wonderful and there's a very strong emphasis on modern music. The composition faculty hosts a series of concerts called 'Southern Exposure' devoted to modern music and it's won national awards. After reading your score and listening to your piece, I'm sure you'll get accepted into the program. First, I would like to comment on your harmonic language; You seem to have a good grasp of the 20th/21st century theory. At times, your harmonies are very dense and crunchy, but at other times they're quasi-diatonic, which gives you a nice variety of sounds. Also, you do a good job of indicating performance instructions like dynamics, articulations, tempos, which are elements that many composers tend to leave out in their rush to get notes on the page. But I do have some criticisms for it. I think at times, the texture is simply too thick, dense, and even unplayable. There is a tendency for it to sound like you're trying to cram as many notes in a section as possible; a good example of this kind of writing is measure 112 and 113. You've got the pianist playing fast, contrary motion chromatics on both hands, an octave in each hand. This kind of writing is very, very demanding, especially at the tempo you're indicating, for an effect that may or may not be all that important. Whenever you write something difficult like this, you must always ask yourself: "Is the effect I want worth the amount of time the performer must spend in learning this?" If the answer is no, than you must reconsider your passage and rewrite it. Another good example is measure 87 and 88; you've got the pianist playing parallel major tenths in BOTH hands. I know you wanted the piece to be difficult and not necessarily easily accessible, but the problem is that you're essentially writing for a virtuoso, and the problem with virtuosos is that they're rare and not necessarily interested in playing your piece. A big mistake a lot of young composers make is writing without a performer in mind; having your pieces performed in public is a part of the growing process of a young composer and I can't see a piece like this getting performed because, while it's good, it's not good enough for a performer of the caliber required to play this piece to want to spend the time necessary to learn it. When the piece isn't needlessly difficult and thick, however, you've really got some great ideas. The parts that stick out to me the most are the parts that use thinner, simpler gestures. The opening is very good, for example. It's loud and sonorous, but it's very clean and clear, and not to mention idiomatic for the piano. It's not easy, but it's not excessively difficult either. My favorite section was the one beginning at measure 31. Your lines have direction, the writing is good for the piano, and the harmonic ideas are very interesting. I think if you write more along these lines rather than the way I discussed above your piece will improve drastically. Good luck with your USC Audition. I'm sure you'll be fine!
February 28, 200917 yr Wow, this was well worth the wait - both the two months since you told me about it and the 10 minutes it took to download the files! It reminded me a bit of Messiaen, and also (strangely enough) Barber, especially his piano sonata. I especially liked the section from 31 (and I can't wait to hear the largo) and 116-end. Often, the left and right hand are playing very virtuosic parts in the same rhythm, like 97-101. Both to make these parts more interesting and to make them easier, you could vary the rhythm in one hand while keeping the other the same. As they are, many of these parts sound too dense. Some of the transitions here seem a little sudden, like the one into the section at 31, but I undersand that you're trying to incorporate some of the themes from other movements. For the most part, the transitions are pretty fluid, yet it still maintains a kind of schizophrenic feel (which could be good or bad...). Oh, and I disagree with cygnusdei that syncopation kills momentum. You use it very effectively. Overall, I really like this, and I look forward to hearing more!
March 1, 200917 yr Author I just had to reply to this because I am a composition student at the University of South Carolina. Let me first off tell you that you will absolutely love it here; the composition faculty is wonderful and there's a very strong emphasis on modern music. The composition faculty hosts a series of concerts called 'Southern Exposure' devoted to modern music and it's won national awards. After reading your score and listening to your piece, I'm sure you'll get accepted into the program.... Good luck with your USC Audition. I'm sure you'll be fine! OMG! Thank you SO much for commenting on this! Believe it or not, I literally JUST had my composition interview with Dr. Bain yesterday, and it went wonderfully. He made two comments that just absolutely put me on cloud nine, one of which going right along with yours ("I think you'd fit in very well here, and we'd love to have you here!") and the other I still can't really wrap my mind around ("I see you going very far in the field of composiiton.") I have listened to some of Dr. Bain's computer music, and I respect him greatly both as a composer and, from what little I've seen and heard, an instructor. I absolutely cannot wait to get there! All I have to do now is pass the piano jury this coming Friday. >.> I've heard about the Southern Exposure thing too, and I really look forward to attending some of those events. (Of course, what I look forward to the most are the New Voices concerts... I believe that's what they're called?) Anyways, I'll get back onto the point of this post. Thank you so much for the in-depth commentary. I see what you mean by some of the demands in this; Dr. Bain did rather pointedly ask me once, "Can you really play this?" with a cunning little grin. Of course, I bashfully replied NO. You and I shall talk more, I hope. And I also hope to see you on campus next year! Everyone else, I apologize if I don't go into as much depth with your posts. I thank you all immensely for the praise and criticism alike; I know I have things to work on, and it's nice to hear some agreement and confirmation of certain elements that even I doubted. The one thing I do disagree upon is my use of syncopation... I don't feel that it kills momentum, per se; it does, however, provide a brief breath of sorts amongst the rush of notes. I may yet revise this. I'm about to post a less modern piano concerto, if anyone in this thread is interested in it. And I'll just say that it needs serious revision too, but I'll get to that later. :D Thanks again, everyone! I appreciate it immensely! ~Dallas
March 2, 200917 yr Author I would certainly love to do so, dear Voce, for then my grandpa's freakin' CD player would play it properly. However, the only option available when I go to create an audio file is .wav; is there some trick of the trade of which I'm not aware? If so, please do let me know. >.
March 3, 200917 yr Dallas, you need to use an external programme to change the WAV file into an MP3. So I haven't listened to it yet (it's just going to take months for the damned thing to DL with my connection). There are a lot of little piano-notation errors, and a few things that I suspect you notated one way but really intended something else. Not too much looks actually "unplayable" in it, at a quick look-through. There are a lot of spots where it's very HARD. There are some chords that will fit a bit awkwardly into the hand. Le me get back to you sometime in the next few days when I actually have time to either sit at the piano with it, or the thing finally finishes DLing.
March 3, 200917 yr Author HEY EVERYONE. I finally got it worked out right. >.< *shot epically* There is now an MP3 link in the first post. And just for the hell of it, I'll put one here as well. http://www.box.net/shared/static/0cbfd8su6y.mp3 Yay me.
