Piano Sonata in C minor

I'm new to this forum so this is the first composition I'm posting here. It is the first movement of a piano sonata that I hope to complete. It is in sonata allegro form and took me a long time to write. I hope you like it despite the horrible sounding midi piano. Thank you for your time and constructive criticism is welcomed.

*Edit* I accidentally uploaded the incomplete version first. Now here is the actual finished version.

Note: The midi version skips the repeat at the end of the development.

Imperial Sonata 1st Mvt..MUS

final project midi.MID

A great cross between Beethoven and Schubert. Loves it.

This is really great. I love the key change in bar 36 (I think...I've just shut the score!).

This is a very effective movement - have you completed any more of the movements? I would love to hear them.

The only thing I would say that you could perhaps think about adding more dynamics and articulations etc. to the score? They might not have just showed up when I opened it, although I saw some crescendos and things.

I enjoyed it.

Your introduction... was interesting enough to feel like there was material to follow, so kudos to you there.

As for your exposition and your theme... yes I realize that your motif includes the broken melody... but ... it was EXTREMELY pungent and got very tiring very quickly. As for your harmony, it was .. pretty good. You managed to give a sense of prolonged tension during your development section, and I did like the fact that when you brought the main theme back to us, you gave us a tonic chord to feel relief on.

As for your counterpoint, ... there were really wasn't much, which is fine considering that this is an imitation of older sonatas. I suggest that you break out of the norms of the old piano sonata form and write what you want to write... give the reader something more to latch on to than those constantly repeated broken melody lines. Your bridge was, I'd say, the most interesting part of the piece.

Now, something that you should think about... I realize what you were doing during your development, but the way that you were doing it made it seem a bit deceptive. You were using harmonic sequencing (sometimes chromatically) to develop your themes. Fine, but the problem is that you develop your A theme and then immediately develop your B theme, causing your structure to look a little like this:

AB'(A''B'')AB

Basically, it sounded like repetitious material to me on my first listen. I think you should try to pick apart your themes more and do stuff to them. But do it at a rate that would let the listeners keep up with what you are doing. Rearrange the motifs how you think they should be.

By the time I got to the end of the piece, I felt like the piece had no direction, which is partly due to that development section. Those broken melodies, again, were tiring.

Another thing I would suggest is that you should avoid hitting the tonic chord so much.. it just takes away from the suspense and interest. Oh, and your piano writing is pretty good.

Nevertheless, this is good writing. I encourage you to look at your own likes and dislikes and write how you want to write.. instead of consciously imitating the sonatas of the early 19th century. Keep it up!

this is incredible, probably some of the best work I've seen on this forum in my short time here. Very nice, very dramatic. I really liked your use of the low C on those second beat emphasis' (what's the plural for "emphasis"?), gave me goosebumps.

Are you a pianist? If so, record this! I'd love to hear it played.

sorry I don't have more constructive criticism, but I can't find much wrong with this work.

cheers

Thanks to all who have taken the time to review my piece. I intend to write the other movements at some point but as of right now, I have not even started them. Composing is on the back burner right now. My main focus is piano performance. I hope to record this piece someday.

Maelstrom, thank you for your in depth review of my composition. I completely agree with you about hitting the tonic chord too much. I realized the primary theme is mainly composed of dominant and tonic chords. Harmonic diversity is not one of my strong points but I'm working on improving it.

Anyways, this piece was indeed written with heavy influence from many of the old Classical era composers (mostly Beethoven). I have not yet developed my own style, but everybody's got to start somewhere. This is only my fourth completed piece so far. I'm glad you noticed how much the movement conforms to the classical sonata allegro form. After all, the piece was the final part of a presentation about sonata allegro form. Thank you again for your reviews and hopefully I'll post the entire sonata soon.

Hey! I'd like to welcome you to the forum. Seeing as you're new here, I warmly greet you by the hand. (Figuratively, of course.)

Now about your piece; I really enjoyed it! It's very Beethoven, not something I usually listen to, but I think your piece is going to send me off into a Beethoven phase. Well done! Can't wait to hear the next movements. Some of it also reminiscent of...Chopin? Just me, probably.

An excellent piece! As others have said it is reminiscent of Beethoven, but the beginning made me really think of Khovanschina by Mussorgky. (He has a piece where the bass line constantly fluctuates from the tonic to the leading note as you have done).

Very, very good! I'd love to hear more of your work!

This is great! Can't say I agree with the Beethoven comparison... maybe a little influence, but it does not sound like Beethoven to me. Loved the opening, but it started to get a little repetitive and drawn-out after about 20 seconds. I agree with Mael about the themes. It seemed a bit "disorganized" at times. The theme for :58 / 2:23 / 3:17 was my favorite. Awesome :) 4:29-4:45 is beautiful. The run at 4:45-4:50 was a bit "off" IMO, it just doesn't feel like it fits to me. But it could just be the midi.

Overall, very nice piece! Welcome to YC :)

Can I get a PDF by any chance?

This is really something to enjoy--but what is with the apology for a crappy piano sound? There are so many good sampled pianos out there--save up and buy one and stop having to apologize. The sound did detract from my enjoyment. As did the mix--sure seems like it's getting louder and softer, but in an artificial way, not as if the player was introducing dynamics. Are you riding the master fader?