Scherzo "Little Devil" in A minor

It has been a while since I have composed anything out of the operetta (or ANYTHING, for that matter, since the operetta itself has been mostly paralyzed and it's driving me INSANE!! :sadtears:)

Anyway, here is the scherzo, for clarinet and piano with lots of weird modulations (for me!).

Here is the dirty score (with exaggerated dynamics; it's just because of the playback).

I like this a lot. I love the way you write energetic piano parts. They make me dance.

Um, some parts are too hard for my mediocre clarinet skills.

This would be a better comment if I were not held at gunpoint..

Very good - reminds me of Kurt Weill. I like you give the clarinet and piano much breathing space. Also good interplay between bass and treble tessitura in the piano and the clarinet.

A few small suggestions -

The clarinet writing could be even more florid just in a few small spots. Especially the last run - it could have been longer and less scalar while still adhering to the piano's flourish heard afterwards. I was also hoping to hear the clarinet without any piano accompaniment - just alone - a tiny bit more - especially when you have the piano's rhythmic figure fading and the clarinet plays in its low register.

But these are tiny things. Something to consider in your next piece.

I hope you get this performed as it would make a great recital piece - especially as a closer for the first half of a concert or the opening.

Wow, I like this alot Berlioz. Words cant describe how truly surprised I was to see clarinet written in the score, haha. I would have never expected you to write for clarinet. But anyway...

I really think you have improved quite a bit since I last listened to anything by you. In comparison to other chamber works I have heard (and I hope that my memory is working correctly) this one is alot more harmonically fluent. I loved the energetic piano part (as Mitchell said), and the syncopation throughout further animated an already active interest the piece... I loved the triplets and the off beat sections, they were absolutely thrilling. The B section was a nice contrast, somewhat unexpected but it was to my liking. I liked your piano writing as I have said, but I think that you could have given the clarinet a more "lyrical" part. At times (to me anyway) it was as if the clarinet was accompanying the piano instead of vice versa..as if the notes you wrote didn't necessarily "fit" together. I might just be making an mountain out of a molehill though, it was just my opinion. Other than that I loved it, you really are quite the interesting composer, especially when it comes to rhythm. :)

This rocks. It succeeds in being both funny and good.

You begin in a way that makes the listener think "Oh here comes another composition that can't get out of the rut of imitating 18th-19th century music" and then you totally pull the rug out from under him. This contributes to making the introduction hilarious. Page 6 is where it starts getting truly epic. Some parts were laugh-out-loud funny.

I also really like the modulation you perform on page 9. Well written (& when it returns on page 16). My favorite part of the piece. As a side note you really do a good job of writing both active/bustling and reflective/adagio clarinet lines.

Some of the sudden pauses are a little too sudden? Maybe?

Wow, you really did it fer me this time. Sometimes yer writing sounds too... i dont know.. ''cheesy'' fer my ear but this it sounds just, yeah, sounds amazing. Exactly what i want from this kind of music.

Well, you got me excited now. Imma go do a stupid dance to this.

Berlioz,

This is a pretty well written piece of music. I think the only complaint I have is that it gets a bit tedious around the 3 minute mark. You should change texture more and try to vary the sound of the piece. Other than that, good writing.

Weca pretty much summed up the good stuff. It starts off with your usual harmonic language and piano writing, but gradually transforms into something else. I like the harmonic twists you use, and the changes in the piano texture which make the writing less repetitive. The syncopations sometimes work (especially passages such as the one around 2:30); other times they felt bland and unecessary to me. I'm not one to laugh at music without lyrics, so I didn't.

I'd like to see you explore this kind of 'weird' language further, instead of the same old progressions you've been using for centuries. There's a lot more variety in this - in every aspect - than in most of your pieces.

I know someone who might be able to play this.

I bow. You are far a better composer than I would ever dream to be. Pardon me. Bless you.

As always, you are the KING of both natural tempo changes, and using both simple and compound time signatures at the same time! I really did like this! It was very you!

The very beginning melody on the clarinet sounded remotely like Jewish music to me!

I loved the piano part! Extremely energetic! It sounded great too, how do you always get such an excellent sound out of Garritan!?

My favourite part HAS to be the section beginning at measure 126! Just brilliant! Also, the andante transition was good! I expected the beginning material to return at this point, so it was a nice surprise!

As I've said before, the only section I didn't agree with was the pazzo (210 BPM) section, too fast for my tastes!

Great job!

I barely post around here, but I feel to say that I really liked this piece. It is fun to listen. There are things I did not like much, but have been already said by others. But other than that, nice listen.

I enjoyed this! I heard a lot of jazz influences in this; what a delightful listen!

There were a couple of things I didn't really like though...but anything I didn't like has already been said. :)

Props to you for writing this!

Berlioz, man that was brilliant. How the devil do you do it?? First your barbarico, now this. I enjoy your music man. If you ever get a cd out, you can be sure I will definitely buy it.

Lol great stuff. I really like the humor of it.

Depending on your goal with this piece, I think there is possibly some stuff you could cut from the end. You have an extended legato section and then you jump back into the clarinet frenzy for the finish, but I don't think there is quite enough of it!

The rest of the work almost seems to have a little laugh at different genres. I'd be considering finishing it with that in mind, so an extended period in the dominant or which pokes fun at the classical use of cadential material.

Imagine how it would be performed and think about it like playing a game with the audience... how long can you keep them from bursting out of their seat in applause?

And there will be a lot of applause! This is the sort of stuff that most people really enjoy: fun and lots of energy

I'll pretend I haven't ask this already...

How long do these scherzi take to write?

Well, the Barbaric Scherzo went into the piano as sketches and to be definitely written into Finale all in 20 minutes. Bam. Just like that.

Scherzi like these usually take some days, usually under a week, but the actual working time is between 15 to 20 hours. They come as urges, usually, so that might be why I compose them fast.

It seems like you have a new one every time I come on!

I haven't composed any scherzi for a long time, actually. The last one was back in August!

I was thinking of trying to start doing the same thing, picking a certain type of piece and just popping one out every so often!

Alright, here goes:

I really like this piece; it's my favourite of all of yours.

An interesting mix of jazzy/pop influences and some almost Prokofievian stuff (especially rhythmically).

The rhythms in general were interesting, and pretty cool.

The notation is awful.... if you ever wanted this performed, you would *really* have to neaten it up, and have the accidentals make sense.

An important case in point: the off-beats in bars 20, 21 and 24.

These are almost impossible for the player to read. At this tempo, no one is counting in semiquavers... to make it much more clear, you need to notate that last crotchet as a semiquaver tied to a dotted quaver. I.e., you have to let the player know where the beat is.

Loved the section at b.58.

Stuff like in b.89 piano R.H. needs to be split into 2 voices.

From bar 101 on sounds like the Metallica song Call of Kthulu. :P

Good ending, but I felt it was too much too suddenly. There wasn't a convincing build into the BIG ending. It just got big all of a sudden. Try making it more gradual.

Good work.

I absolutely love this piece, it's exactly the kind of material I turn to on a daily basis. I am also quite a fan of Prokofiev, and this fits nicely in that idiom. (Though, refreshingly not as darkly sarcastic as Prokofiev can get)

I will echo the comments above: The cadenza did feel premature.

Great effort! I would love to do the piano part, and clarinet (especially Jazz clarinet and Bulgarian/Hungarian gypsy clarinet) is something I've always wanted to learn.

A bit too pastiche for my tastes; it seems more like many different little nuances put together to create a piece of high energy but lacking in color. Also the control and usage of the clarinet doesn't sound as free as the rest of the piece.

And the surprises you throw don't really give me a sense of A ha! While they are understood, they aren't really compelling.

On the plus side, it's easy listening and has a great sense of pacing and high energy, as well as very coherent writing for all the instruments and a nice balance is struck.

That was amazing! I'm only an amateur composer, being fifteen and all, but I know what I like, and I liked that alot. *Goes to look at your other things*

Fresh. :thumbsup: You'd definitely be able to get stuff like this performed, so you should write quite a bit more like this.

Wow, thats very jazzy. you have some really good moments when you have this very lightfooted parts. like 2:25! i would like even more of that!

At times it sound allmost like pop chord wise.

And the first chords remind me of mozarts requiem: introitus! i know its just basic chords, but its cool they youve got them and make them into yours.

Good job as always ;) do i need to say that anymore??? hahah