June 30, 200916 yr This is (Surprise) a really simple piece that I started randomly writing months ago and never finished. I worked on it for a couple weeks and then it basically died. I have no idea if anything can be done for it or not. It's a piece for bass clarinet and piano(I actually wrote it for bass clarinet and string quartet originally but switched it over to piano). The bass clarinet part is very simple. I think some of the piano parts might be impossible for those of us without abnormally sized hands but other than that I think it is technically playable in my experience. That being said, I'm not a very good piano player and I'm not much better writing for it. So yeah...comments...suggestions...what have you. MP3 PDf
July 1, 200916 yr Interesting piece! The constant quarter-note pulse is intriguing and is, I think, a strength of this piece. Combined with harmonies that seem to repeat over short intervals, the rhythm pushes/pulls the music forward in a similar way that I think many minimalist pieces do (I am a big fan of minimalism :-). But perhaps this is also partly why one might feel lost: The music does not seem to change significantly from its beginning to where it has (currently) ended. I frequently encounter this problem, and, when I do, I find that setting a goal for where I want my piece to go helps a great deal. For example, the goal could be a specific key, a prevailing interval, a new theme, etc. I think about how I might get there--in the past, I have drawn graphical outlines of a piece and marked the points in time at which certain events (introduction of new intervals, change of key, repetition of certain ideas, etc.) must occur. This method did not always work for me, but I think it is one way of moving forward with a piece. I think another way to continue a piece might be to start writing a completely new piece (or choosing another unfinished piece with a different feel) and combining the two pieces together--while working out the transitions and juxtapositions of the two different ideas, one might come up with even more ideas that can be integrated into the final piece. I hope this is helpful!
