Impromptu Peque

Winner of the June Solo Competition, for solo flute. There's no particular rhyme or reason for the Spanish title, I just felt like titling it in Spanish is all.

I purposely left sparse dynamics to allow the performer to do as they please with them. Ornaments aren't terribly necessary to this piece, I think, but can be used if desired. Other than that...yeah, writing this was as "impromptu" as playing it should be.

impromptu - flute.mus

impromptu - flute.mid

impromptu - flute.pdf

I liked it. The piece was very concise. There was a good sense of motion. It was also very easy to descern your implied chord progression. Good stuff.

I enjoyed listening to that very much. I liked how the slurs were placed, distinctly making sure tongued notes sounded good. I also liked the notes, as I heard nothing wrong with there order.

I have one problem, where is the player supposed to breath?

If you've ever listened to the Bach flute partita, you'd notice that Bach never put in any breaks either. In fact, it is in straight 16th notes all the way through. The flautist simply picks the most strategic spots to take in a good breath of air. The downside is that they have to pause for a second and the music actually stops, but that's why it's so important as to WHERE to put the breaths.

I enjoyed listening to that very much. I liked how the slurs were placed, distinctly making sure tongued notes sounded good. I also liked the notes, as I heard nothing wrong with there order.

I have one problem, where is the player supposed to breath?

I admit that I hadn't considered breathing. That being said, I think there is plenty of opportunity to breathe in the first section if the eighth notes are grouped properly (the first eighth note belongs with the previous measure while the next two lead into the next measure).

As for the rest of the piece, though, I think I will need to let my SO play through it to determine good places to breathe, since she is a flautist and I just play the flute, lol. It may end up being as James said, though.

This would fit perfectly in any etude book.

I love the sense of direction...it's sensible without being predictable.

Awesome job!

I have one problem, where is the player supposed to breath?

If you had a talented player who can circular breath, breath in while blowing into the flute, it wouldn't be a problem. But if one couldn't do that, they would pick strategic spots to breath like James H. said. Besides, if it's just a flute solo, most of time they can take extra liberties when playing as long as it sounds intentional.

Also congrats on winning, great piece.

If you had a talented player who can cycle breath, breath in while blowing into the flute, it wouldn't be a problem. But if one couldn't do that, they would pick strategic spots to breath like James H. said.

ugh...circular breathing is so weird. I took a class on it one time. I can do it on a sustained pitch or using a straw and some water, but applying to a technical piece takes a real master of their instrument.

Requiring circular breathing in a piece just means that no one is going to play your piece.

Not accommodating the player and not being cognizant of basic, fundamental issues like breathing doesn't make your composition look good; it makes you look amateurish. The lack of any compelling rhythmic interest, and the boring harmonic structure do nothing to endear the piece, either.

It's a very boring etude.

Requiring circular breathing in a piece just means that no one is going to play your piece.

Hence why I'm having someone I know play it through and help me figure out...well, how to make it more playable.

Not accommodating the player and not being cognizant of basic, fundamental issues like breathing doesn't make your composition look good; it makes you look amateurish. The lack of any compelling rhythmic interest, and the boring harmonic structure do nothing to endear the piece, either.

It's a very boring etude.

I see what you mean in regards to rhythmic interest and harmonic structure. I guess my lack of effort on this one is showing. I was relying on interpretation of the direction of the musical line to carry it. How can I improve on this?

Thanks for the criticism, I really do appreciate it.

Personally, as a flutist, I'm not very impressed by this...

There is a lack of "breath marks", but of course any flutist who plays this should and probably will annotate in breath marks where needed. I'm not really going to scallop about that much, since it's not really a humongous problem. But in the future, you may want to consider writing in breathing, just to make life easier for the performer.

As mentioned above, this would go perfectly in a set of etudes. Because, really, that's all it is. It's a run-of-the-mill Koehler style etude that you wouldn't play in a concert hall for an audience. I'm sorry if this sounds harsh; it's just not fit for a concert audience simply because it is lackluster and unoriginal. It may be a nice little etude, good exercise for the fingers and dynamics, but certainly not a concert piece. Again, as Flint said, the rhythms are uninteresting, the harmonic language is very boring. Quite frankly, this piece has nothing special about it.

You see, when you write for a solo instrument, you have to keep in mind a lot of things. One being: "How can I make this piece special?" Essentially a solo piece is a piece that is written ONLY FOR THAT INSTRUMENT, to exploit the qualities of the instrument. This is pretty generic; you could have written this for violin, or clarinet. There is nothing in this piece that says specifically "This piece was written with the flute in mind."

Especially now that the tone palette of the flute has exploded in the past couple years, you could easily have written something fresher, more innovative, and more interesting.

Hate to be a Simon Cowell, just thought you might benefit from this a little.

I suggest listening to some more recent flute music, perhaps Robert Dick or Jennifer Higdon...you never know what you might learn! I really think you just need to widen your palette a little so you can write something fresh. Good luck!

You see, when you write for a solo instrument, you have to keep in mind a lot of things. One being: "How can I make this piece special?" Essentially a solo piece is a piece that is written ONLY FOR THAT INSTRUMENT, to exploit the qualities of the instrument. This is pretty generic; you could have written this for violin, or clarinet. There is nothing in this piece that says specifically "This piece was written with the flute in mind."