Piano Suite No. 1

RECENTLY AWARDED: 1st Place AT ILLINOIS ALL-STATE PIANO COMPOSITION CONTEST!!!!

WILL BE PLAYED: Jan. 28th at Peoria Civic Center. World Premiere at All-State.

My Piano Suite No. 1 consists of 4 sections/movements. Played on a grand piano, and recorded in a large hall. The music is now submitted to IMEA All-State Composition Contest. Please Listen and rate the piece as a whole and by separate sections.

PDF: Finale PrintMusic 2009 - [piano suite.pdf - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

MP3: Piano Suite 1.mp3 - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

As usual, impressive :) The first part seems very meditative, kind of like mulling something over in your head. The second part is very beautiful, and it feels kind of like floating (to me anyways, haha). I think this is the Field of Daisies song, right? Ah, and the third part: Valse again! :) In my opinion, seems like your best piece so far: it somehow resonates so powerfully, it somehow just feels like pure grief--it proves without shadow of doubt you have talent! :D And the third one: the Waterfall, correct? You know, it really does "flow"...(how do you that? Tell me your secret! xD Just kidding) All in all, fantastic job! I don't see how you can't win the contest! :O Good luck!

As usual, impressive :) The first part seems very meditative, kind of like mulling something over in your head. The second part is very beautiful, and it feels kind of like floating (to me anyways, haha). I think this is the Field of Daisies song, right? Ah, and the third part: Valse again! :) In my opinion, seems like your best piece so far: it somehow resonates so powerfully, it somehow just feels like pure grief--it proves without shadow of doubt you have talent! :D And the third one: the Waterfall, correct? You know, it really does "flow"...(how do you that? Tell me your secret! xD Just kidding) All in all, fantastic job! I don't see how you can't win the contest! :O Good luck!

you are correct. I was to put them in a suite by a Composition Professor. I never tell my secrets... LOL... I really hope I place at the contest... I find out sometime before Dec. 1st. I'm excited. If I don't place... meh. Other people (you and my friends and teachers and professors and acquaintances) like it.

ok, this is quite OK. There were a lot moments that I enjoyed. It has often a cute child-like feel. Reminded me a bit Yann Thiersen.

Something about the movements.

I.

Nice theme. I like the use of the mixolydian scale and the way the tenor (upper LH) makes the harmonies intersting (added 6th or 7th)

It can be seen that you copy your figures. Note the b, last note of the series of triplets: in ms its moved a bit to the right, but thats also the case ms 3. You need to correct this

II.

Is good, I'v heard this one before :D

III. The walz, you made a game of. I was really disapointed. The harmonies where boring. The Ais (V) is there too often, ms 3/4, 7/8, 11/12, 15/16. Thats each second half of all the first 4 phrases... In your harmonizing-game you have seen enough (experiemental) examples...

I like the concept of a walz that is totally going out of control. But the way you returned to the soft part was a bit cliche, and the repeats are getting boring. I thing the harmony causes that even faster...

IV.

Nice cute. I love the way the melody sounds a bit like the part II. And so give the suite a bit of cohesion.

Overall

The tone is sweet. Many fine moments. But there are lot of repeats. That makes it predictable. Suited as background music in a feel-good movie. If you want this to be a concert piece you need to vary more, repeat less, increase contrast (not only in dynamics like you did in the valse, but in harmony, texture, etc)

One last thing. In all the tempomarkings you use the word "Legato" People get that if they see slurs, and maybe the some (to be added) pedal markings. Get creative, and help people so to imagine more where the piece is about...

Keep up!

Your whole sweet has a nice pensive, and at times almost sad, tone to it, and it sounds very lovely.

It was too monotonous and repetitive for my taste, and the use of little to no accidentals in the first 3 movements didn't really give any pleasant changes to the ear. Each movement was nice, but there weren't enough music differences to hold my attention for any length of time.

Nice job.