January 21, 201016 yr I've never really understood the word "essay" used in a musical context. I've always thought it was a strange kind of title, perhaps implying a study or an exploration of some sort. A foray into an element unfamiliar with the composer perhaps. What you have here is very well written! It shows great craft as a composer and shows a clear understanding of lucid texture and a good sense of melody. It certainly is a very interesting piece, at times it reminds me of a jig (a la Charles Griffes's "Poem" for flute and orchestra) and other times a darkly romantic atmosphere. The writing is rich and has a poetic power that for some reason reminds me of Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre"...I don't know why but there's something distinctly poetic and...Victorian (for lack of a better word) about it. These are just first impressions, though. When I'm not mind-consumed by chemistry I'll post back on this. :D This realization doesn't do it justice; I would love to hear this performed live though. ;)
January 21, 201016 yr Author I've never really understood the word "essay" used in a musical context. I've always thought it was a strange kind of title, perhaps implying a study or an exploration of some sort. A foray into an element unfamiliar with the composer perhaps. What you have here is very well written! It shows great craft as a composer and shows a clear understanding of lucid texture and a good sense of melody. It certainly is a very interesting piece, at times it reminds me of a jig (a la Charles Griffes's "Poem" for flute and orchestra) and other times a darkly romantic atmosphere. The writing is rich and has a poetic power that for some reason reminds me of Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre"...I don't know why but there's something distinctly poetic and...Victorian (for lack of a better word) about it. These are just first impressions, though. When I'm not mind-consumed by chemistry I'll post back on this. :D This realization doesn't do it justice; I would love to hear this performed live though. ;) Thank you so much for your kind words. I do intend this to be one of the first works premiered by the Chamber Ensemble that I am starting to piece together. I chose the word essay because, well.. this does study (as I mentioned yesterday) polytonality to some degree. Again, thank you for your comments.
January 21, 201016 yr It does seem sort of like a study in music: it has a very dry, intellectual sound to it, and it seems to be exploring lots of musical paths instead of staying put in one spot, haha! The writing is good, and it gives a very odd feeling at times throughout. Nice job! I'd love to hear it performed!
January 22, 201016 yr Not having heard a ton of your music, this is a little bit of a venture out of your normal writing style isn't it? That being said, it is very nice writing. Not personally one of my favorite pieces of music, but you employ a lot of different textures and allow each instrument to have its own identity which is nice to see. I don't have a ton of ideas for this one, good work.
January 22, 201016 yr Author Not having heard a ton of your music, this is a little bit of a venture out of your normal writing style isn't it? That being said, it is very nice writing. Not personally one of my favorite pieces of music, but you employ a lot of different textures and allow each instrument to have its own identity which is nice to see. I don't have a ton of ideas for this one, good work. Understandable, I was trained on viola and so string writing is very personable to me - it's the arena, next to piano, where I love to experiment and try new things to incorporate into my overall stylistic pallet (so to speak). Thanks for your comments. Much appreciated. Serge: Do you really think its intellectual? I've been really trying to make strides in leaving the confines of what you term 'intellectual' since the piece you commented on my music being left brained. Thanks so much for your comments. Much appreciated!
January 22, 201016 yr "Serge: Do you really think its intellectual? I've been really trying to make strides in leaving the confines of what you term 'intellectual' since the piece you commented on my music being left brained." Haha, I can't tell if you're making fun of me or not :P Assuming you're not, though, yes, the piece does strike me as left-brained (intellectual). Think about it: musically speaking, music that is emotional is (and this is only generally speaking) going to be rhythmic in nature. When something makes you want to sway, or beat your fists in the air, etc., that is emotional music. What causes these kinds of things? Some examples are the Mersey beat, or a simple 1-2 beat. You could also achieve "emotion" by creating a defined musical theme, and then repeating it (and then the melody/musical theme becomes partly rhythmic in and of itself, because it's a set "beat" that repeats) [Do you get what I mean?] This piece is anything but focused on rhythmic power: it is exploring all the different sounds that can be created with the instruments you have at your disposal, and just the overall tone is sort of calculating, in a way. That's not to say it's bad (quite the opposite), I'm just giving my two cents worth on what you've created :D
January 22, 201016 yr Author "Serge: Do you really think its intellectual? I've been really trying to make strides in leaving the confines of what you term 'intellectual' since the piece you commented on my music being left brained." Haha, I can't tell if you're making fun of me or not :P Assuming you're not, though, yes, the piece does strike me as left-brained (intellectual). Think about it: musically speaking, music that is emotional is (and this is only generally speaking) going to be rhythmic in nature. When something makes you want to sway, or beat your fists in the air, etc., that is emotional music. What causes these kinds of things? Some examples are the Mersey beat, or a simple 1-2 beat. You could also achieve "emotion" by creating a defined musical theme, and then repeating it (and then the melody/musical theme becomes partly rhythmic in and of itself, because it's a set "beat" that repeats) [Do you get what I mean?] This piece is anything but focused on rhythmic power: it is exploring all the different sounds that can be created with the instruments you have at your disposal, and just the overall tone is sort of calculating, in a way. That's not to say it's bad (quite the opposite), I'm just giving my two cents worth on what you've created :D Well, the main theme that opens the movement is very rhythmically driven (pull up score). That would come out more in a life performance... with real musicians. The GPO rendering doesn't capture that nuance at all sadly (unless I were to mark that passage with accents). That rhythm, also if you look at score, pervades the entire piece.
January 22, 201016 yr (I have noticed, btw, that some of your pieces, especially the Piano Fantasie in C Sharp I favorited I liked so much, have a certain quality to them that I didn't see in your other pieces. But could be just me.) Yes, it does have a rhythm, but in my opinion, the rhythm is not the strong point of the piece: the tonal and texture exploration is. And the tone doesn't really pull at any emotions that I can see: this seems like it was created for the purpose of creating lots of different sounds and tones, instead of trying to convey an emotion. There are small parts where I can see the attempts shine through though (like at about 3:10, for example--the small build-up and release of the music feels kind of, what's the word, jarring? Frustration? As opposed to the sort of hypnotic tone of most of the piece) My point is, at least as far as this mp3 is concerned, (and I honestly don't see how too much change could result from a human playback, but I've been wrong before) the musical progression of the piece sort of downplays the rhythm. There's an awful lot going on musically, with the different counter-points and such, that detracts from "emotion" and adds to the "intellect", the "studying" of the music. The ironic thing is, rhythm in and of itself can be just as "intellectual", so to speak. Something with a funky rhythm (like a weird, electronic beat, with odd emphasis on certain beats) could be made for the purpose of being cool and neat and all that awesome stuff, instead of being emotionally strong. Instead of an emotionally charged 1-2, pump your fists in the air, you have a basically unfollowable-by-human-movement beat that just sounds really neat. It's emotion versus intellect all over again. All in all, it just comes down to the individual piece itself: all things taken into account, was this so-and-so piece created with emotion involvement or intellectual craftsmanship? Maybe I'm just not making much sense :(
January 22, 201016 yr Author (I have noticed, btw, that some of your pieces, especially the Piano Fantasie in C Sharp I favorited I liked so much, have a certain quality to them that I didn't see in your other pieces. But could be just me.) Yes, it does have a rhythm, but in my opinion, the rhythm is not the strong point of the piece: the tonal and texture exploration is. And the tone doesn't really pull at any emotions that I can see: this seems like it was created for the purpose of creating lots of different sounds and tones, instead of trying to convey an emotion. There are small parts where I can see the attempts shine through though (like at about 3:10, for example--the small build-up and release of the music feels kind of, what's the word, jarring? Frustration? As opposed to the sort of hypnotic tone of most of the piece) My point is, at least as far as this mp3 is concerned, (and I honestly don't see how too much change could result from a human playback, but I've been wrong before) the musical progression of the piece sort of downplays the rhythm. There's an awful lot going on musically, with the different counter-points and such, that detracts from "emotion" and adds to the "intellect", the "studying" of the music. The ironic thing is, rhythm in and of itself can be just as "intellectual", so to speak. Something with a funky rhythm (like a weird, electronic beat, with odd emphasis on certain beats) could be made for the purpose of being cool and neat and all that awesome stuff, instead of being emotionally strong. Instead of an emotionally charged 1-2, pump your fists in the air, you have a basically unfollowable-by-human-movement beat that just sounds really neat. It's emotion versus intellect all over again. All in all, it just comes down to the individual piece itself: all things taken into account, was this so-and-so piece created with emotion involvement or intellectual craftsmanship? Maybe I'm just not making much sense :( No, actually.. you make a lot of sense. It's a very good discussion, I think.
January 22, 201016 yr I have listened to the piece. And dont know what to say. I want to understand it, so if you would share a bit on what this study is about. You said a little about the recurring rhythm time and again, so I think its parly about that I feel there is a bit to much of a restart over and over. A single instrument starting with a melody, and then a quasi fugal or canonic texture follows. Well this is not always the case, there are other textures. But the instruments starting over and over solo feels like the piece is never really going. I hope this makes sense
January 22, 201016 yr Author I have listened to the piece. And dont know what to say. I want to understand it, so if you would share a bit on what this study is about. You said a little about the recurring rhythm time and again, so I think its parly about that I feel there is a bit to much of a restart over and over. A single instrument starting with a melody, and then a quasi fugal or canonic texture follows. Well this is not always the case, there are other textures. But the instruments starting over and over solo feels like the piece is never really going. I hope this makes sense Well, originally I was going to make this a much larger movement. However, as the piece began to form - I decided to instead go for something a little more organic. The overall structure is an abridged sonata-allegro. After the two themes are stated. I decided to interject the themes - develop both at the same time - hence the eb and flow feel of the movement (which I happen to like - I can easily see that being a creator of tension during a live performance of this). So you'll notice after the statement of the second theme that each time the themes return they are developed to some extent and then abruptly ended for the next theme. Eventually, the second theme starts to 'bleed' into the faster more rhythmic first theme. I decided to end this with a return to the first theme in the tonic. I hope that makes more sense - I'm not the best at describing my own work at times. As far as the study goes, an Essay to me doesn't necessarily refer to an exact study on any type of compositional technique or theory. An essay can be anything really. This piece, as I said in the above paragraph, was meant originally to be a much larger movement to a bigger idea. However, as the piece progressed I realized based on the material that this would work better as it's own entity. However, if you want to go on the lines of study.. you could say that this studies two things: 1)as you put it - rhythm and 2)polychords. The rhythm is obvious. The polychordality of this work, however, is nicely disguised. Starting measure 68, there is the combination of D major and C minor. I found that polychordal passages work when they are part of the overall scalar material - in this instance, D Eb F# G A Bnat C nat/# D. The imposition of the c minor triad within the D major triad is one of my favorite combinations, in fact. Hope that helps. EDIT: and the contrapuntal textures you point out are indeed quasi-fugal and not canonical in any sense of the term. Edited January 22, 201016 yr by jawoodruff added Edit
February 2, 201016 yr Very interesting - I particularly liked the opening into the Cello theme at 26-29, as well as the upper strings at places like 32. And you can't beat a viola opening (although I may be biased, Viola was my first instrument and still my main one) . I'm not sure about the ending though - it works, but it seems rhythmically different to the rest of the piece. There are a lot of very interesting offbeat and dotted rhythms there, and some run-type figures, and those seemed to disappear in the end of the piece. Not that it was a bad ending, just seems unusual when looking at the score.
May 23, 201016 yr I must say I didn't like this piece at all until the cello entrance at the first Adagietto Sostenuto, bar 29. That's a beautiful line and I love the interjections that you employ at bar 32 with the other strings. It really makes this piece. However, the rest of it... that canonic subject I like, but I don't quite like how you developed/realised it. It's not polytonal enough on it's own in my opinion to be treated polytonally and really while I have grown an appreciation for atonal music this piece is that bridge between the gap of tonal and atonal, but not quite strongly polytonal to the point that to my ears it's nails across a chalkboard. That and syncopated basses like bars 7 and 26 are a pet peeve of mine - they just always sound like childish composition attempts to me, but like I said, it's only a personal pet peeve. I don't even like the phrase "pet peeve". It's one of my pet peeves. At least I enjoy good irony. At bar 104 I really expected the cello to play the subject in cut-time. At this point I think the piece has gone back and forth between sections enough times that it's starting to get old. The piece is like a ride in traffic. Start, stop. "Are we moving yet? *OUP*, stop - damnit!" So yeah - I love your subjects, just not how you treated them. Oh, and the samples are horrid. I'd rather listen to straight midi. This is GPO? Gawd.
May 23, 201016 yr Author Thanks for you comments, James. This work was written at a time when I was really starting to move towards atonality all together - but clinging to tonality to an extent that it was maddening. January seems like so long ago to me now...
May 24, 201016 yr Really? You must be a very active composer, then. I haven't written a single piece since January 2009 and to me it feels like last week.
