Peace Within the Machine

This is a piece I wrote for composition class, solo piano. I went for a bit of a jazzy, rhythmic vibe on this one. Also there is some minimalist and impressionist influence I think, but let me know what you think. What main influences are in there that you hear, and of course, what do you think of the piece in general, what improvements would you make etc. Thanks.

Peace Within the Machine

Hi Michael, thanks for posting. In the future you might have better luck with reviewers if you post a copy of your score as a .pdf instead of as a Finale file (there are many free programs that allow you to create a .pdf). As far as your piece goes, it was frankly too short for me. You don't really have enough time with the current length to flesh out ideas. I also didn't find it harmonically or melodically engaging (although I think there's some potential with what you have between measures 36 and 41). Please don't be discouraged by this, it's something most composers face in their early works. The repeated 7th intervals in the middle of the piece sound hollow and repetitive. You might try to make it less predictable and fill in your harmonies (I know you're probably going for a hollow sound, and that might not be so bad if you had more variation and didn't use block chords).

Thanks for the tip, I'll try the pdf. tip next time, maybe I'll reupload this one like that. Yeah I actually agree a bit about it not being filled out enough, I think it might have benefited from more voices or just more rich harmony in the piano, but this is the way I turned it in so I kept it. I like the repeated 7ths though (kind of machine-like), but yeah I see what you're saying.

Anyway I'll see if any other reviewers come by, thanks for your comments.

I can definitely see the minimalist and impressionistic influences in this: very little actual development (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), and very harsh, cold, almost mechanical feeling to it (which is made particularly evident at about 36 seconds through: very hard sounding, deliberately unpleasant chords, being banged again and again: it just sounds very robotic). I could see this working as a soundtrack...

Thanks for sharing! ;)

Thanks, yeah one of the main criticisms I and others gave was that it could be better had it perhaps more voices and development. I think the ideas are good though, I would have fleshed them out had I more time to write the piece, but I think I'll leave it as it is because this is how it naturally turned out at the time.

Thanks again.

Good to see a new face :) I think there's some interesting ideas in this piece, I'm especially fond of the part in the middle with the repeated chords and a simple melody, that is frankly the only thing that sounds "machine-like" to me. The small jazzy part seems out of place to me, although it's quite funky :P I think you should settle on either the "jazz" feeling or the "machine" feeling, and try a different approach from there, they both work fine individually, you just need to work more with them and expand them, as black orpheus said. Thanks for sharing :)

Thanks for your input, yeah I thought it was too one dimensional with just one of those "feelings", so I went for both. Most of the ideas could have used more development. I'll have my Piano Trio up soon, which I think is better in that regard.

I re-uploaded with a .pdf score file so everyone can see the score.