Kafka's Song

Is it legal to name a song after a long dead celebrity? I'm not sure actually. Well, this is no Toccata and Fugue, but then again I'm no Bach so, yea. I've actually tried, and failed, a few times to write for organ, this has been the first piece I completed. I was re-reading Kafka's "Metamorphosis" and was inspired by the original king of weird's work. I'm honestly not sure if this is good or not, I have no ear for organ. Opinions, tactful ones anyways, are welcomed.

Kafka's Song

I get a "forbidden" error when I try to play the audio, and I don't have finale so I can't view score (I could view a .pdf). This sucks because I quite like Kafka.

Have you heard Kurtag's setting of the Kafka Fragments. They're very good. Not many good performances on Youtube though.

Theatrics were added by the performers.

Have you heard Kurtag's setting of the Kafka Fragments.

When I read the OP I thought of this piece. You beat me to it!

There's also Sciarrino's La porta della legge, an operatic setting of Kafka's The Trial. Or about a gazillion other pieces based on Kafka.

I recently listen your work. Nice attempt (The parallel fifths give a strange modal taste).

Considering the work of Kafka (I loved the Trial) is of early 20th century I suggest you attempt to give a more modernist/expressionist touch (Schönberg, Berg, etc)

Keep composing. :)

Greetings.

Welcome to YC!

Most of the people here either prefer *raises hand* that users don't upload .mus files or else they don't even have Finale to be able to view the file. You'll get more feedback if you upload a score as a pdf (find a free pdf creator online) and an mp3 sampling (export as .wav from Finale and convert via free mp3 converter software). :) It's a chore, I know, but such is life.

I'll give you a hand this time.

http://forum.youngcomposers.com/t26954/attach-files-here/page__view__findpost__p__353118

Looking forward to hearing more from you!

Thank you Peter_W, now I can make some comments about the music :).

It's actually the first organ piece I've seen on here in the last few months, so that's cool, though it's hard to gain access to them these days (at least in the area I'm in).

What about this is inspired by Kafka? You have some strange harmony, with all the fifths and unfixed voices, then dissonances every once in a while which sound quite harsh. I think the reason why it sounds strange for the organ, is because octaves and fifths (especially parallel) tend to become one note, so it can be difficult to tell how many voices there are with this kind of harmony. It can be neat to have the voices confused like that, but unusual, certainly. You might want to focus more on thirds, or dissonances, and contrary/other motion types to get a more separate sound which is typical for the organ.

It's a nice piece, and it might work to play off of the confused voices thing. Because it's nice, I want more development. Or maybe a B section in the middle.

When I read the OP I thought of this piece. You beat me to it!

There's also Sciarrino's La porta della legge, an operatic setting of Kafka's The Trial. Or about a gazillion other pieces based on Kafka.

But none of them really compare to the Kurtag, do they...

You have said nothing about registration. In your case I should really say something about that, because the pedal part sometimes functions more as a tenor than as a bass. Make sure that if this is inteded to have an 8' as the lowest in both pedal and manual, or both a 16' as the main voice in in pedal and manual (gets muddy though). But when the pedal is based on a 16' pipe there will be strange stem crossings that are no crossings anymore because the pedal sounds an octave lower then.

The modality gave a medieval sound.

But none of them really compare to the Kurtag, do they...

The Sciarrino definitely does.

Hmmm. Have problems with music player (although other users, according to the comment, seem to be able to hear it).