Piano flute duet

This is for a composition lesson coming up this week. Took a flute line from another piece and added a piano accompaniment to suggest the harmony of the flute line. With my predilection for counterpoint though, the piano offers harmony and an independent commentary to the flute line with its insertion of motives and some imitation. Hardest part was not letting the piano part obliterate the flute line.

piano flute.mp3

piano flute.pdf

This is a very sparse work, Chris. I'm reminded a little bit of pointilism - just a little bit. I don't know though, given (as you say) your predilection for counterpoint I'm curious why you've not incorporated that here. The piano doesn't have to be bombastic but.. it just seems so empty at parts.

Thanks for your comments. The piano part is kept sparse and the counterpoint ranges from 2 -3 voices because my teacher asked for Webernian texture. Maybe I got too carried away trying to keep to such a texture.

Thanks for your comments. The piano part is kept sparse and the counterpoint ranges from 2 -3 voices because my teacher asked for Webernian texture. Maybe I got too carried away trying to keep to such a texture.

Haha! Then I must say you did very good in fulfilling your teachers wishes. One reason I said pointilism was because this really did remind me of Webern!

I liked it actually, and I dont generally like Webern or Berg or those cats so well done :) thought it lacked direction.. i didnt feel like i was being taken on a journey with it. and your flute line spends all its time in the very bottom register,, i reckon some real piercing high notes would add spice to it. good stuff.

thanks sebastien. Yeah it can seem a bit static but I think it has to do that the flute line belongs to another piece and the challenge for me was to add a piano part to just this melody. Nice suggestion for expansion

Good to see a new piece, CO.

I think the flute is a little square, and you can do more with it, CO. The material in the piano wants makes me want to hear more flute, try something new, try having the flutist do multiphonics, or play something similar to the piano and parts. I think this piece is seperate. Both instruments are treated seperatily, which, at times is not a bad thing, but I think you need to intertwine them more at parts. Especially, maybe when the piano does the runs, it would possible be a good place to have the flute mimic.

Anyways, that's all for now!

Good luck, CO. Good stuff as always.

thanks Morgri. Yeah it definitely could be expanded by dividing yup the material with interpolations. I think I mentioned the flute melody is part of a larger work, so adding the piano was a bit foreign to my original conception. I disagree with you only about the flute part being a "little" square. I think it is fairly fluid - however, compared to the rhythmically more active and complex piano part, the flute part sounds a little square. As you said the non-integration works between piano and flute works sometimes but not throughout the piece because the dimensions implied by the piano and flute material demand a longer piece.

The flute solo fits the wind trio as it serves now as both a small section and transition that forms part of the third section now and comes after a very episodic, fast section. In that context it works well. Finally completed the first movement or section of it. But the remaining movements are going very slowly, have a little less than half the second set and a theme for the third set. I will post an update.

Yeah haven't been posting much for a few reasons:

a) output has been lower as I don't have deadlines

b) posting pieces here at YC is still problematic sometimes

c) had a few organ sub gigs and spent a little more time reworking my keyboard technique

Also, pieces, in general, are taking longer than I thought to write - the solo piano piece for Jason's competition is taking very long to complete. Not even sure I will write 2 nocturnes to meet the 3 minute time minimum by the Aug 29th

I look forward to taking the group composition class again just to get back to writing for a deadline and readings of my music.

Eh, its not really that Webernian.

I have a feeling that by saying "write Webern like texture" your teacher was trying to get you to focus more on Klangfarbenmelodie than pointalism (which is what makes Webern so amazingly effective), neither of which I really see this piece excelling at.

That being said, I'm going to go ahead and question your registration. There isn't a whole lot of variety -- or at least I don't find that varitey placed effectively.

For example, you start out with the chord in measure one, then the D-sharp of the flute comes in right underneath the lowest E in the chord. But then, right away, you jump up and down over 2 octaves, leaving the flute right in the middle. Basically, you keep jumping from the flute coming out of the piano (with them being very close in register) to them being far. Why not, instead, do something basic, like, they both start out very close, and then the hands of the piano move out, leaving the flute (which was once muddied by it's proximity to the piano) clear by the end? Or the hands move out then back in, revealing and then once again obscuring.

While its simple, it works. Look at Schnittke's Pianissimo, for example. The overlaying structure of the work is that it's one big crescendo. Or Gubaidulina's In Croce, where the movement of register in the cello and organ basically form a giant cross (I believe its in In Croce, then again I'm a bit rusty with my Gubaidulina). Very simple structures that work extremely well.

I'm not saying that you should do that, or you have to do it. But the registers you choose throughout aren't entirely convincing (for me). In short, its either too "random" or not "random" enough -- it floats in that weird ethereal plain between too much and not enough.

Based on the sustain of some of the parts, the staccato in the piano seems a bit forced to me too. I think it might be more fluid if you explore some possibilites with the sostenuto pedal in conjunction with staccato, rather than only using the damper pedal. Measure 13, for example, may benifit from the arpeggiated chord being first "ghosted" and sustained via the sostenuto, then played as you've written.

Some of the 16ths could possibly benifit from being tuplets instead. For example, measure 14 might be effective in the right hand with your 4 16th notes, followed by 8th note tripplets, etc.

All in all, I do, as usual, enjoy the pitch language of your work. I'm just glad I finally had time to sit down with a piece of yours and comment on it, even if it is a smaller work (I swear I'll get to the quartet eventually!).

Thanks charliep. EH the quartet's pitch language is much different from this - though the McGyver one closer. Thanks for the great suggestion about registration. My teacher was looking for something simpler - he wanted to get an idea of the harmonic basis of the flute line from a larger work, he suggested in passed something Webernian. But yes I get your point completely. So much to learn. I'll be writing another version using a different approach.

Well, I showed the piece (see first post) to my teacher and his critiques were along charliep's and a few others - the main problem was some of the registers of the piano chosen. Simply after pointing the areas where I was obscuring the flute line we discussed what I was successful at texturally (eg what registers in the piano). The choice to go around the flute line and give it room worked best. The only time the piano gets "close" to the flute is the little 6/8 section at the bottom of page 1. However the flute line is heard as the piano part is after the flute is heard and the chords are quartal thereby providing a more open sound than what I had before. The close voicing between the top line of the piano and flute in these few measures is echoed later in the piano with the 3rd/4th closing to 2nds but widely spaced apart near the end. I also took charliep's idea to have a triplet in one of the hands at 14 which was very helpful to dispense with a few unnecessary notes in the first version. As for changing the flute line, I chose not to change it as for the duration of this piece the flute line's restricted range is given some variety in its rhythm and dynamics. Plus I think it serves as a steadier more neutral foil to all the piano's more varied range, articulations, dynamics and rhythms.

Hopefully I will have time to take up my teacher's suggestion to write more of these little duos.

Still Comments welcomed as always.

piano flute.pdf

piano flute 1.mp3