Five Bagatelles for Violin and Piano

A cycle of five pieces for violin and piano, written between 2008 and 2010, originally for a violinist friend to perform with me.

Five Bagatelles for Violin and Piano

Hello,

Again, welcome to YC.

Fantasy:

Fantastic work. This piece has everything I look for in a work. One of the most difficult tasks is establishing an idea that must be elaborated upon and I feel like you did that very well. I was on the edge of my seat until the end, waiting to see what you would do with the material. The tonal shifts that you utilized near the end of the movement were quite refreshing and I was kind of missing them in the first part so I'm wondering if there was any particular reason why you spared them until the end? The writing was superb other than that.

Air:

Again, very well done. I liked the tiny bit of French flair I heard in the beginning and the harmonics were a very good idea and very well fitting. If this is you playing the piano, then I am impressed. Very good playing.

Escapades:

Watch out in measure 27 for others who decide to play your piece in that there's no tempo marking, so I was taken aback by the tempo at which you continued to play at. You have very strong rhythm control as well. In the Air piece, you were able to mask the pulse of the meter quite well, and here the playful rhythms really work.

Romance:

Some really beautiful writing here. Measure 21 was a little bit awkward for me, transitionally. But transitioning back to the original material in 44 was done very well. I think that you came upon the rapid material a little to quickly for my taste. Wonderful way to end, also.

Rhapsody:

I sense hints of the first bagatelle in this one, which is nice. It has a very laid back feel which gives it a nice character. Really good way to end the set.

Overall, these are outstanding and your writing is quite good.

I hope you will contribute to the community here.

These are absolutely wonderful. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks so much for these really interesting comments - I shall def have a look back over on these! And yes, the final bagatelle has hints of all four of the preceding ones, but the main theme is the second subject (if one is allowed to use sonata form terminology for this kind of music) of the Fantasy.

Nice set of pieces with idiomatic writing for both instruments. Although I really missed the finishing touch in the score: articulation and slurs in particular. I can't imagine, (you stating in your profile to play the cello) that you just omitted that. Add to that the fact that the lovely MP3s is a live recording (congrats with that BTW!). Apparently you provided the violinst with this unfinished score?

Ok, maybe I am a little too harsh. But besides this there is little to give as feedback. Yeah. I could tell that sometimes I lost my attention, but that has more to do with me not always liking the romantic tendency to elongate. In this respect the Air was just great, short enough to make your point. and at the same time interesting enough (nice rhythms there).

This is truly wonderful. I'm not exaggerating when i say I was almost brought to tears. This is truly truly a gem. I would buy a recording of this. I cant believe no one else has "thumbs up"ed this yet. Just wait a while, you'll get like a gillion "likes".

As I said before, I was truly moved. Thanks for sharing.

--Miggy

Thanks for the comments guys - Miggy, thanks for being the first to join my fan club!! Just posted a review of your "My Heart Leaps Up". jrcramer - really good point about slurring (actually for the first performance it was even worse - I gave my poor long-suffering violinist hand-written copies!). guess initially I wasn't always sure what I wanted, so we (violinist and me) worked it together, but it was inexcusable laziness not to then go back and input what we agreed! Your comment has prompted me into action and I will def rectify this for the sake the other violinists I am gradually trying to coerce into playing them!

haha :) I am very lazy myself. But I think you can hear in the recording that many notes are not played legato. So I think for future performances this could improve the piece a little. But as is said so often: it is rather good already.

This was highly enjoyable to listen to and I echo the comments about the general accomplishment of your music here. The writing for both instruments cannot be faulted and your treatment of the material is consistently fresh and inventive, such that these movements could easily pass for mature Vaughan Williams, Finzi or Bridge. The opening movement perhaps returns to the principal theme once to often but otherwise there was nowhere I felt to contain any 'filling' or where the music did not appear to know where it was going. I was quite pleased you managed to find something new to do in the Air given how may composers have already used this tune (for those not in the know, it's an old English folk song set by Britten, Grainger and others). Also a clever touch bringing back themes from every preceding movement in the finale. The false harmonics in mvt. 2 might benefit from being notated a little more clearly especially the speed they come; one should at least show the note to be touched with the finger as well as the stopped note, sometimes the sounding pitch in brackets as well. Also, a little more clarity viz. tempo markings would help, as your performer had obviously taken quite a lot of liberty with several passages throughout the work, something that might not be so succesful in performance were the composer not accompaniying him.

I think that given their length and substance, these pieces deserve a more expansive title than simply 'bagatelles'.

Thanks for the detailed comments - really helpful. Collectively you've inspired me to spend some serious time "cleaning" this score - esp the articulation/slurring issues (luckily the violinist is one of my best friends and she can help me with this!). johnbucket (may I take the liberty of addressing you as John??) - spot on comments re ms 204 (I was rather pleased with it myself) and 212 foll (technical limitations on my part, alas...). The "B" section - as I expect you spotted - takes the "A" motif and turns it into an LH ostinato, overlaying it with references to the material originally stated in 66. I guess it's quirky things like this that I feel entitle the pieces (admittedly by the skins of their teeth) to retain the rather inappropriate designation of Bagatelles.