"Making the Flight"

Heya!

I wasn't initially gonna post this at all but I figured, eh, what the hell!

My father started taking the clarinet up again after decades, so I decided the best birthday present I could give him was to write a clarinet piece dedicated to him. He loves fun, jazzy pieces better than standard classical stuff, so I thought I'd make something challenging but manageable, short and sweet.

It's called "Making the Flight" to poke fun at all the airline adventures we have to go through to see each other at all. I've missed a couple planes...

Here is an mp3:

Making the Flight: mp3

And a pdf score (untransposed clarinet part)

pdf score <---I dunno if you left or right click it anymore, file lodge changed how they work. Try whatever. It's there. I think firefox might prevent it as a pop up sometimes. I hate when a good file host messes up their one good trait.

new pdf up that isn't dumb.

PS. Thanks Cmaj for help deciding on the excellent descriptive mood of "playful" and to all of you people who showed me the wonderful world of Ossia staves, LOL.

You alreasy know I like it. But I wanted to be the first to post.

Good job. It is very rhythmically driving. I love the "back and forth" with the piano and clarinet at about :45. Great clarinet writing. I would love to play this.

Actually I'm printing it out and I'm going to dust off the old clarinet....

Thank you for even commenting after commenting to me separately!

Loverly. The minor key is very befitting to this piece. I especially liked measure 24. The G (A) floats above the piano part and giggles as if to say, "You can't get me." I love this piece, but I am curious: Will it be too much for your dad? Since he just started playing again and all, I mean, I is a bit tricky in spots, y'know? Will he be up to it?

I agree...lol, it was actually HARDER and this is the watered down version. I decided that he'll probably be happy that I wrote it and dedicated it to him, and maybe it's something he can work up to, or even have a friend perform at one of his band concerts (he's in a local community band that performs a lot of fun jazzy pop stuff.)

but yeah, I am sure it's probably a bit hard since he's a little rusty, having stopped playing for so long. He's a hard worker though, maybe someday.

My mom asked me to write her a piece for her birthday. It was crap though so I got her a birthstone ring instead lol.

Haha, this is a funny piece. Well done.

Cheers,

Evan

I really enjoyed this piece especial the bars 19 to 22. I

This is a great piece! Reminded me abit abit of some of the 1920'es gypsie-jazzband thingies you'd often hear played by Django Reinhardt and Stephan Grappelli!

Very good!

M

I love it! Very nice work...great interplay between the piano & clarinet...great feel - the right hand voicings really help that - just enough crunch to convey the feel, but not overpower. Reminds me (as mpj said) of the distinct 'gypsy' sound, paris jazz, Duke Ellington's 'Caravan'...

And...the lick at m7 - holy frig, spectacular!...........

.....just listened to it again - tee hee.....awesome. and measure 9...the chord changes are great.

You know what!

This would sound wicked as a tango....unison clarinet and bandone

I'm pretty sure that's a computer playback... her mp3's always sound that good.

I'm pretty sure that's a computer playback... her mp3's always sound that good.

*flips Finale the bird and yells* "Why don't you sound like that!!"

I'm totally hijacking her thread, but since I think she's out of town, here's what she told me once when I asked her what she uses:

I wanted a limited sampling software that I could afford, so I bought Bandstand by Native Instruments - it's better for chamber music than orchestral, however, because of the limited instruments and channels. However, there are some cool unusual instruments and sound effects in it that I like to fool with for outside of classical music purposes.

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wow, thanks for all the comments, guys!

And Robin - I know what you mean about wanting some improvisation in there :D I don't think my Dad is quite ready for that kind of thing yet, but wouldn't it be fun!

As for the "recording" - it's just as cmajchord said. Though it would be fun to record myself playing it, I don't have anyone to play the piano with me! Plus, my microphone is crappy. That never helps, lol.

When I get back to school (Aug. 28), then after a week or so of practice, I will record this with myself on piano and my girlfriend on clarinet, if that is alright with you. :happy: We love doing little ditties like this.

So, about the music! Obviously you have acheived what you were going for. There is no mistaking the quality of this piece - it is meant to be fun to listen to, and equally as fun to play. ... But! You could have done more!! (always) Look at the piano part! Who wants to play simply the same 2-beat pattern over and over, granted switching between F and Gb, but still-- who? Of course, it's fun, but it's not all that interesting aside from the effect it gives the piece. But the point is, you can keep the effect whilst adding some more interest in the part, by changing some notes here and there, and making the piano part change as much as the melody. Experiment with different blue-notes, non-chord tones, dissonance, etc.! You use the raised 6 and the lowered 2 often enough-- experiment with a raised 4 here and there, or a low 7, or god-forbid throw in some raised 3rd!!! :ninja: If you find places where these experiments tickle your ear, as I have (examples following), please go for it and use them, as your pianist will be amply more pleased to play a piece with interesting little flavors in it.

Experiment 1 - At the beginning and all measures similar, I have played the first measure as is but with a G on top of the RH chord(you use this chord frequently as well), and then I have played the 2nd measure chords as follows, from bottom to top: A, C, Eb, Ab. This fits with the melody when it comes in (repeating the two measure experiment), as the G in the clarinet is reinforced by the G in the piano, then the piano G moves up to Ab as the clarinet is brought lower, which reinforces the raised 6 of the previous measure, which the piano has now moved up to a low 7, creating a nice little dissonance.

Experiment 2 - Alternating the RH chords between your Ab-C-D and a funkier Ab-B-D. It creates the mystery of the raised 4, whilst keeping with the overall tone of the piece.

Ex. 3 - Ms 19, the clarinet part (of course, any piano part experiment I have noted goes for this section as well): I have kept the first measure of this 4-ms part the same, then changed the second measure. I have moved the notes in the pattern to D, C, C#, keeping the pattern, but only moving the first and third notes up two tones. This reinforces your idea of the raised 6, and as the D will be held (according to the pattern) on the 4th beat of that measure, it will create a nice motion down to the Db in the following measure.

And another thing: in measure 35, I feel a drop of motion in the clarinet part, because in 33, the piano has a triplet-16 line, and slowing down to regular 16s in 35 seems anti-climactic. I would suggest making the clarinet run in 35 16 triplets, leading it up right to the next measure.

Other than those suggestions, I like the piece very much. It is very 'you', and it shows skill and craftmanship. Good work!! :)

Dude, cool man, thanks for taking all that time to give me those suggestions! I probably could have taken more time to add variety to the piano part, so I concur. I like that you added all those suggestions or "experiments" as well, I'll probably fiddle with them and maybe create a second version of the piece (with the added more intricate clarinet part - I had to water it down for my Dad, so this is version 2).

Do you want me to PM you with the transposed clarinet part and soforth, if you guys are really going to play it? I think I also put a printing restriction on this pdf, so I can work that out if you want. (can you hear the tinge of puppy dog longing in my voice, as any composer would have at the idea of their piece being played? :) )

Again though, the piano part - I totally agree. I wondered about it after I wrote it, intending the initial piano part to be a basic outline of the chord progression. Afterward, I just sort of...left it as it was, hee hee. It sounded okay and my dad's piano playing friend is fairly inexperienced, so it worked out. It will be neat now to try and make it more snazzy now that I'm back home. I'll probably retain two versions of the piece - this "easier" one and a more solid one. Perhaps I'll attach it in the thread just for the hell of it.

Anyway, I love you (in a friend way) for all your suggestions. I can't wait to try them later.

I loved this piece, Giselle.

I think it's extremely fun and entertaining to listen to and I can imagine listening to this while running after a plane. Although it's a little happy for the stress that such people are usually under.

Musically, the clarinet is superb and the writing is clean and professional. The piano is adequate, but as others have already mentioned, it could use some spicing up because it's a little tame in comparison with the clarinet. Perhaps that's intentional but it still wouldn't hurt to add some more flair to that piano.

I don't have anything else to say that hasn't already be said, so I'll just say again that I really enjoyed listening to this piece.

Great work! :laugh:

SOOOOOOOO WONDERFUL. It is sweet, cute, funny... Terrific.

The only suggestion I could offer is that maybe you explore the breaks you did at measures 11 & 32 a little more. You could probably use it more in your ending to make the piece come full circle even more.

Just a thought.

Just a thought.

....and a good one! ;)

It's cool!

That's not so hard to play I think, but...

Are you sure your dad can play a low Eb on his clarinet? (measure 21)

It's cool!

That's not so hard to play I think, but...

Are you sure your dad can play a low Eb on his clarinet? (measure 21)

Oops sorry

It's okay, good to check anyway, I've occasionally written out of range for an instrument by accident... :laugh:

I think anything I might have said has already been well articulated by others in this thread.

I enjoyed this piece giselle. It's lighthearted, fun, and a bit sassy. I especially liked the "back and forth" dialogue between piano and clarinet that starts at :37.

Did your father find it within his ability?