Minuet in E minor

So after writing music for quite some time, I realized that I haven't formally tested out the Minuet and Trio form. Thus, I've decided to give it a go to see what would happen. Reviews would be nice!

Hopefully it'll be part of a bigger work (such as a multiple movement string quartet).

Format of composition: Theme - Trio I - Trio II - Coda

It is very good how you develop and reuse some ideas and motives, like the quick semiquaver figure or the rising quaver - semiquaver figure. The form is surprising for a classical minuet, even given that minuets can be structured in a lot of different ways. Though there are minuets with two trios (e.g. Schubert D335, Haydn Hob. I:51, Mozart KV 563), they typically are structured like a rondo:  Minuet - Trio I - Minuet da capo - Trio II - Minuet da capo - (Coda). The MP3 omits several repetitions, which is fine with me, but I would urge you to listen to it with all intended repetitions and then judge if there are too many thematic déjà-vus across the parts of the minuet or not. Perhaps you could make the Trios more contrasting, e.g. by a surprising modulation (to a major key?), thinner texture (perhaps making a literal trio out of it with changes in who constitutes the trio), or getting more mileage out of some of your ideas, that is for instance concentrating on developing m. 22ff. in a trio part more thoroughly. You reuse it, but I think you could make more out of it.

I am no violinist, so I have no idea if the changes of arco to pizzicato and back are always workeable.

I find the end of the phrase in m. 2-6 mildly irritating. You use the melodic minor scale with the sharpened leading tone, but end the phrase on it. Thus it sounds like a modulation to B Major, not like a half cadence. This can be a feature or a bug, depending on your intentions.

I am impressed by your use of imitations to make music livelier, the texture richer and also how you really work with all parts. This is no "violin + cello" duo with filler parts; instead, all of them have interesting passages to play.

Thanks for sharing your minuet which surely was a lot of work to write and is very interesting to listen to.

Edited November 28, 20178 yr by Willibald

On 11/28/2017 at 5:28 AM, Willibald said:

It is very good how you develop and reuse some ideas and motives, like the quick semiquaver figure or the rising quaver - semiquaver figure. The form is surprising for a classical minuet, even given that minuets can be structured in a lot of different ways. Though there are minuets with two trios (e.g. Schubert D335, Haydn Hob. I:51, Mozart KV 563), they typically are structured like a rondo:  Minuet - Trio I - Minuet da capo - Trio II - Minuet da capo - (Coda). The MP3 omits several repetitions, which is fine with me, but I would urge you to listen to it with all intended repetitions and then judge if there are too many thematic déjà-vus across the parts of the minuet or not. Perhaps you could make the Trios more contrasting, e.g. by a surprising modulation (to a major key?), thinner texture (perhaps making a literal trio out of it with changes in who constitutes the trio), or getting more mileage out of some of your ideas, that is for instance concentrating on developing m. 22ff. in a trio part more thoroughly. You reuse it, but I think you could make more out of it.

I am no violinist, so I have no idea if the changes of arco to pizzicato and back are always workeable.

I find the end of the phrase in m. 2-6 mildly irritating. You use the melodic minor scale with the sharpened leading tone, but end the phrase on it. Thus it sounds like a modulation to B Major, not like a half cadence. This can be a feature or a bug, depending on your intentions.

I am impressed by your use of imitations to make music livelier, the texture richer and also how you really work with all parts. This is no "violin + cello" duo with filler parts; instead, all of them have interesting passages to play.

Thanks for sharing your minuet which surely was a lot of work to write and is very interesting to listen to.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

Overall I like the music.

Sometimes the music sounds illogical, but that is just a thing that you need to develop more.
Practise and experience will help that, don't worry.

The modulations are very impressive!

Maybe you could add more articulation to the piece like staccato, bow directions / legato.
Dynamics would help too.

22 minutes ago, Maarten Bauer said:

Overall I like the music.

Sometimes the music sounds illogical, but that is just a thing that you need to develop more.
Practise and experience will help that, don't worry.

The modulations are very impressive!

Maybe you could add more articulation to the piece like staccato, bow directions / legato.
Dynamics would help too.

 

Thank you for taking a listen, yet may I ask: what sounded "illogical" to you? It would be helpful if you could elaborate on that.

1 minute ago, Maximus said:

Thank you for taking a listen, yet may I ask: what sounded "illogical" to you? It would be helpful if you could elaborate on that.

 

I don't have the time to mention all places, but one of them is m. 10, in which the voice leading does not sound right to me.