Liebesfreud for piano trio

Hi everyone,

Here's a short piece for piano trio I wrote over the summer. Let me know what you think and things I should keep in mind for future pieces.

A clearer PDF score is attached below.

Thanks!
J Shu

Believe it or not, to be technically correct, in the beginning, your right hand needs to be a different time signature from the left, since the left hand is playing a compound quadruple, but you right hand, as it's written would have to be playing quadruple octuple; or that it's playing simple triple within that eighth note framework. 
You have a good sense of direction to your music, and it comes out in the exposition really well. It gets a little bit lost in the development because it's throwing too many variables in the mix with the polyrhythm and motivic sense at the same times, rather than building on them.
I would let your piano part branch out a little bit more. It's currently pretty static in its role, while the strings move around quite a bit. It's tempting to keep it this way since the piano can play the most notes, but if everything blends, then there will be no such need for that trope. Nice work.

It's really nice to listen to in the background but (just from what I hear, it's probably an absolute sin) I would delete bar 64, it just seems like it should finish there, can't really explain why.

Overall, really nice! :)

Thank you both for taking the time to listen to and review my piece!

@Monarcheon--I believe form is my biggest weakness as a composer, and I hope to be more strategic about mapping my pieces in the future. Currently, I pretty much rely on instinct and experimentation, but it might be helpful to study some tried-and-true formulas, with which I can construct sustainable long-form pieces. Would you mind sharing how you began experimenting with musical form in composition?

@Leander20null1--I definitely see your point of view. Personally, I like the effect of that augmented chord, as it echoes some harmonic patterns that appeared previously in the piece. I will keep it for now, but I might change my mind over time...

Happy New Year!

J Shu

I thought this was a nice piece! The harmonies in the beginning made me think of Fauré's In Paradisum, though this is not a bad thing at all -- just something that stood out to me. I didn't particularly mind the form you laid out either. I can definitely see the piano being a little 'static' at times, and I agree with the comment on bar 64 -- it seems to slow things down a bit. I am a very meticulous writer, re-composing pieces from scratch several times, and I think experimenting with that opens up some cool ideas sometimes. Overall, I enjoyed the piece!

@Jared Steven Destro Thanks very much for your review! I'll keep your suggestions in mind!