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Prelude in G minor (revised)


bkho

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I've been revising older works of late, particularly my earlier piano pieces.  This is the third of a set of three pieces where each work emulates one of the major old style of Western Music (Baroque, Classical, Romantic).  It's a someone free-wheeling, highly virtuosic work (I've been told that an earlier version may not have been playable which I've since tried to address) and is essentially a piano transcription of the ending of another work of mine for violin and orchestra.  I recently acquired some nice piano sounds which I also tried out on this work (VI Labs Ravescroft 275).

Score is attached but as always, it's a bit messy.

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Most of my comments on pieces on YC seem to be nitpicking specific moments in the harmonies, but I really don't know how else to give feedback. So here's a few thoughts I had on this piece (which I do like!)

I feel like you could have kept the E flat in the upper voice in bar 15 up until the pause, and then dropped it afterwards - it was feeling like a pedal point to me and I missed it when it went away early.

The repeated B flat chord in bars 41-42 feels slightly unnatural to me - it feels like something should change between those two chords. I'd probably prefer to have the first one in F, or as a different inversion of B flat.

Just so you know, a 10th (bar 53) is impossible to play for most people.

In bar 90 I really think you could have an A-F interval on the 3rd beat (and an F-D interval on the last quaver), it works just fine in my head, and sounds more natural than changing the interval for those two moments. Same goes for bar 102 - keeping the 6th going feels nicer.

I quite like the section from 108 on, even if I'm not sure how playable it is. I like the textures you have going there, they make a nice close to the piece. I don't think the chords in bar 122-123 make sense in a romantic context though - the usual progression goes I-iv-V6-V-i. Ie, G7 as you have, but then Cm root, Gm 2nd inversion, D7, Gm. (With the added A dim chord thingy just before the D7 of course.)

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Those gigantic arpeggios would still be exceptionally difficult for even a virtuoso to play unless they stretch the time a bit --  I am talking about the start of arpeggios like in m.13. Look at arpeggio writing by Chopin--they often follow each note in the chord and inversions. Skipping notes like that is really tough at that tempo, and my hands hurt severely just looking at them. :)

I love the piano sounds. I would imagine most people couldn't tell it's a virtual realization unless they were thinking about it or listening closely to the fast parts!

I don't have comments on this style of music from a compositional standpoint, though. I've never been a fan of flashy Romantic era music, neither the originals nor resurgence, but that has absolutely nothing to do with your writing (just explaining why I only commented on the technical aspect as a performer).

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