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First Piano Sonata: In Progress


caters

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I have listened to lots of composers from different eras. I love Chopin, Mozart, Bach, basically every classical music composer I listened to. But 1 rises above the rest in my mind and while Mozart might have inspired me to compose years ago, I tried writing a piano sonata in his style, and I never finished it. This along with the loss of my composition book years ago stopped me from composing or even thinking about it. But now I have found my composition book. Every day when I play the piano, I play at least 1 piece by my favorite composer. He wrote sonatas, symphonies, even a fugue.

Beethoven.thumb.jpg.313043af1d0de4f51de9b0c34d655247.jpg

It is Beethoven. I just love how his music sounds deceptively simple. That and he really expanded on Sonata Form. Mozart did expand a little on Sonata Form when he wrote his K 545 sonata with the Recapitulation starting in the subdominant for the first theme. But Beethoven expanded on it a lot, codas, intros, 1st and 2nd endings, and 1 of his sonatas is like barely a sonata. That would of course be his moonlight sonata also known as Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia. It also happens to be that the Moonlight Sonata is what inspired me to try writing a sonata again. Of course since the piano is the only instrument I play well, this sonata will be a piano sonata.

 

Here are the things I have decided on so far for the first movement of the sonata:

I want it to sound like someone is sleeping outside at night, gets uncertain about whether he/she is safe, then walks very tired to a safer spot.

So this implies some things about the tempo and dynamics. Those would be that the Exposition and Recapitulation would be quiet and slow while the development(the section with uncertainty) would be faster and repeatedly get louder.

I also figured that 1 of the best ways to get across the mood of uncertainty is to have the development section be a fugetto(little fugue).

I also decided on a few other things. I want this sonata to be in a minor key with flats(I find it easier to get emotion across with flats and minor keys. I try to do it with a major key and I get very little success(like I get 1 primary emotion and that's it). If I were composing in Mozart's style, this wouldn't be much of an issue but with Beethoven's style, I feel like I need it to be minor and have flats to get the emotion across). The rhythm in at least the first theme will be triplets.

Here are the keys that I know would be good choices:

D minor(Good starting key)

G minor(Good starting key)

Db minor(Good starting key(I know it is usually written as C# minor but I have seen it notated with B double flat in the key signature. Rarely do I see double flats or double sharps in a piece much less a key signature.))

C minor(Good key for the development(I find the emotion of C minor to be uncertain, just change 1 factor and clear difference in emotion))

Here are the keys I'm questioning:

F minor

Bb minor

Eb minor

Ab minor

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