Waltz for Piano Solo (2019)

Dear all,

If you have read the international news, you may have noticed the situations of the Hong Kong protests. 

In absurd times, conscientious men dance to weird Waltzes. And I have written one.

Any comments are appreciated. Thank you.

Best,

HoYin

I like the use of quote, feels appropriate to the situation.

Yes, it gets atonal at some places. 

And yet-

1. Waltz is a pretty absurd way to describe riots. You might have meant it and yet I believe one would expect a more "broken" waltz.

Miss some beats,  make syncopations, insert a bar of 7 or 5 eights at random places.

2. It seems to... resolve. At many places. I don't think that it stands up to your idea. Yes, I saw that you suspended resolution at some places.

and yet... it has lots of little cadences and one big finale like a classical piece.

One way to avoid resolution would be using a whole tone scale (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVV0jkZC4jI&feature=youtu.be), maybe you should try that out.

3. The sudden fermatas and complete breaks kind of loosen the effect. I understand that it comes from a place of "let's surprise the listener with a sudden stop",

but to me it feels more like you blow the wind out of the sails. Insert a different surprise there instead. Maybe a sudden pitch shift, maybe sudden chromatic slide.

About the protest...

all I can do is do what the world usually does- look from the side, give a note or two, then go back to my own problems.

My state is going to monarchy as well. Hope that we won't have to get to this situation.

Hope all is well for you and your family.

36 minutes ago, Rabbival507 said:

I like the use of quote, feels appropriate to the situation.

Yes, it gets atonal at some places. 

And yet-

1. Waltz is a pretty absurd way to describe riots. You might have meant it and yet I believe one would expect a more "broken" waltz.

Miss some beats,  make syncopations, insert a bar of 7 or 5 eights at random places.

2. It seems to... resolve. At many places. I don't think that it stands up to your idea. Yes, I saw that you suspended resolution at some places.

and yet... it has lots of little cadences and one big finale like a classical piece.

One way to avoid resolution would be using a whole tone scale (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVV0jkZC4jI&feature=youtu.be), maybe you should try that out.

3. The sudden fermatas and complete breaks kind of loosen the effect. I understand that it comes from a place of "let's surprise the listener with a sudden stop",

but to me it feels more like you blow the wind out of the sails. Insert a different surprise there instead. Maybe a sudden pitch shift, maybe sudden chromatic slide.

I agree that I should have added more rhythmic odds to the piece. Yes, I should have developed more on the "broken" aspect, like what Debussy did in his La Valse.

However, different from his work, I tried to end the piece in a classical, or a bit cheerful ending, because that I wish the best for the future of Hong Kong and the hope for it to get out of the crisis.  That being said, in the theme  restatement I have added tritones to suggest there are still some hidden instabilities after the crisis that listener should be alerted of. 

Wish you the best too.