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Bagatelle in Eb major: An Homage to Beethoven


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My bagatelle in Eb, just as I thought, would be finished in the 16 day timeframe that I gave myself to write this piece. It is an homage to my favorite composer, Ludwig van Beethoven. You might notice that I use the motive basically throughout the piece. Beethoven does that a lot, so I figured that it would only fit if I did that too. And there are a lot of octaves. Again, Beethoven's pieces tend to have octaves all over the place. You might also notice a resemblance between the motive I use in my bagatelle and the Fate motive in Beethoven's Fifth. However, unlike in Beethoven's Fifth, I don't build chords out of overlaps of the motive. Instead I use the motive more for scalar motion and sequencing than building chords and tension.

There are 3 contrapuntal sections, all of which are related. The second contrapuntal section is the inversion of the first contrapuntal section. The third contrapuntal section is where the original and inversion overlap. I wasn't aiming for baroque style counterpoint, but I would say that my counterpoint in this bagatelle isn't too terrible. The key areas are also all related. There are 3 key areas in the piece. Obviously there is Eb major. The other key areas are minor keys, C minor and Eb minor. Not only are C minor and Eb minor both related to the home key of Eb major, but they are related to each other as well, being chromatic mediant keys.

The Coda is short, but the motive continues to be developed through most of it. This is I think, the part that resembles Beethoven's Fifth the most, what with the descending thirds and the Eb, D, C, D, Eb, motion in the bass. But, I never really have what I could call a Beethoven's Fifth moment in there, because the bass keeps chugging along in eighth note octaves while the melody develops the motive. The introductory 8 measures are supposed to first be played quietly and then loudly after the repeat, but I can't get it both in playback and notation so I settled for the notation. What do you think of my bagatelle?

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The main material (the initial phrase) is good and catchy. But it repeats excessively for the duration of the piece. I'd like to hear more parts as in measures 17-32, where the writing is based more in counterpoint. Anyway, I think the main issue, for me, is you rely in the same accompaniment during the whole piece, I mean the octaves. That ostinato plus the little harmonic movement makes it a bit tiring. 

This is something difficult to work with in the piano: the left hand. But looking for alternative solutions to an initial pattern will lead you to much better results. I don't think this left hand is wrong, but for 4:30 min becomes repetitive. If you keep the melody intact but change the left hand somewhere sometime it will sound more interesting.

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I agree a lot with @Luis Hernández.

Your melodic material is much stronger than the one from your previous pieces. 

Everything feels quite repetitive. Also, I'd say that the contrapunctal passages are not very strong, and last not enough for them to cause any impact.

Perhaps on your next pieces you could use a simpler form, that instead of relying on repetition relies on longer, more developmental sections. It would already make a ton of diference, as I sometimes sense you come up with something simple and just loops it over and over to the listener.

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