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Lacrimosa for Piano Quartet, Op. 11


Theodore Servin

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The Lacrimosa for piano quartet was composed in 2019. It was written in reaction to the April 2019 Notre-Dame de Paris fire, an event that shocked me to such an extent that I felt compelled to put my feelings about it into music. The fact that one of the greatest architectural monuments in European history was suddenly getting destroyed was horrifying to me, especially considering that at the time, it was unknown how much of the building would actually survive.
 
This performance is a remote recording - that is, a recording where the musicians involved record each track separately, often times in different locations, as in the case of this recording. The artists are Javier Orman from AirGigs on the violin, JonathanCello from Fiverr on the cello and viola (the latter line played on the cello), and myself at the piano; these musicians were absolutely fantastic to work with. Here are the links to their professional pages:
 
 
I hope you all enjoy. 🙂
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Dramatic, energetic, and beautifully performed. The music is strongly similar to the style of Rachmaninoff. But that is not a negative thing; consider it to be a compliment.

You are really a remarkable composer (and pianist) – congratulations.

The only thing I was a bit confused about was the title of the piece. There is a lot of drama, but, perhaps apart from the beginning, I could not associate it with "Lacrimosa". But that may be just me.

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How are you so good!? 😆

Beautiful, emotional work. The melodies, such as that at 0:35 are exquisite.

Impressive recording! I would say it sounds live, although the viola part is recognisably a cello. The climax at 6:25 is moving and powerfully scored, even with the small number of instruments.

Well done, Theodore!

 

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10 hours ago, panta rei said:

Dramatic, energetic, and beautifully performed. The music is strongly similar to the style of Rachmaninoff. But that is not a negative thing; consider it to be a compliment.

You are really a remarkable composer (and pianist) – congratulations.

The only thing I was a bit confused about was the title of the piece. There is a lot of drama, but, perhaps apart from the beginning, I could not associate it with "Lacrimosa". But that may be just me.

Thank you so much, @panta rei! The name isn't necessarily meant to related to the text in the "Dies Irae" text, or the Catholic Requiem mass, but instead was only meant to evoke feelings of sorrow and loss, though I guess I added much more than just those feelings in the piece!

8 hours ago, aMusicComposer said:

How are you so good!? 😆

Beautiful, emotional work. The melodies, such as that at 0:35 are exquisite.

Impressive recording! I would say it sounds live, although the viola part is recognisably a cello. The climax at 6:25 is moving and powerfully scored, even with the small number of instruments.

Well done, Theodore!

Thank you, @aMusicComposer! I'm glad you enjoyed the piece as well as the performance!

Edited by Theodore Servin
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Very lyrical.

You never allow the energy you build go to waste, it's always dissipated the optimum moment, in the best way possible.The climax seems to go on and on, and it doesn't leave any room for boredom. Everything flows, there is no element that has to be added, nor taken away.

 Great job.

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A very beautiful, passionate and emotional piece full of lyrical phrases entwined with both sadness and hope - quite deserving of the title "Lacrimosa"!  The sections where some of the strings are pizzicato are among my favorite.  You're an amazing pianist for performing those very fast arpeggios that follow that part.  And the string players did a great job with those busy textures you wrote for them!  I like how you recapitulate the introduction - it's also an example of a section of your music which would have fared very poorly in a rendering but is given great meaning in a live recording.  Great job!  I enjoyed it thoroughly!

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Very, very nice.

I sense there are many people that want to write some Romantic piece, I think extremely few actually succeed. On the composer subreddit there's even a name for this: "YARB" (yet another Romantic behemoth). Your pieces seem to be the strange exception, this is very finely crafted and yet expressive. Congrats on the performance!

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Thanks, @Snake_Cake! I'm glad you liked it and the performance!

I've never heard that term "YARB" before (though I'm not a big Reddit user), but I can still respect attempts to write romantic music. It's not easy to write successful romantic music, blending harmonic beauty, emotion, depth, and creativity, into a flowing and sound piece of music, but I'm glad you thought my piece was successful!

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