Soliloquy for Guitar No. 7

This is my Soliloquy for Guitar No. 7. I hope you like it. I would value all feedback, especially by classical guitarists.

Concerning form, I do not get the impression that your piece confers a closed musical thought. It sounds like a collection of unconnected thoughts. This is entirely a question of personal taste, though, so I will not give you my personal opinion on that.

When it comes to your choice of instrument, however, I must say that your piece is rather unidiomatic. Pieces for the guitar are, in most cases, polyphonic; unaccompanied lines are of course possible, especially in cadenza-like passages, but otherwise a melody is usually accompanied by chords in the lower voices. Admittedly, one has to keep the fingering in mind since a guitarist can only stretch his fingers so far. Nevertheless, your writing is rather abstract. Certainly, one could play the given piece on a classical guitar, but there is no reason why one should, apart from a personal preference for its timbre maybe.

To sum it up: Regardless of questions of form, your writing does not really fit the idiom of classical guitar. I would advise you to write for either an instrument you are (more) familiar with or which is less sensitive to unidiomatic writing.

1 hour ago, GuitarThrowaway said:

Concerning form, I do not get the impression that your piece confers a closed musical thought. It sounds like a collection of unconnected thoughts. This is entirely a question of personal taste, though, so I will not give you my personal opinion on that.

When it comes to your choice of instrument, however, I must say that your piece is rather unidiomatic. Pieces for the guitar are, in most cases, polyphonic; unaccompanied lines are of course possible, especially in cadenza-like passages, but otherwise a melody is usually accompanied by chords in the lower voices. Admittedly, one has to keep the fingering in mind since a guitarist can only stretch his fingers so far. Nevertheless, your writing is rather abstract. Certainly, one could play the given piece on a classical guitar, but there is no reason why one should, apart from a personal preference for its timbre maybe.

To sum it up: Regardless of questions of form, your writing does not really fit the idiom of classical guitar. I would advise you to write for either an instrument you are (more) familiar with or which is less sensitive to unidiomatic writing.

 

Hi. Thanks for your review and feedback. From your name I assume that you are a guitar player. So I respect your opinion. I wonder what you mean when you say "Nevertheless, your writing is rather abstract"

Sometime, my teacher called something I wrote "abstract music" because it was not written with instrumental voices in mind, but rather as a compositional exercise(in counterpoint). Having no better term at hand, I tried to express that your composition is abstract from the guitar and its playing style(what I also called "unidiomatic"). I also partially listened to your Soliloquy No. 33 for Violin and felt like it was certainly playable on violin, but did not make use of its special techniques. I am no violinist, of course, so I am inclined to trust your experience as a cellist. Maybe a few notes may excuse my imprecise expression:

- small melodic steps(jumps are perfectly playable as long as fingering is kept in mind)

- mostly monophonic(the six strings permit proper accompaniment rather well)

Combining just the two notes, it would be more idiomatic to begin the piece in a higher register(c' for example), so one could sprinkle in some bass notes to emphasize the harmony(A minor is strongly implied, I assume you had that in mind). Again, if you are not aiming for such a style of writing, I would not argue against that, but it certainly is the traditional style of writing for the guitar and something a performer would expect.

Another thing I just stumbled upon, concerning your melodic writing: Between the third beat of m. 2 and the last beat of m. 3, you travel down a fifth almost in one jump and a ninth upwards in three consecutive jumps. Of course, melodies are to be judged by the ear, but such large (consecutive) jumps are traditionally discouraged because they are rather hard to sing(i. e. not naturally melodic) or, here at the very least, not used as as means of heightened expression. If I were to sketch the melodic outlines, this would certainly stand out visually while not giving a sense of a melodic peak. Additionally, your isorhythmic writing(all quarter notes in the first six bars) makes the melody rather tepid; I would try to incorporate a rhythm just as you do in ms. 9-11. Then again, Ms. 12 f. seem sparsely connected to those before. At the intersection of harmony and melody, your first six measures could also sound more compelling if the implied tonic was approached via its leading tone(just like in ms. 14 ff.).

In essence, apart from what I told you in regards to how a guitarist would usually accompany himself to fill out the harmony, I would try to make the melody more interesting, especially rhythmically. Maybe you could also carve out a motif; I myself find the four consecutive notes in m. 7 rather memorable. After skimming three of your pieces, I sense you might benefit from coming back to something you wrote down and try to elaborate on it(melodically, rhythmically etc.).

Hopefully, this does not sound harsh and you can make good use of advice.

nice piece, it looks like its playable with practise, just a head ups slur notation on guitar indicates for a hammer-on or pull-off which isn't what I think you intended all the time

1 hour ago, Gyugcac said:

nice piece, it looks like its playable with practise, just a head ups slur notation on guitar indicates for a hammer-on or pull-off which isn't what I think you intended all the time

 

Thanks Gyugcac for your review and positive feedback. I was not familiar with the terms "hammer-on" and "pull-up". I have just used the slurs to indicate legatos. I will try to explore the distinction and make better and more informed use of it in the future.