Hommage à Ferdinand Cheval

Made a small tribute to Ferdinand Cheval. He lived from 19 April 1836 – 19 August 1924 and was a French postman. He had much imagination and one day he decided to make a palace of his own. 33 years long he build his own fantasy palace: 'Palais idéal'. One can still visit it in Hauterives. This piece of music is not so much a musical description of the palace but a tribute to the man who build the palace of his dreams with relentless perseverance. He made inscriptions in his palace and one of them reads: 1879-1912 10,000 days, 93,000 hours, 33 years of struggle. Let those who think they can do better try."  If you ever feel like giving up the arts: think of Ferdinand Cheval!

This reminds me of some of Debussy's Preludes.  It has that parallelism and you also seem to frequently use whole-tone scales.  I can't help but hear the music as a representation of the palace though.  Maybe it's just me but the music has that architectural logic and seems reminiscent of Debussy's "Cathedrale Engloutie".  I like it though.  It's very much like the palace itself - an exercise in sort of random rather than pragmatic design with lots of ornamentation.  Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for the comment! I understand you see the same kind of architectural logic as in the palace. Both have something of an improvisation. But I feel mine is a bit more structured. In my piece I first have the theme and in the next section I take certain elements from the theme further, I come back to the theme again, taking elements further, etcetera. It's a bit messy and rough but it gives me a sense of freedom in this way. Maybe Ferdinand Cheval appreciated his freedom too... I like these outsider artists...

Skillfully done.

You played some of those two-handed chords as arpeggiated, but didn't indicate that in the score.

I love this. The main melody has an in-your-face nonchalance about it -- "I don't care what anybody thinks. The piece goes this way because this is how the piece goes." Just like the palace.

Re: bar 57, I was actually eating salmon while listening. OK, it was steelhead trout, but the story is that it was salmon. Because that's the story.

You've also reminded me that I'll never be a real pianist.

On 3/3/2022 at 9:36 PM, Jerry Engelbach said:

Skillfully done.

You played some of those two-handed chords as arpeggiated, but didn't indicate that in the score.

 

Thank you Jerry for comment, I will look to those arpeggios!

12 hours ago, Tom Statler said:

I love this. The main melody has an in-your-face nonchalance about it -- "I don't care what anybody thinks. The piece goes this way because this is how the piece goes." Just like the palace.

Re: bar 57, I was actually eating salmon while listening. OK, it was steelhead trout, but the story is that it was salmon. Because that's the story.

You've also reminded me that I'll never be a real pianist.

 

Yeah I get your feeling about the melody. It's true 🙂 Actually  someone is studying this. When we have a recording I post here 🙂

This is really cool. I really like how it doesn't overstay its welcome. I can also recognize a more "thematic" approach than if it were something by Debussy, which is the obvious main comparison, since you're using some of that language here. As for the playability and tempo, it's probably going to be a little slower than what the midi puts out but that's a good thing. Some parts, specially the bass arpeggios with the staccato chords do get a little lost if you play them too fast.

On 3/14/2022 at 9:08 AM, SSC said:

This is really cool. I really like how it doesn't overstay its welcome. I can also recognize a more "thematic" approach than if it were something by Debussy, which is the obvious main comparison, since you're using some of that language here. As for the playability and tempo, it's probably going to be a little slower than what the midi puts out but that's a good thing. Some parts, specially the bass arpeggios with the staccato chords do get a little lost if you play them too fast.

 

Agreed the tempo is better a bit slower in real life. These midifiles take so much away from a real pianosound... Anyway, thanks for your kind response!