Prelude No.2 - Live Performance by Henry Ng

Hey there

The second installment of my mini series. Hope you all enjoy, Db this time. 

Reminds me of Final Fantasy now that I think about it. :D

Nice job!  I really like the hemiola-like rhythmic feel of this!  Because you start the piece stressing an offbeat (offbeat in the triplets in the right hand in the beginning) it starts sounding like it's in 3/4 to me but with the triplet 8th notes as regular 8ths.  Then when the melody comes in in the 3rd bar it sounds like a 6/8 hemiola to that established 3/4 meter.  But after a while that becomes the dominant rhythmic stress and it makes sense why you notated it this way.

This is really interesting harmonically and quite soothing at the same time.  It's very mellow and sweet and cool, which can be a hard mood to pin down.  You do a line-cliche walk down  from Bb to Db from measure 18 to the end which is a great way to prepare the final resolution to a great musical satisfaction.  Thanks for sharing!  I think this one might actually be a little more difficult than No. 1.

Hi Vince,

For me this is very nocturne like and I feel this quite serene as it's in Db major, but with some sort of bitterness in it.

I love usage of the fourths and sevenths here as it adds flavours to the otherwise sweet melody and harmony.

I don't think the tempo is Larghetto here. For me it's quite Andante con moto with the flowing left hand motion.

I am thinking about the pedal since it can be quite blurrrring in actually playing with those non-harmonic notes but it depends on the piano and how deep you press on the pedal.

I enjoy your series so far and thanks for sharing Vince!

Henry

Thanks guys!

11 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

I really like the hemiola-like rhythmic feel of this!  Because you start the piece stressing an offbeat (offbeat in the triplets in the right hand in the beginning) it starts sounding like it's in 3/4 to me but with the triplet 8th notes as regular 8ths.  Then when the melody comes in in the 3rd bar it sounds like a 6/8 hemiola to that established 3/4 meter.  But after a while that becomes the dominant rhythmic stress and it makes sense why you notated it this way.

Interesting take, Peter. What's funny is it started as a chorale, was twice as long, and had the arpeggios enter in the middle. I ultimately thought it was too much, and reminded myself that these are preludes. Plus, the chorale-ness felt boring until the arpeggios anyway. I'm glad you found yourself listening to the rhythm in a different way, it wasn't intentional but I think it's cool you heard it like that. 

11 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

This is really interesting harmonically and quite soothing at the same time.  It's very mellow and sweet and cool, which can be a hard mood to pin down.  You do a line-cliche walk down  from Bb to Db from measure 18 to the end which is a great way to prepare the final resolution to a great musical satisfaction.  Thanks for sharing! 

Thanks man, this was my nocturne prelude idea. I usually always go for unexpected turns and interest with the harmony, so I'm glad you enjoyed that. I was going for extended chords that sounded lush and not-so-jazzy. I also ripped off Liszt's Un Sospiro with the ending theme, but hey. The end was my favorite part 😄

4 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

For me this is very nocturne like and I feel this quite serene as it's in Db major, but with some sort of bitterness in it.

My thoughts exactly!

4 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

I don't think the tempo is Larghetto here. For me it's quite Andante con moto with the flowing left hand motion.

oooooh you're right! I'm taking your suggestion and changing the score to reflect that, thanks!

4 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

I am thinking about the pedal since it can be quite blurrrring in actually playing with those non-harmonic notes but it depends on the piano and how deep you press on the pedal.

I agree. I slapped on pedal markings to go with the chord changes, but I think I should've considered the melody a bit more when doing so. Thanks for the tip!

It definitely sounds like FF

43 minutes ago, AngelCityOutlaw said:

It definitely sounds like FF

thanks for the insight

6 minutes ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

thanks for the insight

 

moar cowbell tho

On a more serious note, it was a very pleasant prelude to listen, dreamlike or nocturne-like as Henry said but less catchy than the first one, which isn't necessarily bad at all and in this case it just means that it is —most likely— less motivic-dependant.

Only thing I missed: a bit more of dynamics here and there. At least judging by the score I would agree with Peter and state that it indeed seems more difficult. BEWARE, for I began the same way "I want to make them easy" with my nocturnes and it surely didn't last long, lol. I also did plan to do like 10 or something at the beginning, BEWARE of that too.

Already looking forward to check the third one!!

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

Personally, although the accompaniment sounds fine as is, it could use some more changes in the rhythm and I would also agree about dynamics. The background kinda becomes just a little too background IMO

An orchestrated version would also be cool, but I say that about most things

oops 😄

On 3/4/2023 at 9:33 PM, Omicronrg9 said:

Only thing I missed: a bit more of dynamics here and there. At least judging by the score I would agree with Peter and state that it indeed seems more difficult. BEWARE, for I began the same way "I want to make them easy" with my nocturnes and it surely didn't last long, lol. I also did plan to do like 10 or something at the beginning, BEWARE of that too.

I thought about the dynamics, but ultimately decided it wasn't necessary. In hindsight, you're right. I bit of hairpins would have made a difference. Noted.

I realized this was more difficult, but with only two so far, I thought that was inevitable. I'm posting no.3 now, I think you'll notice it's the easiest 🙂

As always, thanks for listening my dude. 

On 3/4/2023 at 9:48 PM, AngelCityOutlaw said:

Personally, although the accompaniment sounds fine as is, it could use some more changes in the rhythm and I would also agree about dynamics. The background kinda becomes just a little too background IMO

True, the rhythm could have been a bit more varied. I'll keep your comment in mind for when I either revise these or for future pieces. Thanks man 

Once again, Henry is badass and recorded this piece. Check out his music if you haven't already, I'm sure he's reviewed something of yours. 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvJlL2flTJzwQYwK0QhE1SA

1 hour ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Once again, Henry is badass and recorded this piece. Check out his music if you haven't already, I'm sure he's reviewed something of yours. 

I am a real badass as I've forgotten to mention I've charged Vince $10000000000000000 for each prelude recorded. So I am already a trillionare now!

Henry