Prelude et Sonata for string quartet (finished)

After 4 months of work I finally finished this piece 🥳

I tried using modes and a Fauré-like style

G'day @Samuel_vangogh,

Some nice work going on here; well done!

If somebody were to ask you on the spot what it means to compose in a Fauré-like style, how would you explain it to him/her?

Anyway, keep it up!

Quinn St. Mark 

1 hour ago, Quinn St. Mark said:

Fauré-like style, how would you explain it to him/her?

Well, this piece is not a well example but:

- Usage of modal scales and shifting between them

- A classical Melody structure

- Melody based on small motives

- 'Light' texture 

- Romantic harmonies

Sometines, i find Ravel's style similar to Fauré's

There are some nice, effective moments here!  I really like the section beginning at m. 92, for instance.  I think that the sound font or VST you're using isn't doing you any favors, and there were some jarring moments as a result, like the forte at m. 20, which, alas, sounds rather artificial, like somebody just bumped the volume up suddenly.  There are some moments that sounded a little harmonically awkward to me, but I wonder if real performers approaching the music with the stylistic sensitivity it deserves would make those sound better (for instance, voice leading in mm. 84-85, where we have an E-F# minor second following an F natural, which sounded weird to me).

I'm also wondering about mm. 6-7 and mm. 12-13, where you write a harmonic but it sounds like the playback is just playing it as an ordinary double stop.

Overall, though, I enjoyed the impressionistic atmosphere of the piece and the shifting between modes.  Good job!

55 minutes ago, Aiwendil said:

you write a harmonic but it sounds like the playback is just playing it as an ordinary double stop

Yep, musescore doesn't produce artificial harmonics and sound fonts doesn't do any good.

Also, thank you for your comment, I agree that some moments are just a chords one after the another because I needed to modulate. This is my first large composition (i usually do piano pieces in ABA form about 3mins) and, although working on it was quite funny, i need to practice motive developments and treatments.

As a solution, i'm reading Schoenberg's books and studying JSBach's works!

hey there

I love this. I don't know much about Faure, I only know his G dorian sicilienne. 

I really like all the elements from his music you took. Lighter textures, modal melodies and harmony, they all sound great. 

Just a few thoughts:

- How come you didn't change key signatures when moving to a new tonal center? It seemed like when you did, you stayed there for a while. I just thought it might be easier to read if you did. 

- how do you feel about key sigs with modes? I always like to keep it based on minor/major scales while writing accidentals to let you know what mode it's in, but it's just a debate I've been curious about. 

- I wasn't too keen on the long repeats. I feel like your piece could have been much shorter while retaining the impact you're desiring. Maybe subtle variation with the repeated sections?

Overall though, this was great to listen to and I really enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing! 

Are there more movements coming or is this something considered stand alone? I'm satisfied with either path you take with this, well done!

19 minutes ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

How come you didn't change key signatures when moving to a new tonal center? It seemed like when you did, you stayed there for a while. I just thought it might be easier to read if you did. 

Sorry i didn't understand it quite well, my english level is yet developing 😭

19 minutes ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

how do you feel about key sigs with modes? I always like to keep it based on minor/major scales while writing accidentals to let you know what mode it's in, but it's just a debate I've been curious about. 

There are two academic ways:

- If you use C Jonian, Mixolydian and Lidyan you use C major key signature, and for the other modes, C minor

- Use the key signature with many accidentals as the mode used, [C phrigyan -> Ab Major Key signature]

19 minutes ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

I wasn't too keen on the long repeats. I feel like your piece could have been much shorter while retaining the impact you're desiring. Maybe subtle variation with the repeated sections?

Me neither, i had to write them cause this was suposed to be a sonata

There was another mouvement i published some months ago, a minuet, i will search the link

Found it!

THis is for quartet and piano because i had to change instrumentation because i played it with my chamber group

Thank you a lot for your kind comment, i rly appreciate it!

Hi @Samuel_vangogh,

The thing I enjoy most is the harmony. Wonderful harmonic change throughout the movement. My fav. modulation would be b.75 when you change to c minor there.

I absolutely love b.33 when cello is taking the lead with 1st violin having a countermelody. I love the motivic development and voices interacting in b.93. The hemiola in b.104 is wonderful.

For me I would like to see more changes of texture here. For me many passages are having a melody taking lead, usually the 1st violin. Maybe you can have more moments like the b.93 one. The mood can change more too since mostly it's lyrical. It's beautiful but sometimes can be less beautiful when the lyricism is unchanged.

So is this the prelude or the sonata movement? If this is supposed to be a sonata, is it in Sonata form? It doesn't seem like onr though. Also a sonata doesn't mandatorily has repeats for both sections.

Is the tone clash of E flat and E natural in b.100 intentional? It sounds very dissonant with a minor 2nd interval.

Thanks for sharing! I really enjoy this movement.

Henry

32 minutes ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

So is this the prelude or the sonata movement? If this is supposed to be a sonata, is it in Sonata form? It doesn't seem like onr though. Also a sonata doesn't mandatorily has repeats for both sections.

It's suposed to be both! I wrote the name wrong, it should be Prèlude-Sonate. Also, it is a sonata form (The second theme appears at 33) but i used the second theme in the reexposition as a coda

20 minutes ago, Samuel_vangogh said:

It's suposed to be both! I wrote the name wrong, it should be Prèlude-Sonate. Also, it is a sonata form (The second theme appears at 33) but i used the second theme in the reexposition as a coda

So where is the prelude? Or this is a sonata which is also the prelude? For me now b.1 will be 1st subject, b.33 is the 2nd subject, b.63 the development, b.107 is the recapitulation but starts on G major, b.138 the 2nd subject back to D major. For me you should add a coda after the recapitulation since I think it ends too quickly, and I don't think b.138 is a coda, since to be a coda you have to have a perfect cadence on the tonic (or the Essential Structural Closure, ESC) before it, and all materials in the coda should hence be post-cadential. But here you don't achieve the PAC until the end.

Henry

2 minutes ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Or this is a sonata which is also the prelude?

That's the point, the second movement would be one i published some months ago.

Would you mind to explain what ESC and PAC is? Ive mever heard of those

14 minutes ago, Samuel_vangogh said:

Would you mind to explain what ESC and PAC is? Ive mever heard of those

PAC is perfect authentic cadence, which is a V-I cadence with the do (^1/^8) on top voice. ESC (essential structural closure) is a term from Sonata Theory by Hepokoski and Darcy, which simply speaking is a PAC on tonic in the 2nd subject of the recapitulation and thus the goal to reach tonic of the movement is acheived through it, hence a structural closure.

Henry