Intervalic piece for Horn and Piano

Hellooo, I wrote this piece after hearing birds on my window!!

I tried atonal music for first time ever, It was really fun to explore new sonorities and to apply them to my music! (as main intervals I used semitone and major and minor thirds) hope you like it!

Hello Sameul, 

Shall we talk about the sinister colors of this atonal this piece? For there are many!  I love dark piano acc., which follows that lush, lost violin line.  It daunts us as listener to ever so much.  Not many know the powers of atonal music. 

Here, you have master done that!

Kudos.  

Not bad 🙂

Indeed there's a dark, melancholic mood surging out of it.

Interesting work! It definitely borders on atonal, with some definite centricity on A that keeps it from going too far out of bounds. In fact, you've got an interesting arc here, with two (014) trichords at the beginning and end being sort of "built" off the tonic and dominant of A, even cooler because the "0" in both cases isn't the same note. It's a cool idea, something that George Walker probably would have been fond of.

If there's one thing I'd point out is that a lot of the register and dynamic jumps feel a little abrupt. Now, don't get me wrong, I know that happens all the time in more avant-garde music (e.g., Crumb), but—I don't know—it feels like those have a little more pomp and circumstance to them because of the way they grow and decay. For that reason, I'd suggest playing with rhythm a lot more; giving yourself the space to do some really interesting rhythmic interplay will immerse your listener in the intervallic web you want to make instead of necessarily always having to be explicit about it with discrete musical cells of vertical harmonies and lines. 

The last of Saariaho's Papillons is a good example. Lots of semitones in there but it oscillates so much you just sort of recognize it implicitly and it flows between different playing styles (timestamped): 

Nitpicks:
1. You have it listed as Horn in F; make sure your score actually is in F (it's concert right now).
2. The fun thing about truly atonal music is that the spelling doesn't matter a ton; it's different here because you've got a pseudo-tonal thing going on, but even still, I don't think there's a need to have unnecessarily uncommon spellings like the E# in the last three measures.
3. Keep clef changes where the notes are played, not the beginning of the bar, e.g., mm. 13, 15. 
4. The semitone addition in mm. 13–14 is a cool muddy echo, but I kind of want more out of it; maybe go even further into the depths?

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Edited October 6, 2025Oct 6 by Samuel_vangogh

@Monarcheon

Hey whoah! Thank you for your feedback! I'll definitely check that piece!

As for the abrupt register changes: its kinda of a musical effect, since this piece is written after the conversation a duck and a bird had on my window when i was playing piano, so i wanted to represent the odd yet amusing change in sounds and flow between the two animals

5 minutes ago, Samuel_vangogh said:

its kinda of a musical effect, since this piece is written after the conversation a duck and a bird had on my window when i was playing piano, so i wanted to represent the odd yet amusing change in sounds and flow between the two animals

That totally makes sense. Like I said, abruptness isn't a bad thing, but aurally justified abruptness often feels more satisfying, and I think that's more the vibe you're going for with this; that is to say, I don't think you're going for something intentionally incoherent.

As another example (also about birds lol) here's the first movement of Cantus Arcticus: listen as more and more weird little figures gets added to this texture, some of them very out of character, but then you sort of... get used to it. Rautavaara takes the time to make you feel like those additions are worth it, you know? 

(Timestamped): https://youtu.be/TO3YRZWLvQo?t=60

Edited October 6, 2025Oct 6 by Monarcheon

Thank you! Cantus articus is my personal favourite, i shall take all of this into consideration!

Sounds like you have a strong grasp on aTonal music!  It's not repulsive as experimental atonal music, but it conveys well the message of urgency and importance to the audience.  

Since you have that down, I recommend exploring more compositional techniques; personally, I don't like long intros, and drawn out sections.  The shape of the overall structure doesn't need to be so square.  I love the dramatic qualities of the work!

If you need more atonal inspiration, check out my website:

www.atonalfugue.com

Here, you will find that the numbers apply to just about anything.  I wish you well on your total serialism journey, and I'm sure the birds do as well.

Thank you!

 

Hi @Samuel_vangogh!

Like @Monarcheon said the use of 014 set is very apparent start from the beginning, as well as in b.20 choral texture which is basically the superimpositions of multiple 014 chords, which makes the whole music structurally tight. I actually like the direct shift of register since I think it's a good contrast particularly when you combine it with the change of dynamics, timbre and texture. I also agree with @Monarcheon that you could have added more rhythmic variety to the music but given the short time of the movement it's fine for me. Maybe add some more rhythmic variety if this movement would have a contrasting section. Also I feel like the piano writing could be more lucid. Thx for sharing!

Henry