Waltz in C Minor

Hay all, I have a new piece! It is a Waltz in C Minor for Solo Piano.

It is in a messed up Sonata Form. I really don't have much to say about it...

It took about a week. I really worked hard on bass line and development!! I hope it worked!!

Well...

My computer almost crashed trying to play this. Think you got enough mordants? jk.

Pretty good. Fairly enjoyable.

Harmonies need some work.

Hey!

Well my first comment right off the bat is that there are a good number of chords in your left hand which are far too thick to sound good in my opinion. Also, the rhythmic switch at 1:15 or so was jarring and rather atypical of the form.

Otherwise I liked this a lot and I thought it had a very interesting mood to it - almost like a rainy evening in Paris. Modern Paris, but Paris. You hit the nail on the head with development, I thought it fit well with the piece. Try fixing the end though...I understand the rather funny twist you were trying to give it, but the execution is flawed. Just fix that up a bit.

Overall, good work. Try to take my comments into account if you ever edit it and you'll have yourself a fine piece. Nicely done :)

Thank you! I tried my hardest on that develpoment... it took me almost 4 days to finish making it varied enough! I am going to edit the piece when I get a few more comments, then I will repost the new one with more commentary on the structure and harmonic lining of the piece. I am hoping to make a book on Piano Pieces and I think this will be in there...

YAY!!!

not a very good piece of composition, the chords made me feel extremely uneasy. reminds me of either death, or torture. If you were shooting for a graceful Straussian/Chopinesque waltz, you have failed... I suggest that you should listen to more Strauss jr, or Chopin, before writing more waltzes.

2/10

SchubertTrout...harsh. Wow.

I thought it was pretty good. I agree with what Marius said about the left hand chords. WAY to thick! They drown out the right hand melodies...which are actually really good!! There is also far too much dissonance in the chords, and some of them don't seem to fit harmonically. This piece certainly has an interesting mood about it. I like a lot of what you did, especially with the grace notes. Change the left hand up a bit and you will have a very nice piece here. Good work. :thumbsup:

I think there's something that many people forget about is the spirit of a determined composition. A waltz is a dancing piece with a characteristical bass line made in 3/4 time (there are some excemptions).

They can be slow (like my Quatre-Quarts Vals du Fatale Fantasie) or fast (Chopin's op.18), but they are all danceable. This has no spirit on it, just mere "syntaxis".

The next waltz you make, try to infuse it with a dance feeling (slow, fast, lively, macabre, etc...).

Do your best!

Thank you all!! I love those reviews, very harsh and truthful....

I will take all of these into consideration when I do my next waltz.

Trout- I understand where you're coming from, but I haven't really ever listened to any waltzes before... So, I really didn't know what I was going for.

Everyone else regarding bass line- Thanks, is there any way I can fix the bass line?

Not bad. It will be better if you rename it thought, this piece sure ain't danceable. maybe you could let the left hand softer a bit, that way it wouldn't have interfered with the right hand. Good luck. :(

not a very good piece of composition, the chords made me feel extremely uneasy. reminds me of either death, or torture. If you were shooting for a graceful Straussian/Chopinesque waltz, you have failed... I suggest that you should listen to more Strauss jr, or Chopin, before writing more waltzes.

2/10

Sheesh, ever hear of common courtesy?

The numbers he gives are not important Morivou, ignore the numbers, but take the criticism and learn from it

Cheers!

edit: Another thing, Trout's post was a mere opinion, he seems to think that all his OPINIONS are fact. Don't treat them like it Morivou.

I here ya'!

Way to Go Mori... This sounds great. I'm with Eddwin tho.. could use some better harmonization.

It a very nice piec but if you put some more dynamics in there it will be a lot better. Also you can make you cords thinner by ommiting the notes that are played on the right hand!!

Sheesh, ever hear of common courtesy?

The numbers he gives are not important Morivou, ignore the numbers, but take the criticism and learn from it

Cheers!

edit: Another thing, Trout's post was a mere opinion, he seems to think that all his OPINIONS are fact. Don't treat them like it Morivou.

how did you know that i think my opinions are mere fact, my opinion is mere opinion. I am just a very quantitative person, i like numbers better than, "good" "bad" "so-so", just being honest here.

how did you know that i think my opinions are mere fact, my opinion is mere opinion. I am just a very quantitative person, i like numbers better than, "good" "bad" "so-so", just being honest here.

You didn't even give him any advice on the piece itself, you just bashed him and told him to listen to more music. And you did act like your opinion is fact, whether you meant to or not

It was an OK piece; I agree with what most people said about the thickness of the chords. From what I've learned, a waltz is supposed to contain an even number of measures - like a minuet. Your intro has 7 measures. I also feel that measures 21-26 don't really go anywhere. In my opinion, it would be appropriate to go directly to measure 25 right after measure 20, or even to 27for that matter. I like the melody, esp. around measures 40-70. However, you can work a little more on harmonization. I feel that it is only hindering the melody. The entire piece lacks dynamics. Dynamics are what makes a piece interesting! Esp. in the beginning of a new section and the coda.

Overall, this piece is nice. Harmonization is a key factor in waltzes; you should work a little bit more on it. Other than that, you did well.

Thanks Jeremiah!

You didn't even give him any advice on the piece itself, you just bashed him and told him to listen to more music. And you did act like your opinion is fact, whether you meant to or not

I did, I told him to Listen to Strauss, and Chopin. That's the best thing for him to do in order to improve his writing skills.

Yes, he did! And, I AM! They sound awesome.

I did, I told him to Listen to Strauss, and Chopin. That's the best thing for him to do in order to improve his writing skills.

Listening and writing are two completely different things. You didn't say anything actually related to the piece, you basically said

This isn't a very good piece. Listen to more music

no words at all about how he could make it better. (chromatics, harmony techniques etc...) You should probably think about a more polite and helpful way to review, no one likes a hater.

Of course, you have to understand that listening to music will improve your writing!

Of course, you have to understand that listening to music will improve your writing!

it will, but it's also important to write music, just listening won't really increase anything, you have to put to action what you learned.

I understand.

Listening and writing are two completely different things. You didn't say anything actually related to the piece, you basically said

This isn't a very good piece. Listen to more music

no words at all about how he could make it better. (chromatics, harmony techniques etc...) You should probably think about a more polite and helpful way to review, no one likes a hater.

theory can be taught, writing music cant. There is much more one can learn from listening to a piece of music than listening to meaningless advice. When it comes to writing a piece of music, the composer is in charge, if i gave him advice, i would be controling the direction of which his music goes, in away, i am writing the music for him, saying he should do this, and do that... that's the worse way to help someone. Originality is the most important thing in music writing. Once he has heard the master's work. He'll know what he has done wrong, and correct his mistakes by himself, and hence preserve his own originality. This is the precise reason why i don't give "advices", i don't want to write music for other people, and I certainly would not want someone else to alter my own artwork. We should all learn from what happened with Bruckner... It is better for YOU to correct it yourself than listening to the so called "advices" from me or anyone else, they seldom help.

WRITE YOUR OWN MUSIC

don't alter it too, it's a bad composition, but keep it the way it is. Go off and make new compositions once you feel that you are more confident and know more about music.

theory can be taught, writing music cant. There is much more one can learn from listening to a piece of music than listening to meaningless advice. When it comes to writing a piece of music, the composer is in charge, if i gave him advice, i would be controling the direction of which his music goes, in away, i am writing the music for him, saying he should do this, and do that... that's the worse way to help someone. Originality is the most important thing in music writing. Once he has heard the master's work. He'll know what he has done wrong, and correct his mistakes by himself, and hence preserve his own originality. This is the precise reason why i don't give "advices", i don't want to write music for other people, and I certainly would not want someone else to alter my own artwork. We should all learn from what happened with Bruckner... It is better for YOU to correct it yourself than listening to the so called "advices" from me or anyone else, they seldom help.

WRITE YOUR OWN MUSIC

don't alter it too, it's a bad composition, but keep it the way it is. Go off and make new compositions once you feel that you are more confident and know more about music.

That's why you use such words as "In my opinion" and "I think this would work better but that's only my opinion" And actually, advice is the reason that they post things here. Advice is not changing someone to another direction, people will come to others for advice, it's not wrong to give someone advice on how to make things better. You think you're teaching him, in a way you are, but it would be very hard to get someone to change what they're doing now in music. However, if you say things like "This sucks! MY ears hurt!" And "You failed" and that's all you say. They have no earthly idea how to fix it, that's where advice comes in. All you said was that this is a bad piece, listen to more music. Your wording makes you seem arrogant, and if you're not careful, you could easily offend a young composer and quickly throw a wet rag on their fire.

Here's the way I look at it

We ALL sucked at one point, even you. And you would never have gotten to the level of composing that you're at now by saying that all your compositions are terrible.