WIP - First Piano Concerto (Feedback Wanted)

Hey everyone. I have been going back and forth on my first piano concerto for a long time. Unfortunately, I reached a point where my original design has acted as a roadblock for me to finish the first movement. I decided to restart the work and compose from scratch. I will add more context below, however as an introduction, this excerpt is the entire exposition of my first draft. It is five minutes long and I wish to have it preserved here on YCF. So, sit back, and follow along to the work-in-progress of my first concerto! 🎹

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CONTEXT AND FEEDBACK:
I started this project back in June 2024 when I improvised the first theme in one of my practice sessions. I fell in love with it and immediately knew I found a theme worthy for a concerto. I am sticking to late classical (and possible romantic hints) for this work. Hummel, Shostakovich, and Rachmaninoff are the main three sources of inspiration for my orchestration. It follows Sonata-form, however using three themes (1st, 2nd and closing theme) in the exposition. Recently, as I have been diving heavily into the works of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, it has dawned on me the level of sophistication each composer had in their writing. How Beethoven would use elements of the first theme to make his second theme, and later use the first movement as basis for theme and variation writing or fugal writing in his third movements.

So, after a break in the first half of the year, I have been looking at this exposition and tried to add sophistication. However, I noticed so many gaps in the structure. As it stands, it feels like a compilation of several themes versus one long work showcasing the transformation of the motif and form. As a result, I have stopped working on it and grabbed a blank manuscript and wrote down the key three themes I want to use. I have yet to start rewriting, as I want to give my brain a break and simply ask for feedback.

I would appreciate comments on form, orchestration and anything you deem fit. Please do not hesitate to be blunt either!

(I may try to write pure double exposition instead of this quasi-expo before the first piano cadenza.) Thanks in advance!! 🙂

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EDIT: There is no English Horn in this work so far. I used my Orchestral template and forgot to remove the English Horn from the instrumentation page. Also, The score is NOT TRANSPOSED; it is a concert score)

Edited November 8, 2025Nov 8 by MK_Piano
Additional Information

Hey @MK_Piano!

Great ideas so far!  I think what I find confusing about the beginning of your main theme (after the short 4 measure introduction), is that at first it seems like you start the piece on an accompanimental one measure vamp in the strings.  So the phrase actually seems to start on measure 6 in the Bassoons.  That serves as the antecedent phrase of a musical period.  It lasts for 4 measures from bar 6 - 10.  That's just fine and dandy, but then the consequent phrase doesn't come in until measure 11 in the Bassoons once again.  So it seems like you might be including that one measure vamp again as part of the phrase, in which case it becomes an acephalic five measure phrase.  I know Haydn and even sometimes Mozart were known for writing five measure phrases.  I am not sure if it is working here.  If you are happy with it - definitely keep it!  But to me it would sound better if you concatenated the phrasing so that the consequent phrase would start at bar 10.  This confusion about the phrase lengths continues into the 2nd iteration of the phrase at measure 18.  The phrase starts right on beat one, so this time its not acephalic.  But then it continues for five measures from measures 18 - 23 with a slight 3/4 hemiola that's then concatenated to terminate on beat one of measure 23.  To me this definitely starts to sound awkward and confusing in the phrasing.  When I first listened to the piece without looking at the score, it sounded like you changed meter to 3/4 and then abruptly back to 4/4.  I felt lost as a listener, not knowing where the phrase was going rhythmically.

So although kinda awesome, the piece does have many structural flaws that confuse (at least this) listener.  When the piano comes in on the theme later on in the piece (solo), you do concatenate the phrases to 4 measure phrases and I think that does kinda work better.  But I think as far as the big form and macro-tonal plan is concerned, the piece seems to repeat too much.  I think if you had included the contrasting 2nd theme in the exposition before doing a 2nd exposition with the piano that would have made more sense.  But I have personally never written a piano concerto in sonata form before - I've just written two theme and variations pieces for piano and orchestra.  So all my experience is in concertante type piano concerto writing.  Thanks for sharing and I hope some of what I had to say was helpful/useful!

Thanks for the feedback! I had similar thoughts. Since I am aiming for this style, it makes sense to use an even measure count in my phrases. As I am currently at a football game, I will reply in more detail, however, I will move to the discord so I can share a certain photo of my themes. 

Hello @MK_Piano !

(I kind of want to help you too as you have also provided so much aid with my concerto!)

Resources used:

Music Jotter

Brain

Snipping Tool

Feedback giving: Day 1 23/08/26

Page 1:

Bar 1

You start of with a beethovenish opening, with a broad c minor chord, that is actually, surprisingly quiet. Your use of brass is very good, but you could try adding texture by having the contrabasses and/or violoncellos play a C? Perhaps something like

Violincellos: mp, sempre cresc. , C3

Contrabasses: mp, sempre cresc. , C2

Although, I also used mp, I actually recommend spreading out the dynamics a bit? It could be more like the following:

Horns in F I-III: p. These play g and eb, which is anything but the tonic, so maybe make it a bit quieter.

Horns in F II-IIII: p. Same reason as above

Trumpets in C: The play the note g, which is the dominant. That plays an important role, but not as important as the tonic. stay as mp, as it is just one note, and you have to make it sound good.

Trombone II: Same as above

Trombone I and Bass Trombone: Notice that over all of the other notes, your tonic doesn't stand out because there are only two. Therefore, maybe raise one them to mf, or maybe even both of them!

Obviously, notice that all of your tonic notes on your first chord is played on a trombone. so that is just more reason to have the C in the Strings too.

Bar 3

You had the tonic chord, so now you have the dominant. Simple theory. Straightforward, but notice, again, you have everything as mf. It might sound a bit plain, and I personally do not like that. spread it out just the previous one. I am too lazy to do that again, so just do what you think will work here. Again, Strings are helpful.

Page 2-3

Bars 5-9

Ok. I love this huge chord! A large, bombastic C Minor chord, that opens the first theme. You could definitely try using sforzando (sfz). It is great, because at here, such dynamics are unexpected.

The strings have a good background harmonic effect, that gives it a sort of texture, especially in the violins, that g that appears on the 2.5th beat is very nice. The violoncellos and contrabasses have a nice, strict organ note that gives the piece a sense of rhythm. Quite nice.

We get introduced to the first theme, which is actually following the theme: G C D Eb D C. It is simple, which is good, because a theme that is simple usually leads to a good development section. This theme follows a pattern that is very important.

This is the theme. And, if we add direction arrows......

This is what we end with. Now, treating the highest note as a climax, (that will be Eb,) you should always have a crescendo and a slight diminuendo. Let's see what you wrote...

Yes. you only wrote crescendo, but ignored the fact that it is the highest note! You could definitely change that.

It is good to have a domino effect on the main theme, where it goes

from clarinets

to oboes.

It is definitely a nice thing to listen to. It gives a very nice feeling of call and response, but with the same theme.

EDIT!!!

He just said that he made a new version, so im not gonna write more. This post can be just educational ig.

Edited 21 hours ago21 hr by TristanTheTristan

1 minute ago, TristanTheTristan said:

Hello @MK_Piano !

(I kind of want to help you too as you have also provided so much aid with my concerto!)

Resources used:

Music Jotter

Brain

Snipping Tool

Feedback giving: Day 1 23/08/26

Page 1:

Bar 1

You start of with a beethovenish opening, with a broad c minor chord, that is actually, surprisingly quiet. Your use of brass is very good, but you could try adding texture by having the contrabasses and/or violoncellos play a C? Perhaps something like

Violincellos: mp, sempre cresc. , C3

Contrabasses: mp, sempre cresc. , C2

Although, I also used mp, I actually recommend spreading out the dynamics a bit? It could be more like the following:

Horns in F I-III: p. These play g and eb, which is anything but the tonic, so maybe make it a bit quieter.

Horns in F II-IIII: p. Same reason as above

Trumpets in C: The play the note g, which is the dominant. That plays an important role, but not as important as the tonic. stay as mp, as it is just one note, and you have to make it sound good.

Trombone II: Same as above

Trombone I and Bass Trombone: Notice that over all of the other notes, your tonic doesn't stand out because there are only two. Therefore, maybe raise one them to mf, or maybe even both of them!

Obviously, notice that all of your tonic notes on your first chord is played on a trombone. so that is just more reason to have the C in the Strings too.

Bar 3

You had the tonic chord, so now you have the dominant. Simple theory. Straightforward, but notice, again, you have everything as mf. It might sound a bit plain, and I personally do not like that. spread it out just the previous one. I am too lazy to do that again, so just do what you think will work here. Again, Strings are helpful.

Page 2-3

Bars 5-9

Ok. I love this huge chord! A large, bombastic C Minor chord, that opens the first theme. You could definitely try using sforzando (sfz). It is great, because at here, such dynamics are unexpected.

The strings have a good background harmonic effect, that gives it a sort of texture, especially in the violins, that g that appears on the 2.5th beat is very nice. The violoncellos and contrabasses have a nice, strict organ note that gives the piece a sense of rhythm. Quite nice.

We get introduced to the first theme, which is actually following the theme: G C D Eb D C. It is simple, which is good, because a theme that is simple usually leads to a good development section. This theme follows a pattern that is very important.

This is the theme. And, if we add direction arrows......

This is what we end with. Now, treating the highest note as a climax, (that will be Eb,) you should always have a crescendo and a slight diminuendo. Let's see what you wrote...

Yes. you only wrote crescendo, but ignored the fact that it is the highest note! You could definitely change that.

It is good to have a domino effect on the main theme, where it goes

from clarinets

to oboes.

It is definitely a nice thing to listen to. It gives a very nice feeling of call and response, but with the same theme.

(NOT DONE YET!!! I gotta go for now so imma keep it like this for now.)

Thanks for the comments. Before you spend more of your time, I must inform you that this version of the work is severely outdated. The most recent copy I have made functions as a complete rewrite. I have changed the form, phrase structure, orchestration, harmonic language and melodic content. Thus, I do not expect to make any changes as you have listed or pointed out. Thanks again!