Nocturne No. 1 in D-Flat Major

Hi everyone,

First post here, but I have been impressed by some of your compositions, and I'd like to share a nocturne I recently composed with you. Before I post the link, here is some background info on the piece:

Last year, I had been playing with the idea of composing a piano solo for my (at the time) girlfriend, but never quite got around to doing it/could never write anything that satisfied me. I did have some melodic ideas that eventually formed the foundation for the 'A' section of this nocturne, though. The relationship ended at the end of December, and to occupy my mind, I decided to go ahead and write the nocturne. It was composed off and on throughout January. It is my first completed composition for piano as I find writing music difficult and am unfortunately often busy with other activities. However, I studied piano pretty seriously in years past and still play regularly, so I know the instrument well.

At the simplest level, it is in A-B-A form, with a lyrical 'A' section and a contrasting, 'agitato', middle section. This was my original plan for the piece, although the B section ended up expanding and becoming more dramatic than is usual for a nocturne (due to the circumstances!). Still, I decided to keep the name because of the nature of 'A' section.

The piece also turned out to be kind of programmatic (particularly the middle section), but the program isn't really essential to the piece so I'm not going to go into details. I think some of it will probably be obvious to you anyway :) Something else I should mention is that near the very end, there is a subtle, brief quotation from the musical 'Wicked' -- The reason for this is that it had special significance to the relationship.

The style of the piece was certainly influenced by Chopin, although I'm not claiming to compare!

The file size is about 10 megs for a 7 minute recording. You'll probably want to do a right-click/save-as.

Nocturne in D-Flat Major (mp3)

EDIT: Also, here is the score for those that are interested:

Nocturne in D-Flat (score in PDF format)

Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy it. Also, I appreciate any comments.

Wow this is by far one of the best pieces I have heard on this site, this is excellent. I think I could even learn learn some stuff from you, I would love to see the score for this. You are very creative and you portray so many great emotions in this piece. I hope you stick around and become a regular on this site, I am sure you could be a great help to our many composers here.

What samples are you using, or is this a real recording....I couldn't tell. Oh, and please by all means, post all of your music, I would love to hear what else you have.

What a wonderful piece! I am going to guess that it's a sampled recording; nice library though, could even be Art Vista. Brilliant programming if it is.

About the work though, you managed to capture the style perfectly and you inserted enough of your own touch to keep it from sounding TOO derivative.

The programmatic element was executed masterfully and I think that you certainly have a fantastic grasp of the instrument. If this was a live recording then you may as well have become a concert pianist rather than go to MIT :D

You kept my fascinated attention throughout and have given this site a wonderful work of art; thank you for both.

Welcome and congratulations on a wonderful work! :)

Thanks for the comments! I have had a few requests for a score, so I have gone ahead and posted it (minus the cover page and dedication, to protect the innocent!).

You can download it here:

Nocturne in D-Flat (score in PDF format)

Marius was right, the recording was done with samples, although it was performed live. The giveaway is in some of the louder sections; they don't have quite as much bite as they would on a real piano. I played it live in a few takes and spliced together the takes that I liked best. I think this is much easier than trying to program it manually; I admire those of you that do it and make it sound convincing, but a real performance adds something to the effect, I think. The piano sample is from EWQLSO Silver. I have some other piano samples that I think are more dynamic (Art Vista is good too), but unfortunately my keyboard is flaky with them (press a key 1/100th harder than another and sometimes it's twice as loud).

Chopin, I've listened to some of your works on here before and was very impressed, especially with the ornamentation/fast passagework.. You seem to have a knack for it. I found ornamentation to be one of the most difficult parts in writing this and ended up keeping most of it simple. There were a couple of days when I was flipping through F. Chopin's nocturnes just shaking my head at the crazy/brilliant stuff he comes up with in terms of ornamentation.

I would post more of my music, but honestly this is all I have right now. I started working on a little Caprice in the style of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words earlier this week, but at the rate I'm going, don't hold your breath. :D I think I have about 20 seconds so far! In the meantime I'll stick around and try to post some comments on other pieces. Great forum here.

Anyway, hope the score helps and thanks again for the comments.

There's not really much i can say that can be of any real use to you, but that's one of the very few things on here I've listened to in its entirity. I loved all your ideas, and the recording was beautiful :blush:

A beautiful piece, please post more of your music when you have some, as i would love to hear more from you.

Mark

I do like it, but I personally found the opening harmony slightly too static to be a Chopin imitation, and the A-section LH sounds very, very pop-song like. Having said that, it's undoubtedly a cleverly constructed piece with some wonderful moments. . . . afterall it's not Chopin, it's *you.*

he piano sample is from EWQLSO Silver.

I love the way this piano sounds. I would like to invest in this. Does this mean I have to purchase the whole library to get this piano? Or do you know if can I purchase the piano seperately? Also, have you listened to the Yamaha C7 samples?

Yamaha C7 Piano Demo

Would you have any idea if these samples are not as good, just as good or better than the ewqlso piano? I have Art Vista (Malmsjo) piano, and it is what I use to record my pieces. EWQL piano sounds better to me, but would you agree or disagree?

...slightly too static

The static harmony does not bother me because of the quality of the piece. Sometimes keeping it simple is a better solution.

EWQL piano sounds better, would you agree or disagree?

Definately disagree. The Art Vista piano samples are far higher in quality than EWQLSO's; I have both. The EWQL piano is a Steinway B and while it is one of the best sampled pianos out there, it doesn't compare to the level of realism and detail that one can achieve using the Art Vista samples.

Generally speaking, you can't get JUST EWQL's piano, so you'd need to invest in the full orchestra. HOWEVER, they DO have a sampled Bosendorfer which is also brilliant for solo work and is one of the best sampled pianos I've heard.

Personally, I prefer the Art Vistas out of all of those, but that's just in my experience.

I love the way this piano sounds. I would like to invest in this. Does this mean I have to purchase the whole library to get this piano? Or do you know if can I purchase the piano seperately?

As Marius said, I don't think it's possible to get the EWQLSO Silver piano separately from the rest of the orchestra. As far as samples go, you can definitely get better "quality" for less money than the full orchestra would set you back. I put quality in quotes because the sound of a piano is so subjective. Technically, the samples from the dedicated piano libraries are probably superior to the ones from EWQL, but if you don't like the sound, what's the point, right?

Also, have you listened to the Yamaha C7 samples?

Yamaha C7 Piano Demo

Would you have any idea if these samples are not as good, just as good or better than the ewqlso piano? I have Art Vista (Malmsjo) piano, and it is what I use to record my pieces. EWQL piano sounds better to me, but would you agree or disagree?

I actually bought the Vintaudio C7 a few years ago, and something about it just sounds weird to me when I play it. The demos on the webpage sound pretty nice though, so it's definitely possible to get a natural sound out of it. I believe it has more samples per note than the EWQLSO piano, and I don't think it's a bad instrument by any means, just not to my taste. I think if you like the sound of the Malsmjo, you'll like a mellower piano more. Also, one thing to keep in mind is that the C7 has been around awhile. The newer sample libraries tend to have more samples per note.

If you're shopping for a new piano though, in addition to the new ArtVista stuff you might want to check out some of the pianos from SampleTekk. I have heard good things about them, and the samples are absolutely massive. I bought the ambient set of Black Grand when I was getting ready to record the nocturne, but I had dynamics problems when I was trying to play. That's really the fault of my keyboard though, and not the samples. I would like to go in and reprogram the velocity layers and then I think I would love this piano. The quiet layers have a very mellow sound similar to the EWQLSO piano, but there's a heck of a lot more headroom for the loud layers.

Wow, I absolutely love this piece, but there is probaly nothing constructive except don't ever stop composing:)!

my keyboard is flaky with them (press a key 1/100th harder than another and sometimes it's twice as loud).

Mine is the same, does anyone have any idea whether there are some settings you can change to remedy this or is it just that my keyboard is really bad?

utter class i actually would go and buy this piece of music, consider me a fan!

i could hardly belief this, this is amazing. Although i must say i find it very chopin-like. Most of the motives used have been used by chopin. But you have an unbelievable talent!

By looking at the score, it looks pretty Chopin-esque. The text and idiomatic expression is really Chopin's (such as "sensa tempo", "smorzando") artistic work.

The piece itself is interesting to look (the score), not so much to hear. The way everything is disposed in the score is wonderfully light, not difficult to read.

As conclusion: Good job. I'd like to hear more pieces from you

Thanks everyone for the comments.

I'm glad the score looked like Chopin's because I modelled the look on his work! Yes, most of the phrasing and performance instructions are similar to what you would find in Chopin's nocturnes because this is basically an imitation, and I'm trying to speak his language (although with an awkward accent haha). However, I took the 'con amabilita' from Beethoven's 31st Piano Sonata, so let's spread the credit :P I spent a fair bit of time on the formatting of the score because it was being sent to someone else, and I wanted it to look professional. After finishing it, I had it printed on 12x18 paper and bookletized at a local Kinko's. Really cheap and looks good! Just an idea for anybody looking for an inexpensive way to "publish" a score. I had 5 copies made for $5...

The piece itself is interesting to look (the score), not so much to hear.

I think it can be instructive to emulate and I wasn't expecting to impress anybody with great originality. Is this your main problem with the piece? Did you find it boring? Was there anything in particular wrong or sections you felt were weak(er) than the others? I have some of my own ideas on this and am wondering if our impressions are similar.

Wow, I would agree that its one of the best pieces I have heard on this forum.

The only thing I can say about it is that its an extraordinary piece.

I hope to hear more works by you in the future.

I love the fluidity and expression in this piece. A great recording, too!

There are some stylistic elements that I feel don't fit in with one another. ( I realize that you weren't trying to be completely romantic in your writing.) The piece seems to sway between romantic and modern easy-listening piano styles. There are some chromatic runs that feel out-of-place, and the chord on beat 3 of measure 134 seems very very modern when compared with the feel of the rest of the piece. All that aside, though, this is one of the best piano pieces I've yet heard on this forum.