Grand Sonata Fantasia in E Major

I posted this in my Piano Works section, but it does not appear to have been noticed at all, so I'm starting a new topic for it.

Here's another of my older Piano works, the Grand Sonata Fantasia in E Major. This is by far the largest of them and most structurally complex. There are several Sonata-like sections to the work and I'll list out a few details. There are three separate fugues in the piece as well as a triple fugue near the end.

The intro states a five chord pattern that is the foundation for the piece.

The first fugue begins at 0:22 before returning to the intro material at 0:52

The first large section starts at 1:05, and can be thought of as a first movement. It is in Sonata-Allegro form. A very quiet harmonically complex first theme gives way to a rhythmically varied but harmonically simple second theme. Both are played softly. The development is contentious and violent before subsiding into the calm of the first and second theme again. This section ends quietly, but proceeds directly into a Scherzo like section.

The Scherzo begins at 12:13 and is in ABACA form. The B is the second fugue, and it begins at 12:47

The third fugue follows the scherzo at 15:58 and leads into an Adagio section.

The adagio begins at 17:05 and is a set of variations on a theme.

A jazz section starts at 22:36 playing the role of an Interroto (I was inspired by Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra at the time). This leads right back into the intro material (at 24:13), and that leads quickly into the triple fugue (at 24:36). The triple fugue is a combination of the three fugues already heard, and then a triptych of two of the three fugues each playing against each other.

At 25:42 we have a restatement of the main themes used in the piece each in turn, but for the first time in the home key of E Major.

This builds into the coda at 30:00 where the piano insistantly plays those opening five chords in new and new ways until drawing to a hopefully satisfying close.

I hope that you enjoy it!

GrandSonataFantasia.mid

very grand indeed. not much to say cuz it was quite long, but it has to be good if i actually played all 30+ minutes of it. this should be performed.

My first comment will be on playability and length. You use alot of big chords and parallel octaves, and that may become exhausting to play after awhile, especially when they are played fast. You may want to loosen up on the chord usage and try breaking the chords up, or using less notes in the left hand.

Also, the length of this piece is pretty long! I thought I wrote long pieces. You possibly may want to condense longer pieces into different movements, otherwise you can lose the listener's attention span.

Now regarding the theme, you did a good job making it known what the theme was. You had some good romance parts which made me listen closer. Some of your chord usage also worked well, but again, you don't need to over do it with the chords. It makes the piece sound gruff. You can break them up sort of how you did so in the romance part, such as in measure 170 and above.

Lets go to measure 420 to 443. Parts like this may have been intentional, but it just seems to miss something. Perhaps you were going for that disorderly style, and I apologize if that is the case, but I just didn't quite get what you were trying to say.

The left hand of measure 570 to 577 just didn't quite agree with me. I personally don't mind parallel octaves, but I think you may have had parallel 4ths or 5ths in the left hand passage as well, which makes the gruff sound. Maybe you were going for this mood, but keep in mind when the right hand and left hand are so far apart, and they both use chords, it doesn't blend together very well. For example, you can hear how prominent the left hand is since the right hand is so high. That is not necessarily bad, but the parallel fourths just don't agree with me, and you may have wanted to blend that better.

922 - 942 was very creative, but again, I am not sure how easy something like that would be to play. Parallel octaves galore, hands would be flying all over the place trying to play it.

In general, your piece I would have to say was very creative. You had a distinct theme, good usage of chords although overdone in my opinion, and you seemed to incorporate some atonal influence into the piece. I couldn't quite place a musical influence, maybe someone else can. You have very good ideas. They need to be organized better, so the listener doesn't lose interest. Your slower parts, for example at 1007, seem to release the tension you create for the listener, so that goes well. I particularly liked your slower parts better than your faster parts. Your slower parts just seemed more musical to me than when you have the piece ripping through. For example, 1040 to the end seemed to be the most musical parts of your piece, at least to my ears.

I think you may want to work on your faster passages, but why not practice on slower movements first, since you seem to have a better grip for that?

Anyway, I hope my review was sort of helpful. Congratulations on this piece though, you seemed to put alot of time and effort into it. How long did it take you to compose it?

PS. Post a new thread for each separate piece you write. This ensures you get proper review.

Err...you get my first review for tonight. I listened to (most of) the piece and I wasn't sure if I was going to comment, but as I listened on I figured I really should. But I don't mean to overshadow Chopin's very detailed and quite accurate comments. I especially agree with his 3rd to last paragraph.

It seems to me, and I hope you take this with no offense, that this piece is too long and too complex. You have some neat ideas shuffled in with all these notes, and it's hard to pick them out! Too many notes is a great way of describing this piece, I believe. Have you ever seen the movie 'Amadeus'? I'm comparing you to Mozart! :D

A lot of the music in this piece seems entirely random, and there is little flow throughout it. Ideas pop up left and right, but nothing is worthy of much attention, and most are quite stale, I'm afraid.

The beginning is very random and does nothing to grab the listener, which is what a beginning should most certainly do. The same with the ending. It is very very weak and trite for a piece of such length. It needs to conclude the WHOLE piece, not just the section you were working on there. 7, 1, 7, 1, 7, 1, 7, 1! will just not do it. There are many, many, sections in this piece, and I haven't heard any that transition smoothly, except for around m. 948, which was clever.

It seems as though this piece is an assortment of smaller pieces, and not at all a whole piece by itself. I think you should cut and paste and put on endings and beginnings and make, perhaps, a suite of little pieces. I think they would work better on their own, not slapped together as they seem to be here.

I'm sure this required a lot of labor, and I'm sorry to dismiss it suchly as a work of bore and blandness.

My first comment will be on playability and length.

Err...you get my first review for tonight. I listened to (most of) the piece and I wasn't sure if I was going to comment, but as I listened on I figured I really should. But I don't mean to overshadow Chopin's very detailed and quite accurate comments. I especially agree with his 3rd to last paragraph.

It seems to me, and I hope you take this with no offense, that this piece is too long and too complex. You have some neat ideas shuffled in with all these notes, and it's hard to pick them out! Too many notes is a great way of describing this piece, I believe. Have you ever seen the movie 'Amadeus'? I'm comparing you to Mozart! ;)[/b]

No offence taken! This piece is likely living proof that less is more. :P

A lot of the music in this piece seems entirely random, and there is little flow throughout it. Ideas pop up left and right, but nothing is worthy of much attention, and most are quite stale, I'm afraid.

I kinda like quite a bit of it still, but there are definitely parts which in retrospect are very drab, no question about that. But my wife really like sone section, so you won't midn if I defer to her on that one. ;)

The beginning is very random and does nothing to grab the listener, which is what a beginning should most certainly do. The same with the ending. It is very very weak and trite for a piece of such length. It needs to conclude the WHOLE piece, not just the section you were working on there. 7, 1, 7, 1, 7, 1, 7, 1! will just not do it. There are many, many, sections in this piece, and I haven't heard any that transition smoothly, except for around m. 948, which was clever.

Well, the section post 948 did reprise all of the themes heard from each of the major sections. That was supposed to bring some sort of conclusion to them.

It seems as though this piece is an assortment of smaller pieces, and not at all a whole piece by itself. I think you should cut and paste and put on endings and beginnings and make, perhaps, a suite of little pieces. I think they would work better on their own, not slapped together as they seem to be here.

You are likely right aout some of this, no doubt. Most of the themes are rathe rindependent of each other. In my more recent compositional endeavours, I have strived to given a thematic unity to my works which this piece lacks.

Thank you for your candid critiquie! I shall strive never again to earn 'boorishness'! :)

Harsh critique,

Well look this is what I'd call a 'farrago composition'

It's a mixed bag of treats that never really fully come into fruition if you get my drift.

I do admire the way you critique other people's work. You could make it as a music critic or musicologist without a doubt. I suppose the inference one could make is the role of musical pedagogy in your own life.

What I mean to say is rather than be a critic all the time I guess you always have to ask yourself how music makes you feel when you're not a critic...

It might aid in your compositional practice.

Otherwise keep those pieces and esp those studious critical comments coming!

Cheers

Robert.

You have to be kidding you made a 30 minute long sonata?

Wow I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Sounds great!

I'm glad you enjoyed this work! Every now and then I sneak a tidbit out of it for my current efforts. :D

Matusleo