Sonata for Trumpet and Piano

I am about to have this performed on 3/24/07, so I thought I'd get a little bit of feedback on it from the youngcomposers community...

I. Allegro

II. Andante Addolorato

III. Pesante

The whole concept I was working with was to employ lots of 2nds and 7ths in the first movement and become progressively more quartal as the movements progress. Enjoy!

sonata_1.pdf

sonata_2.pdf

sonata_3.pdf

kvtpt1.MID

kvtpt2.MID

kvtpt3.MID

my only comments are that it feels a little aimless in parts, lacking direction.

and there is a dearth of transitional material.

Although I only had time to listen to the midi, I must say that I found some of this harder to listen to than most, Might be "because" of the midi...I'm more of a traditional composer I suppose as I like more tonal pieces, And am no pro-disonant so to speak. :P

So you can take my comments from that point of view...That me and a large part of contemporary classical music just don't get along all too well...That said I did think it was quite exciting, I particualrly liked the first movement about 40 seconds in when it picked up...Very cool, As a bit of a trumpet player myself it sounds like it would be fun and quite...challenging...:D

Anyway, just thought I'd comment and break the no comments spell...:cool:

I just listened to the first movement, and I do have a few comments.

First of all, I really like your voice-leading in the 3/4 sections. The harmonies sound fresh while still being rooted in tonality, and I think the reason your progressions work is that you don't just move randomly from one chord to another: you conceive of your sonorities as independent voices that add up to a whole sound, and this is a good way of making sure your music flows well from one moment to another. So! Good job there.

The main complaint I have is your choice to call this piece a sonata. The first movement of a sonata is usually in a clear sonata form, whereas this movement sounds like it is in ABA (ternary) form with a coda utilizing material from the B section. This may have been what QC was referring to when he mentioned the piece sounds 'aimless'; when you tell your listener that he or she is going to be listening to a sonata, and then give him or her music that is not so clearly in sonata form, it can be very misleading. Use the word 'sonata' for the title of your piece, and the educated listener will be listening for the first and second themes, the development, and the return of the first theme (just to name a few of the most basic aspects of the sonata form).

Now I think your piece is perfectly coherent, at least from a form point of view, and I disagree with QC that it doesn't contain enough transitional material. (MIDI tends to make everything sound marionettish, and good musicians will be able to play the piece in such a way that the switches between sections don't sound so jarring. If you don't believe me, go listen to any good pianist play pretty much any piece by Franz Liszt.) However, if there is one area where your piece lacks coherence, I think it is harmonic coherence; the harmonic language you use in the 3/4 section and that of the 7/8 section is too different. In the former you have this really cool pandiatonic mood going on with occasional forays into related key-areas, whereas in the latter the language is much simpler, more angular, more tightly woven around a key center. The problem, I think, is that the combination of harmonic AND metric contrast between these two sections makes them sound as if they're coming from completely different pieces of music.

Of course, you can certainly object to this argument, and name any one of hundreds of classical pieces containing even more divergent material within a single movement; however, I think that the brevity of this movement makes the extreme contrast of material a little harder to justify.

I hope you find my comments helpful. Once I hear back from you, I'll delve into the other two movements.

Yes, in fact, all 3 movements are ternary. In this modern day, "Sonata" can mean anything, and with a contemporary music audience, I doubt they would think that a composer would adhere to common practice rules for sonata-allegro. The word sonata is translated to mean 'sounding,' so we have liberties nowadays.

I actually was trying to go for a contrast between the A and B sections. Perhaps I over-reached.

As far as 'the brevity of the movement' goes, trumpets will tend to lose their chops if you make a long piece, and I was hoping to not wear the performer out so that he can hit the high C at the end of the 3rd movement.

Good criticism though...