October 30, 200520 yr Here is a piano suite I wrote between august and the present (october). My goal with the piece was to be extremely cheap and motivic, so all movements derive their pitch material from a maximum of 3 motives. The midi rendering of the second movement has some problems, since there is some extended technique for the piano. The notes hit at 0:16, and those pounded repeatedly between 0:31-0:36 and 1:00-1:04 are supossed to be clusters drummed directly on the strings of the piano instead of played on the keys. If you want an idea of how that would sound, put the damper pedal down on the nearest piano and smack a random bunch of adjacent strings. Overall, I view this piece as a combination of extreme seriousness (the structure) and a joke (certain unexpected happenings at various places to keep an element of suprise.) I hope you enjoy it! Note: The 3 movements are meant to be played without a pause inbetween them, so the "endings" of the first 2 movements are just transitions. suitemovement1.MID suitemovement2.MID suitemovement3.MID
October 30, 200520 yr I think you're accomplishing your goals pretty well... I'm not sure I feel the element of surprise that much, but I definitely like how you carry motives over from movement to movement, making just enough changes to keep it from getting boring. The only thing that I think could have been done better is the integration of the second movement with the other two: I'm not sure why, but it just has the feel of being not quite part of the larger work. I'll leave a more detailed analysis to the piano specialists. This is one of the best piano pieces I've heard here - well done!
October 30, 200520 yr I think you're accomplishing your goals pretty well... I'm not sure I feel the element of surprise that much, but I definitely like how you carry motives over from movement to movement, making just enough changes to keep it from getting boring.[...] This is one of the best piano pieces I've heard here - well done! Then I guess contemporary music and me just don't go along very well :(
October 31, 200520 yr movement 1 I must say, you have very good organizational skills. It seems to me that you base this piece on two ideas. I like how you interupt the flow, such as in measures 30, 34 and 38. Your introduction is pretty nice, and I like how you bring it back in a different key at around measure 60. You do a good job with bringing back your first emotions toward the end of the piece, this way the listener doesn't forget your initial message. Playability of this piece doesn't seem hard at all, so very good job on working on playability. Measures 66-76 were my favorite, and I liked how you ruthlessly interrupted the flow at measure 77. Perhaps this is one of the elements of surprise you had mentioned. I feel that some of your themes are a bit weak. Although, this could have been an intention. Basically, some of your themes are nothing more than a play on triplets (ex. measure 10-12), and maybe a slow run up a scale (ex. 7-9, 22-29). This isn't necessarily bad, depending on your goals in the piece. I don't think you have any pedaling in this piece. I think it would sound much better if added to the right places. And my last comment is going to be about the lack of a left hand. Again, I know this is supposed to be atonal, or contemporary, and some things I disagree with doesn't necessarily mean I am right and you are wrong. I am just stating my preference. movement 2 I think I was able to pick out one of your themes, being theme in left hand, measures 1-11, then theme in right hand measures 13-16. Then to the end, it seemed to be variations of some sort. I think the ending, 29-34 could be annoying to many people, although I know you intended this. I just don't understand where you came up with your ending or what motivated you to do this technique? Perhaps you can explain what you had in mind here. Anyway, this was an interesting movement, and a little less logical to follow than movement 1 and movement 3. movement 3 Looks like you revolved around one theme in this piece. You make the theme obvious in the first 2 measures, and the rest of the piece, you seem to do variations. These variations are well done. You really got creative with that particular theme. There seems to be alot of distress. Maybe a bit ruthless, but point well taken. There really isn't anything negative to say about this particular movement. Again, this looks manageable to play. In general Although I am not very trained with atonal type music, what I can tell you is that your pieces are playable and certainly demonstrate your ability to organize your music logically, which many people on this site have a hard time doing. This concept is actually very important. It is like writing a book. Even if you may have a good vocabulary and good ideas, if you can't organize them, your book will make no sense. Which is why studying music theory is only helpful, but not a solution to create a good composer. I certainly would be interested to see what type of "tonal" music you can come up with.
October 31, 200520 yr Author Thanks very much for the in depth comments chopin! Couple responses to your comments: There is pedal in the first movement. I guess the midi either killed it or it got lost when you imported it into finale/sibelius. Perhaps I was a bit vague when I said I based everything on a few themes. I meant very very small themes. In the first movement, everything is a development from the original arpeggio and run. I agree the themes, from a melodic viewpoint, are rather weak. Played live, the emphasis is on the dynamics instead of the pitches. In the score (I can give you the .mus file or a pdf if you like) there are dynamic markings in pretty much every measure. Your comment about the left hand I've gotten before, and I definatly think its a valid point. In certain sections, it already takes 2 hand so accompaniment is impossible, but I also think that homophonic writing would bog this piece down and make it lose its flair, while something polyphonic would be rather evil to the pianist seeing how its moderalty hard already. In movement 2, the 3 themes are the pounding directly on the strings, and then the 4 note motive at the beginning of the piece and the upwards right thirds after that. The ending I agree is annoying in the midi form. The repeated octave is meant to be drummed on the strings, which sounds more like a drone than actual notes. What I was planning was a building background of noize while i transitioned into the ostinato that begins movement 3. Again, thanks for the comments and for listening. About tonal music, I do write the occasional tonal piece on occasion, I'll post one later today. Your book metaphor really shed some light on how to think about things as well.
November 4, 200520 yr Mvt 1 - The mysterious oepning is very evocative, it gives us a sense of unease that is only amplified by the quick runs in the right hand. It does not sound like you are using tone rows though. I think the section immediately after 0:40 suffers from too few notes being played. It is a lovely evocative mood, but it takes too long to build its resonance. In fact, this whole section seems to be a contrast between the fast paced right hand figure, and the sonorous Sorabji-like lower tones that blend together. This material is definitely interesting, but it is running out of steam by around 2:30. The sudden tonal consnance around 3:00 is very surprising, and almost seems out of place actually. While it can be nice to have an atonal piece break into tonality in a surprising way, it is hard to pull off effectively. This almost works, but if you are going to use more conventional tonality, it seems that you would want to resolve to it at the end, and hint less at it here. Mvt 2 - Definitely one has to use their imagination more here. But I know what the sound of striking the strings is, so I think this could be a very effective and evocative section. Clearly an interlude between the two more violent movements. Mvt 3 - Oh wow! I aboslutely love the intensity that you start this section with. It bristles with freakish energy and rivetting drive. I can hear the right hand motif form the first movement thrusting itself in our ears once more. This reminds me of Prokofiev and Corigliano in its use of atonality. Excellently done. I think the ending could be a bit more exciting though. I want to go out with a crushing sequence of chords either proceeding to the top of the piano ro down towards the bottom. Quite nice!
