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I really learn a lot with the comments and reviews! As I do with the compositions themselves. When I listen to this work I think of the American standards. The melody is perfect to be sung, without any big leaps. It's a very nice piece, indeed. I understand Monarcheon's point of view. I don't think dissonances or that final chord (lydian?) are wrong... In fact, I'm a good friend of that. But when the atmosphere is so tonal... some dissonances, being mild, can sound "heavy". There are passing dissonant chords that are great here (1:40). However, the final chord seems "unprepared", coming from "everything tonal and right", is a bit shocking. The ear is asking for a resolution for that #11... I insist, in other harmonic environment, it would be, surely, perfect. Anyway, this is just your taste. And this comments are just that.... Little things!

My apologies if I came off as too harsh. My intent is to not force you to alter your piece in any way. As most, if not all music judging is, it's my personal opinion, and I will without hesitation say, I've only picked up Jazz in the last couple years, so if you are more accustomed to it than that, then consider what I have to say as mute. It really did a good job of being calm, it was merely my mentioning of my criticisms that made it sound worse than I think it is, and I once again apologize. I think my main gripe with your chord was I was expecting a resolution and it never really came. Cheers!

Thanks @Monarcheon you are such a great critic and reviewer! I'm going to respond to each of the comments with my thoughts in hopes of clearing anything up or asking any questions, etc. 1) I didn't like the sound of the swing eighths on the introduction and in general I don't like the sound of too much syncopation so maybe I guess I'm displaced among genres :( I feel that syncopation takes away the beautiful qualities of a melody at times and rarely use it when I write. What I'm trying to say is that I love the sound of jazz harmony but not the rhythmic part. 2) I understand what you're saying about the two consecutive fermatas It does get a little lengthy. That was the end of the intro so I felt it necessary to kind of slowly sway into the main ABAC form. I guess what you're trying to say about chord enhancers is to throw in a little arpeggio or idea to lead into the ABAC form right? 3) I don't know whether it's your ears or mine but the C7-Cm7 clash is not really a clash from what I understand. It is actually called a C7#9 harmony that is an innovation of the jazz idiom. In fact, Jimi Hendrix (not really a jazzy performer/writer) made it mainstream with his song "Purple Haze" dubbing the Purple haze chord name. It must be that my ears are more accustomed to jazz than yours are or maybe you're right maybe it does the kill the mood. Anyways it is sure worth considering. 4) Ending on the "Augmented 11th" is very common in jazz harmony it creates a sense of drama at the end of a composition just as you hear very loud endings to symphonic movements. The harmony in this context is called Ebmaj7#11. With regards to my melody I wasn't really going for a jumpy bebop melody I was shooting for a vocal melody that utilizes quarter notes and half notes and almost no eighth notes (except in the introduction as a result of melodic embellishment). As this is after all a song that it meant to be sung rather than played by a saxophone player at 200 bpm such as sonny rollins or john coltrane. Sorry for ranting so much I gladly appreciate your comments and your listening :)

Generally speaking, I thought this was pretty nice sounding; you know how to move jazz chords around, which is admirable. The things I noticed are listed below. About the drum kit; drummers still accent when there's a beat change with the brushes... it just sounds like white noise in this recording. 0:08/0:25 - Having a non-swung eighth note figure (on the seventh of the chord) took me out of this a little bit. 0:34 - These holds are a little bit too long; even it was a transcription of an orchestra part, you should add chord enhancers to not have audiences get bored of two consecutive holds. 1:21 - Really? The clash between C7 and Cm7 seriously takes me out of the atmosphere you built up. 2:52 - Ending on the augmented 11th is a little weird... maybe you like it better than I do? I also think your melody is a little bit too conservative; I wouldn't be able to sing this without getting a little bit disinterested. It's a jazzy piece! You have so many cool rhythm options at your disposal! Congratulations on the grade, though. That's always nice to hear respected people praise your stuff.

I liked it as well. It has an impressionist overall mood, but maybe by way of Messiaen? I think the bar lines are very useful to the pianist who needs signposts. The early bars are just 4/4 with a kind of syncopation. But it gets more complex later on, like 9/16 + 4/16, so it really helps to have the measure dissected and delineated. So I disagree with Luis there.

Like Luis said, mess around with the tonality a bit. If you listen to the 3rd movement of Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony, there are parts where he really goes off the rail with chords in a very "love-theme" type way, and keeps it lush throughout. Of course, there are some times were it does get a little boring, and for the same reason... it hovers around A major too much. You'll see what I mean!

Hey there, again. For me personally, it may be a little too simple, in that it seems very set on simply being stagnant throughout. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but none of the movements really develop enough for my personal tastes. In the first movement, I'd suggest watching out for crossed voices, as with duets they sound a a bit too novice-like. You play viola, right? I'm a little confused by your bowing choices for a lot of this. Like in the second movement, after your intro measure, you have them start on an up bow? That's a little odd, or so I would think. Maybe you're just better at bow control than I am, haha. Double stops! They're your friends especially with only two instruments, also considering you don't have a real "bass" sound in this piece. The whole thing sounds... "surface" to me, and doesn't delve as deeply harmonically or structurally as I would expect from a piece about love. Cheers!

Hi I felt almost compelled by your notes to listen to your work (I was going to do it anyway). In general terms I like it a lot. The simplicity is effective. For example, the beginning of the last part (adagio) is surprisingly simple but beautiful. I don't need to clasify everything I hear, but sometimes it helps (me) because I see things that seem proper (or less proper). For example: I'm very fond (too much!) of dissonances, but in this style (tonal and classic), the flat 9 interval is odd (m. 111, m. 119-120). I think this is between classic and minimal, or, if you don't like the term, a music using repetitiv structures. The whole structure is also nice. There's only one thing I miss a little: modulation. Not sure (I have to listen to it again) but it seems it's all the time (or almost) in the same tonality (Ab).