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Another little tune inspired by the tropics - a sort of waltz for a cello quartet.....'sort of' in that I threw in an extra beat here and there...well, a kind of bonus I s'pose you could say... a poly-rhythmic waltz*. No references to tropical tunes, just the light-heartedness. *my text book defines poly-rhythm as "the ability to dance a quickstep to a waltz" so there must be something to it. Many thanks if you can listen and comments are sincerely appreciated.

This is a tone poem inspired by a work penned by Icelandic poet Jónas Hallgrímsson in 1843. His poem speaks to the frailty of life, the uncertainties that threaten us, and the watchful eye of God. The imagery evoked here is of a lone seagull flying out across the sea under moonlight, who meets his untimely demise in the jaws of a lurking shark. The phrase "Máninn er hátt yfir sæ"—the moon is high over the sea—anchors each stanza of the poem, providing a sense of steadfastness against an otherwise bleak tale. This I chose to be the title of the tone poem, and I hope the proceeding aural onslaught captures the evocative imagery of the source poem. Do let me know your thoughts and feelings about this work. The harmonic language is my own, but I sometimes question whether it suits its purpose in storytelling... Even if you don't feel qualifed to comment on the technicalities of the piece, your insight into the tone poem's emotional depth (or lack thereof) is just as valuable to me. For those with more theoretical savvy, I've also attached the score and would greatly, greatly appreciate feedback regarding that. I've tried to make it as succinct as possible but I know I've overlooked things. Thanks in advance for your thoughtful input!

Perhaps by writing two completly separate themes before trying to put them together may help in that regard. maybe try and create a more lyrical section and then find a way to connect them. make sure they're in separate keys as well! modulations I find are the hardest parts of composition

thanks @Bradley Scarff! Yeah, that's one of my ideas to include it as a 3rd movement of a piano sonata. I have some ideas for the 1st and 2nd movement, I just have to work on it for a few hours 🙂.

That's a nice prelude! It reminds me somehow to the opening of La Campanella from Liszt on a motif from Paganini's violin concerto. Maybe because of the high figures, though the style is completely different.

I think it's awesome that you're experimenting! Your profile says you're only 15-16, and you've already come this far! I expect you'll do great things musically. Keep up the good work.

You are welcome! Perhaps the waltz didn't matched the piece, but I felt like there's no connection between the quick run before the waltz and the part after the waltz. So I just put a quick break before the craziness happens again. I thought of working the coda after working on bar 147, like it would be perfect to speed it up then slow it down, and its not like the usual V-I chord progression. And fun fact : I discovered the C E G F# motif accidentally by messing around. And originally, i was gonna make it more dissonance, like putting in C major chord on top of F# major chord while playing in fortissimo. I guess that appeared in bar 52, but more quiet. Thanks for the response!

Thank you @Bradley Scarff and @Tónskáld that’s very kind of you! The piece is in D Major not A I made a very silly typo, but when I revise the piece I will definitely take your suggestions into account.

Updated version sounds smoother, I think the piece is really good.

I aggree there could be more diversity. However, for a piece written in 8h this is quite an accomplishment. Some things I can say might help you with this piece: Change in register can really help you diversify the texture in your piece, without necessarily changing the accompanimental figures. Just the fact that the instrumentist are having to reach for the extremes in their instruments might already make a whole lot of difference, even if is just psychological as the instrumentist is trying to not mess it up. Also, the accompaniment could be a lot more expressive if it had a bigger importance in the overall effect of the piece. You could have countermelodies, contrapunctal lines, you name it. When you take the accompaniment as something as important as the melody itself, you'll probably be more critical about it, therefore making the best out of it.

That's a nice exemple, how sometimes bad events can be turned into beautiful music 🙂. Thank's for posting!

I suggest you take your time. don't feel you have to rush. sonatas are an ambitious undertaking so I recommend you take your time. 🙂 best wishes

Wow, you use so many chordal elements here: dim5ths, complements, major 6ths, and so many more. The flow of the work was gorgeous, and I can't even criticize the thematic development. The audio rendering was great, seemed to mimic how a human might play this. A couple of critiques: You used so many chromatics (not a bad thing at all), it makes me wonder how useful a key signature actually is in this piece. The distorted waltz at 184 didn't feel like it belonged in this piece. Perhaps if it had been foreshadowed earlier... The ending, to me, was a bit "meh." I expected either a loud crash or quiet slipping away, not just a simple accel.-rit. coda. But those are really just minor quibbles. Overall, I enjoyed this work immensely. I'm used to listening to works that smack of some other great composer (Mozart, Chopin, etc.) but this one sounded unique. Great job pulling this off in your own voice! Thanks for sharing.