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I have written a quartet for strings on which I would like the honour of some of your criticisms. This work has sprouted from almost a year and a half of counterpoint study. It is similar to a fugue; that is, it does tend to have fugal aspects; however on the whole, this is mostly a work of counterpoint with many interesting hidden ideas embedded within it. I can understand if you are unable to listen to the entire work, as it is almost 16 minutes long; however, if you give me some feedback on even a single contrapuntal passage, I would be greatly indebted to you. Thank you for your time and I dearly hope you enjoy this work. On a side note, this recording that I have here does not take into consideration single note dynamics which is indeed frustrating; however, it is the only soundfont I could find that effectively does some of the counterpoint justice (that is, so it is not too muddy sounding).

This is the result of an art trade (or collab) I did with Michellle Walker (an artist who draws). The point of the piece is to describe some kind of mysterious and nostalgic atmosphere. (I have spent more time in this piece than what I'm willing to admit.) This piece is a bit experimental from a formal point of view. The idea was to set all the main motifs of the whole piece in very few measures (basically the introduction) and then develope them in some kind of improvisational style. So basically the consistency of the work comes from the constant use of these little elements and the aesthetic of the whole piece. I also make use of recurrent motifs you can find in other works by me, like the one/s you can see between measure 2 and 3. (I hope I'm not repeating myself too much haha.) The first motif can be seen in my Memories piece and the other one is based in the same intervals as the main theme in "Gwyn, Lord of Cinder." And interestingly combining both creates some kind of mutated version of the first theme in the 3rd movement of Brahms' 3rd symphony. I got a lot of inspiration from Scriabin and you can see his mystic chord in some occasions. (At least the main harmony of the chord.) The idea was to create some kind of impressionistic piece with Chopinesque and jazz hues. And I also used a progression in measure 15 that pretty much comes from a madrigal by Gesualdo ("Moro lasso"). The best part of the piece is probably around measures 21-24. (In my opinion.) That climax and the sweet chords that descend are inspired in Debussy. Other inspirations are Ravel, Brahms and jazz in general. By the way, this is probably my best looking piano score I have ever done, and I'm quite proud about that. Anyways, I hope you will enjoy it and I'm open to criticism and feedback.

Very interesting to hear counterpoint in this tonal language. It definitely feels modern and new, in a good way. Cool! I love the point that the craft of polyphony is so powerful that it can make way for so much different music, that's my experience anyway. Maybe it can be a good idea to space out some lines, make some variations between more busy polyphonic parts and more simplistic (single lines). I think that way it's easier for the listener to focus on the lines and to register what's going on. Also see if you can build more continuity by re-using some ideas. Good luck.

Okay, that was pretty crazy honestly. I guess you got a lot of inspiration from Beethoven's Op.133 because it has a similar aura but still being very original. I think the overal structure of the piece is good and there are some very interesting passages. As an advice I will tell you that if you used retrogradation always make sure it sounds natural and if you use the inversion and it is a real inversion then check it sounds like if it was a normal melody or subject. The piece doesn't sound atonal (I don't know if you intended that) so I think the overal tonal shape and cadences should be more clear, because there are a lot of passages where the direction of the action isn't clear and I don't see a justification (Idk, if you wanted to create a confusing passage or a crisis then release it in some way). Anyways the piece is really long and I imagine it took you a looooot of time to compose it. It is really hard to make more than 600 measures of music that sound totally natural. But your piece was great from an intelectual point of view, I think it is just a matter of time and experience to transform that into a piece like tho one Beethoven wrote. (Maybe not that good, but Beethoven is a giant. But that is the mindset I would follow.)

Well - you still have 5 more adventurers to go! I used to write programmatic content for some of my music too (not on this website) and I usually included timestamps in the description of the piece for what each section meant (for more casual listeners who won't necessarily look at the score) in addition to labels in the score. You're welcome and I'm looking forward to the rest of the suite!

I agree, I should probably label the sections of the score with more extensive program notes. I think that was my original intention too, to like explain what each sections meant, but I guess I forgot about it. whoops. Thank you for the advice!

You're right that I don't fully understand the context but you could have made it easier by labeling the sections in the score with their programmatic meaning and more extensive program notes as you have responded here and to @Seni-G's post. As for the complexity - I always try to find the simplest version of any given idea and work from there but I do agree that your piece sounds like it's trying to find itself so since you say that was intentional - well done!

Thank you for the criticisms! But I do want to address some things. Yeah sure, maybe some parts of this is very virtuosic, but then again, it is intended to be like that. I don't think it is "overloaded" with virtuosity either. Bery is an adventurous person who goes to places all the time, trying to figure out who he really was. That's why the exposure of the theme felt rushed or unproper. He was very unsure about himself. He did not know the purpose of his life. And at the coda, the full theme finally introduced properly, that's when he finally discovered his true self. I want the listener to actually looking for the theme as same as Bery looking for the purpose of his own life. And yes, this is the first piece of this suite, so don't expect all the pieces to be virtuosic and have no musicality. And I disagree with this being rushed. I've actually entirely rewritten this piece twice now. If I actually don't like this piece or I feel like it felt rushed, I would've rewritten the entire piece again. For those muddy parts. Yep, that's actually intentional. Again, I like to experiment on my piece. They say like "It's too muddy to hear anything, It's not music at all", well, why not embrace that. This muddy part actually creates this uneasy, unsatisfying feeling, and it perfectly fits what Bery had felt after the ritual. For some context, Bery had a ritual to remove an evil spirit that has been on him since he was a child. This spirit has wrongly guided him and has been on him for so long, it almost feel like they are one. But the spirit's intention were not good and it has to be removed from his body. And for the score, yeah I know, I suck at writing those, but I am trying my best. The things that give this piece, or heck, even this whole suite life is the context behind it, so if you really don't know the context, you're gonna have a hard time understanding them.

Very good piece. Lots of influences but constant impressionistic atmosphere. I don’t care about form because it flow well like a puzzle or mosaic. congrats, I love it.

Its beautiful, i really enjoyed this piece, the harmony is new to me, my main interest is in the classical style but I'm exploring other styles and id love to compose as you do.