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So this christmas I've been working in this small piano sonata that is based on the theme from @Ivan1791 All movements are directly or partially conected to the theme. The first movement is in sonata form and has the theme as subject A. The second movement has the theme as a baseline (4 times slower). The third has little motifs from the theme in the scherzo, and in the trio there is a fugue wich subject is based on the theme. Finally the finale is in theme and variations based on the theme. I hope you all enjoy and any feedback is welcomed!🙂

I wrote a new piece between Christmas and New Year. It´s in a new style for me, and I really enjoyed to explore this different "language" . I would be very grateful to learn what you think of it, including your critical remarks. I was influenced by one composer in particular. Can you guess who this was? Best regards

@PaperComposer Thank you for listening! I had never heard Holst's opening of Venus (or the piece itself) until you brought it up and it shocked me completely because no one else I'd shown the piece to had brought it up so thanks for that insight. I guess I probably wouldn't have been able to write it in this way if I'd heard before so I'm kinda glad I'm only discovered this recently. You're kinda right in that it is in A minor - well certainly it's the home key for the majority of the piece, I didn't intend for it to be the official main key hence the no key signature was meant to signal a more ambiguous nature (it's just a coincidence that A minor doesn't any sharps or flats) so I just accepted it more as A minor as I continued writing the piece. The ending though kinda signals my original intention for no official key (or certainly not a traditional ending in the home key) so I actually find it interesting that it sounds like it should resolve to A minor for you, because for me I felt it couldn't and that it shouldn't return to A minor again once it moved to towards C major (around K/b.210). In my mind when writing it was set like that but it's interesting that you see it a different way with A minor as the key so can appreciate that. Thanks for the compliments, I really do like the pizzicato section with the cello and bass going against everyone, and my other favourite part is bar 48 - 53, for some reason that progression always gets me. Appreciate the comments!

@Joshua Ng Yeah I agree, it's only because I was writing this for an actual string quartet to play that I decided to share the melody out in sections for longer than normal, otherwise they probably would have been shorter and more interspersed throughout the piece, but yeah probs should have more 1st violin on melody. Thanks for the feedback!

I found it really effective, creating a powerful, evocative atmosphere. I'm very interested in background music for film and slideshows, so I think this would work brilliantly for a dramatic scene in a film where the director needs strong energy and emotion. I really liked the abrupt ending with that quiet sound left hanging. It's a very realistic emotional effect, where you've just gone through a very moving experience and are left a little dazed.

Overall, it was a nice piece! Some minor points, while I get that you wanted to bring out the 2nd violin, and that's great, because I've always felt that the first violin was overpowering in classical quartets, maybe you used the 2nd violin too much over the first violin. I would suggest maybe giving some melody back to Violin 1

This is great! Some minor criticism is that sometimes you develop a phrase that doesn't seem to go anywhere or is an odd number of measures that kind of comes off sounding a bit uncomfortable like meas. 49 - 54 (a 5 measure phrase). It sounds like that could be the beginning of a section featuring the cello on the melody but you move on to something else. Just a thought. Thanks for sharing!

What a delightful piece! Very melodious and nice instrumentation! What tool did you you use for the strings sounds? Gerd

Although this is not my favorite style, I like your piece. It is interesting enough with some harmonic surprises. Perhaps the dotted rhythm becomes too insistent.

I voted no but I have a synesthetic friend who would disagree. In a sense, the keys have different "colors" to me. D-flat major is sea green, F major is sky blue, D is bright red, for example. I don't, however, see these colors as I'm listening to pieces as they play—even "simple" pieces use so many chords that it would look like fireworks in my head. I think the colors have come about because of a visual association with a sentinel piece in that particular key. Fun to think about but not practically useful at all. Choosing the home key (for me) depends largely on the instruments and their ranges. I can evoke any feeling or emotion using any key, so I don't buy into the key psychology stuff. Not saying it isn't true—it's just not true for me. I often modulate in unexpected ways in most of my pieces (some longer works can go through a dozen key changes) but generally find my way back to the home key. I find that how the different keys relate to one another is the most important factor in choosing the mood for the work!