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Hello everyone, I composed another short piece for strings. This was composed based on the second movement of Beethoven's string quartet No.15, but the aural similarities are less obvious and it turned out more personal than the last short piece. Beethoven's original piece is a really interesting Minuet and Trio. I have only analyzed the A part of the first Minuet so far, but since the structure was so interesting I decided to compose something with the same structure. The piece is based on two melodies counterpointed against each other following an harmonic sequence. I created a bass and a melodic figure for following a two step harmonic sequence: up a major second and down a perfect fifth. The whole piece, until the end, follows the harmonic sequence and melodies (except for a short bridge). The beginning of the piece is the statement of the bass melody in octaves at the beginning of the piece (Beethoven got this idea from a piece by Mozart which he used as a model for his own: Mozart's string quartet K.464 Minuet). My piece looks more like a free Adagio for Strings than a Minuet. However, is was composed as a part A of a binary or ternary form, so it cadences in the dominant tonality. I might compose a part B in the future but I am not sure. I was neglecting sequences and composing always in a free manner and this is the first time I consciously try to stick strictly to a predefined sequence and melodic motives. Let me know what you think! I am unsure about the sudden long I64 sustained chord at the end, so if you have any though about that let me know too! Thanks for listening and hope you like it!

Max Payne, since I got to know it back in 2006, has been one of my favorite games. Its atmosphere, the presentation of simple but tragic story, the snow-covered New York City, all of that forever imprinted itself in many ways and partly shaped my taste for good atmospheric games. The main musical theme of this one remains one of the most recognizable to me. Hearing the very first notes awakens my old, warm memories of a time spent in this dark and atmospheric world. It was this theme that I thought about writing variations on for a year, but all the time it didn't work out. I had no energy, or even no idea how to write my own variations on such a not very classical musical theme. However, recently, on July 28, quite unexpectedly, I sat down at the piano to practice, and as a result I wrote a variation in one night, originally I had no intention of composing anything at all. Even more interesting for me, on July 31, I came across a video from remedy. As it turned out, it was Max Payne's birthday on July 23. It had been 20 years since the game's release. Well, let this be my little gift and thanks to this game for good memories. I hope the music turned out well. Happy past birthday, Max!

Well done!!! How long it took to make this video? I remember how I learned main theme (https://musescore.com/mmpiano/max-payne-main-theme) and played it everytime before sleeping and after I played Max Payne, just to calm down after completing missions. And again, fantastic work!

Well, like in the first movement for example, you can raise the repeat of the main theme in bar 9 to an octave higher. Ok actually nvm, there aren't that many repetition of themes, but Im just trying to be general here. But yeah here's what I thought.

I added a trio to the minuet i composed recently. I found recording myself playing gave me performance anxiety and caused continuous mistakes. It was quite frustrating but I managed to get a somewhat decent recording with only a couple of minor mistakes. The minuet is Haydnesque but I experimented with the trio. I used doubled thirds to sound like a trumpet fanfare which is answered by the strings. A back and forth ensues which leads to a waltz like dance over a tonic pedal. I bought a book of minuet and trios recently by Haydn. In the first two minuet and trios of the book Haydn keeps the same key throughout the minuet and trio which i thought was unusual but uses tonicisations to add colour. I did the same and modulated briefly from F major to G minor in the B section of the trio rather than the relative minor to add more tension with the A section trumpet motif. I'm not 100% sure the trio works but I spent hours at the piano trying out many different approaches to create something new. In the score, one thing to note that bars 4 and 17 have two accidentals that are overlapping which obscures what they are, a B natural and an A flat.

The piano sonata at the start is quite impressive, with great use of harmonies. Though I feel the range is a bit limited. Maybe you can try to vary your repeats a little by transposing an octave higher or lower? Your themes for the various movements are also great to hear and quite interesting. Just wondering, what style are you going for for this sonata?

Goodness, what a lovely piece. Imitate Chopins style, it sure did. I won’t judge by how close it gets to his style, rather I will judge solely by the way I feel listening it. And it sounded lovely, and to think that this was computer generated. Makes me wonder how beautiful it would be when performed. Congrats, I will be following you on this forum and will be looking forward to your next posts!