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Greetings. It has been a while since I posted something on this forum. Since Christmas is around the corner, I want to present a piano piece I composed years before, called "A Christmas Gift" or "Weihnachtsgeschenk" in German. This work was inspired by a short piano piece called "Music Box", written by the German composer Emil von Sauer. And yes, I managed to record this piece myself, which took me a few weeks of practice. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the music, and any feedback is appreciated. Last but not least, I wish you a Merry Christmas! Carl Koh Wei Hao

Yes the title is parenthesis. It intends to present something unspeakable and speechless. I had other intentions at first but do not dare to speak it out. The piece is composed 10 years ago when I was a naive teen. The structure is simpler in a ternary structure. The recording is also recorded 2012 by myself in my school’s music room. You can hear the school alarm sound at the near end!! It’s also full of slips and wrong notes. But I cannot find or produce a better recording. This recording is so honest and pure. Even now I can play it much better in terms of technique, I can never produce that honesty anymore, so I will just retain it here. Without @Omicronrg9’s encouragement, I would not post the piece, thank you Daniel! Hope you enjoy the piece, and I welcome commentaries and comments on it. Thank you and have a nice day! P.S. I have provided the YT link here in case some one loves to visit my channel!

Hello! I thought I would share a piece I wrote back in late February-March for SATB saxophone quartet, my first experience writing for an all-brass ensemble, which taught me a lot as a strings player. The title comes from my experience with a neurological condition, synesthesia, where two or more senses are automatically interconnected. In my case, I associate each musical key with a color and see those colors in my mind's eye. This piece begins and ends in F minor, which is deep purple or violet for me. The score is attached below. I would love to hear any constructive criticism. I've been told there are no glaring technical issues, but I am curious how I could best bring out the saxophone's unique strengths. Thank you! 01 - Full score - Violet.pdf

Wow, this is piece is so unique and evocative. Bar 217 to the end took my breath away! I'm so glad you have this recording, there is nothing better than hearing a performance by the composer himself! I definitely hear the honesty and purity of it. I love how it ends in a remote key compared to where it began; that gives it an epic feel to me, even if it's an 8-minute piano piece. I agree with @Thatguy v2.0, the conclusion is achingly beautiful but it does sound like a collage of different styles. I would have loved to hear your Beethoven-esque rhythmic thematic idea from the beginning return at the end to give more of a sense of familiarity. I noticed you did that somewhat with the rising left-hand figures at bar 213, but I still found myself wanting more of a tie to the beginning. Also, personally, the quarter rest at bar 8 threw off my sense of rhythm a bit, most likely because that rhythmic discontinuity comes so early in the piece. On the other hand, your unexpected choices at the beginning and end give the piece a wonderful spontaneity and sense of freedom right out of the gate. I imagine you apply some of the ideas regarding continuity that I and some other users mentioned in plenty of other compositions, but none of them will have the exact impact that this one does. It would be a shame to lose the spontaneity of this recording! The harmonies are gorgeous and emotional, and I hope to hear more creative harmonic choices from you. I look forward to exploring more of your work. 😊 Thank you so much for sharing!

Actually I find the contrast great, personally I find the contrast too great and not developed enough in that short time span. Personally I think either the contrast can be smaller, or the contrasting section can be longer. But I absoultely love the magic you create starting from b.89. I don't know why the reappearance of F minor sounds so magical there. That's so amazing! 😝 After all, that's just one of the views. That will be perfectly fine to stick with yours too! I think my view is more a traditional one. I have to say again, this piece is really attractive and fascinating! Henry

Hello Henry, I appreciate your honest feedback! Re: morendo and ritard: Yes, that was a software issue, and I added the ritard just for the MIDI mockup but forgot to remove it. Good eye! At bar 73 I intended to give the listener a break from polyrhythms and opt for a feeling of decisiveness, even to extent of being militant, so that when the voices each go off and play their own unique rhythms again it would hopefully have more impact than if it was the same all the way through. That said, I'm so glad you like the polyrhythms. It's interesting to hear another point of view. I will experiment with ways to add more interest to bars 73-88 and make the transition back to F minor more concise. I am not attached to the picardy third either, it isn't adding much to the piece. 😛 Your words are very helpful, thank you for listening!

Done! Thanks for the suggestions!

Very elegant and graceful - beautiful. I love the music-box-esque main theme. I think the piece would sound equally wonderful on celesta, do you have software you could try that out on? My favourite part was the passage at 0:56. It was a lovely new texture which made all the difference of keeping the piece interesting. This ties in to my only real criticism: it tends to be a bit samey. You could maybe change the accompaniment texture during the piece or maybe have some more of this light scurrying material. For this reason, I do like the low register at the end as it makes the piece a little more expansive. Do you have any chance to get thks recorded again with a proper microphone? I'm sure it would sound so much better. Thank you so much for sharing and for taking part in the Christmas event!

I love to use that too, though my favourite is German Sixth. I really love the ambiguity between an augmented sixth and dominant seventh by using German Sixth. Yes the recording thing sometimes distorts our music!!!🥵 But for my personal preference I will end the piece in high register, because I think ending in low register won't balance the register but will abruptly distort the overall mood. But that's just my opinion. You really should post more pieces here! I find there are numerous good pieces posted in Youtube!! Members from here will provide even more valuable comments to your music and I am sure you will benefit from them!! Henry

Awesome piece! Definitely has a Christmas ring to it, and you play wonderfully. I have to say, your piano sounds amazing, it's very crystal clear and has a very bright tone. Very fitting to the piece you performed. Well done!

Hei @Carl Koh Wei Hao, First you play it by yourself! Great job! It really shows your playing skill! It's quite rare to have live recordings posted here in YC. As this piece is about Christmas, you should join the Christmas event held this year here! Nice harmony used including the augmented 5th (Db-F-A natural), the french sixth and the diminished chord. Nice catchy melody as well with good accompaniment to move it around. Nice change to the flat submediant key of A major! That's a chopinistic touch. I love the section on 2:30 which is modulated to F sharp minor, and in 2:55 the melody goes to middle register played by left hand, which is a great contrast to the previous section since many of them are in high register and played by right hand only. In around 3:08 nice modulation back to D flat major. I love that half diminished seventh chord of D#-F#-A-C#, I always love half diminished 7th chord and you utilize it well to re-interpret it as Eb-Gb-Ab-Db as a pivotal chord, then resolve that Db to C to form the dominant seventh. Great use of harmony here, not only adding color but also ensure smooth transition! The return of A material in 3:15 I love the timberal change you made by spreading the right hand chords. It for sure adds silvery effect for the music, good job! That's nice ending as well. However personally I will just end the piece in that high register chord in 4:23. I find the sudden contemplative sound of the low register quite unsuitable to be used to end the piece. But overall this is really an enjoyable piece!! Good job especially you play this yourself and record it! Btw, I've visited your channel and you have other pieces posted on YT but not here. I think you can consider posting them here as well! (And you have 1 more subscriber than me, LOL!!) Last but not least, wish you a Merry Christmas! Henry

I am a pianist and I've never written for saxophone. Also the style of this piece is what I am unable to compose, so I cannot really give any useful advice here. I can only say that I really love this piece! F minor really fits the timbre of saxophone. It's cool, a little bit depressed. I like the texture and polyrhythm throughout the piece. It definitely makes the sound thicker like those in Brahms or Dvorak. Nice exchange between instruments and the melody is played in all the registers possible. Great job! In b. 43 if morendo is added, then ritard will be redundant since morendo means decrease in volume and tempo at the same time. I guess it's because of the software issue? Since it cannot detect a morendo anyway. I love the change of mood in the middle section, warmer but still cool in an underlying way. Personally I find b.73-88 too bright but that's just my personal preference. I find it too pesante with the chordal notes straight on beat, since its texture is different from all previous sections. I love the transition from b.89. First it starts like something bright and naive, and for a sudden we are back in the territory of F minor! There's magic in it! Nice modulation using advanced harmony! But I just feel the transition a little bit too long, but that's just my personal preference. Nice buildup to the ending, and great climax! But I just find the ending on picardy third a little bit weird though, since overall the piece is cool and the warm F major chords are never prepared. That really gives me a sudden attack. But overall a marvelous piece! Really thankful that you share this piece to us! Thank you! Henry

Oh interesting! I registered on the page. Will try to upload some midi and see the magic, lol. Many thanks. I shared it here. I'm actually thinking I could refer to your channel using my own using the post feature or something. Kind regards!!

Dear Vince, I'm so glad you enjoy the piece as well as the recording! It's an old piece of me and it definitely shows some immaturity, but I think I have given the best as a teen then! I have the same feeling. I can record it much better now, but find that the recording itself is so precious that I cannot give it up. It presents the mind "at that moment", instead of a reinterpertation from now. You really have a good catch! Beethoven was then my sole idol (now there's many more but Beethoven is still my favourite), and I definitely use his motivic approach to compose. I myself find bar 19-23 quite a cliche now, but it has some emotion in it. I myself agree that the materials have to be developed more especially theme A, but that shows my immaturity then, and also since the piece has to fulfill the time requiremenet of the public exam, so I had to stay with it then. Yeah I love that too! Maybe then I was learning Chopin's Nocturne in B major, op. 62 no.1 so I incorporated his technique to the piece. That transition is quite a good touch, and I still prefer it in half note=176 now, but that's just my personal preference. I really love that part and enjoy its technique even now. But composing then I just followed my instinct and had no planning at all. I did have an impulse at that time. I don't like it now except that use in bar 150 since it's quite poetic. But other place I am not satisfied. It seems work because there is emotion pushing it forward, but it is not smooth enough. I may not use the figure from bar 213 but I will just let it retain now. I agree that's quite an abrupt change of style. I was thinking then I wanted to present the beauty of that pure dream, but it's quite a sudden change. I would probably retain it but add some preparations to it if I composed it now, but these kind of imaturity are so precious for me so I will retain it. Currently I am composing a string sextet working on my views on religion and culture. I am also practicing my old piano works and hope to record it and post it here and on Youtube! Thank you so much for your detailed commentary! Henry

Hi Henry First of all, I love this recording. If you were to someday release your music professionally, yes I would re-record it. But I love how you captured a moment in time that'll never be forgotten. I love the imperfections, the mistakes don't mean a thing. It's like when someone is giving a great speech, and they stutter a little; does it really matter? Or when actors purposely stutter and fumble their words a bit. They do it on purpose because it's more real, and that's how your recording felt to me. I love the bell at the end too, it was perfect timing haha. You do a really good job at developing your material. All of it makes sense since it stems from previously introduced themes. And speaking of themes, they're fantastic. I especially like the end of the A theme (bars 19-23). Sometimes I hear certain parts of a theme or a piece in general and wish the composer did more with it, but I think you gave us listeners just enough of it. Your piece made me think of Beethoven, sort of in texture, but also the way he treated material and saved moments of the theme to savor until the end (I'm thinking Appassionata mvt.1). The B theme is very well done too. Your music is drenched with emotion, something not everyone can achieve. I really like the parts where you added the trills in it too; you're quite the player, and this was 10 years ago! I really like the transition into bar 56, but I wouldn't have written that section that way. Half note = 176? I would have used quarter = 176 and halved all the note values, but that may just be a preference. Bringing back the B theme was nice with the triplets underneath, and then the dramatic section at bar 84 was very cool too. Very "symphonic" use of the piano there. All the development leading back to the introduction at bar 151 was great too, I like all your compositional technique. There were a few moments where you use low whole or half notes to transition to something, I'm not quite sure I'm a huge fan of it. It definitely works, but something just felt missing. For instance at bar 212, I would have done a slow rising figure with an accelerando or perhaps feathered beaming to mimic the left hand in bar 213 to get to that spot. I just think it would have been smoother, but like I said, what you did works (I'm just being nitpicky :P). My only real gripe with the piece is the coda section at bar 221. Yes I know you developed the chordal section you had previously, but to me it just came out of left field. I will say that this was my FAVORITE section though. Your melody is extraordinarily beautiful here, but to me we had several minutes of a Beethoven style, then all of a sudden we were getting Chopin. I loved the musicality of it, but I felt like it was tacked on instead of making sense as to where you were taking us. The ending is quite nice as well, and you should be proud of this one! Overall, very well done, Henry! You've got great composing chops, as well as piano skill. I'm glad you posted a live recording, even with it's faults. I'd rather hear you play it with a few minor mistakes then listen to a robotic midi rendition, we just don't get enough of that around here. I've posted a few older pieces here as well, but I'm very interested in what you're working on currently! It was nice to hear this, and it would be great when you post something recent so I can hear how you've developed as a composer. Wonderful job, and thanks so much for sharing!