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Hello Henry, It was a great pleasure to listen to your piece. I think that it is very very good. When I first heard it, I somehow got an association with “Caro mio ben”. I don´t know why, because the pieces are very different. A great kudos for your performance! It is not easy to play those chords and keeping a clear melody on the top notes. And you did very well here! (If this is not done well, the chords will get “thick” and boring)- The structure of your piece is very coherent. The repeated melodic theme is compelling, without getting tiresome, since you made transitions and modulations at the right moments. The transitions in bar 48-49 (and the equivalent in bar 72-73) are wonderful. Impressive! The minore part in C-sharp minor (btw, also one of my favorite keys) is excellent. Perhaps, I would not have repeated b. 92-94 exactly in b 96-97. Instead, it could be an idea to prepare for a smoother transition to the più mosso section. It could be done with very small changes. (for example by adding a B in the upper chord of b. 97-98). The meno mosso-rit.from b. 94. also helps of course. I have no problem with the rapid 16th triplets, even the 32nd notes are fine with me (in fact very good!). The only thing is that it is necessary to play them soft AND legato. And this is difficult! But difficult does not mean awkward of impossible. I have only a few additional thoughts: In bar 3 I would prefer to use a dotted G followed by a 16th F, in a similar way as done with the following two chords in the bar. And I would mostly do the same in other similar situations, for ex. bar 11, 15 etc. From your recording, I can hear that you are already playing it a bit in this way. In order to strengthen a contrast between the first part and the “con dolore”, I would not make such changes in the latter part. In the Più mosso section, this is not an issue, since you use four 16th notes in the r.h. (nicely done!) I think that interruptions in b. 22 and 30 are essential, but I would not play the staccato´s too short. To avoid a possible misunderstanding by musicians, I would suggest writing these notes as 1/8-th with a l/8th rest. In b 84 and 88, I would change the B in the third chord to an A. For my ears, in sounds better. In the ending, I would prefer to add an additional measure after b. 189. It felt a bit incomplete to me, but maybe you had something special in mind. I made a quick try on my digital piano and I have added a little sound file here, so you can hear what I suggested. I hope that my little review makes any sense. Thank you for posting this marvelous piece! Johan ending suggestion.mp3 .

Thank you so much for taking to time to listen and to give such a kind feedback! I had been analysing Chopin's nocturnes for a while now so I thought why not gain some experience in writing some 🙂

Hey @SoloYH, I will review the pieces one by one as I don't want your post to sink quickly. I have listened to the ballade first. For me it's very cool and I like your idea or organically spreading the major second of E-D idea rhythmically and adding interesting harmonies to it. My favourite is b.38 where you have two lines in the RH for the similar playing of the motive, also the overall mood is really cool! My concern will be the following: First is the tied notes of the left hands, you can just a crotchet instead of two tied quavers; second is the wide range of the chords as some will be unplayable on Piano, e.g. b.89. Moments like b.41 will be playable but pedal will be needed and may muddle the sound. Thanks for sharing! I will review other pieces after I listen to them. Henry

You're right, probably I should use these techniques...Maybe next time...

Nice job! But at 1:15 I heard a key change, not a tempo change, although a few seconds later I guess it does pick up in intensity a bit. The tempo change at 0:49 is definitely noticeable though. I like how the piece goes through multiple key changes, but I feel like your harmonic language is still pretty constrained (it's hard to tell without a score, but do you use many non-harmonic tones on strong beats ever? or non-tertian chords? or pan-diatonic chords? or planing/parallelism?it seems like there's plenty of harmonic territory you could make use of). It is pretty effective though at depicting the dark mood and plight of the sailors. So maybe don't fix what ain't broken? Thanks for sharing!

This gives me some slight John Williams vibes. Especially in the beginning when you have the high strings alternating between chromatic notes. But the rest of it sounds quite classical rather than cinematic imo. I think the orchestration throughout the piece is fitting. The harp chords are an especially ominous effect. The occasional borrowing from the minor mode or using chromatic neighbor tones in the melody is quite charming as well. Sometimes I do wonder whether the Oboes and Clarinets have enough time to breathe with the very long phrases that they have to play. Overall, nice job though and thanks for sharing! (Btw, I am also curious about whether the high strings should be notated as natural harmonics if anyone knows the answer!)

I think it's a great and creative idea to start the piece off with a melody in the left hand low range to be echoed later on in the higher right hand range. I think that gives it a great variety of texture. This also reminds me a bit of one of Chopin's famous Mazurka's. Measures 16 - 18 really give me an impression of being inspired by Chopin. Thanks for sharing!

Well for 3 minutes it’s very good!

Hei @Uhor, I think you are playing with the mensural notations and the polyrhythm is quite attractive for me. You capture the trochaic rhythm well in the Sapphic Stanza as it's used (or interpreted) often in Frankish School. I hope there are more barline crossing as in the Medeival and Renaissance Motets! This will make the rhythm even funnier! Henry