Leaderboard

Wow Serge, you're a monster! Thanks for the in depth analysis of all of my little preludes, I think it's really cool that you had the time to check them out as a set, as your viewpoint is as a whole rather than individual pieces. I'm in debt to your generosity. 😄 This was something I was hoping for, that each could stand on their own, and bonus points for anyone hearing it as a set. Interesting take on the continuity factor. At first I was wondering how I should choose the order of the tonal centers (or their impact/importance, like No.11), but quickly scraped the idea of some traditional way of order and instead just wrote wherever inspiration took me. Because they were all written in a relatively short time frame, perhaps the ideas leaked into proceeding preludes? Idk, I hope they did. At moments it seems like you felt the same way. @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu really brought this one to life. I love that his performance took care of my hastiness when writing this one. You and @PeterthePapercomPoser mentioned the same dilemma with this one. I STILL can't hear it any differently than how I wrote it, but I agree with the both of you. I used Bach's Prelude in C as a foundation, with it's rhythm being completely stagnant for almost the entire piece. But I believe it could be even better with both of your suggestions in varying up the rhythm to make the syncopation even more profound. Hell, it'll probably be even cool upon revisions. Thanks for taking the time to really detail how you would amend it to make the rhythms make more of an impact; I can't wait to edit these with the hope of you all hearing them to see if there's improvement. Haha, I'm glad you found the comedy in this piece relevant. 😄 I'm about to update this piece with @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu's interpretation, and he saw this as less of a "march". I'm curious if you have any thoughts on his performance? I personally like it better than the tempo my audio has. I LOVE your thoughts on building up to the FFF dynamic. It's changed the way I view it, and I'll always ask myself if I set up such a loud dynamic properly now. Thanks for that. As for the counterpoint issues you had, I'll dig deeper into it as @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu had some of the same qualms. I haven't looked at the score in detail yet, but I'm sure you're probably both right and chances are your recommendations will be in the final edit 🙂 I'm glad you like the "Praise Jesus" at the end hahaha. It's my favorite part. I tried making these preludes nowhere past the intermediate skill range, so I might change a few minor things if it's too hard to play. I'm glad you enjoyed my ridiculous sense of humor lol. In hindsight, I could have developed that mysterious line a bit more. In fact, this was the hardest one to write, I just kept getting stuck. I like the final result, even the harsher intervals in some of the 9ths, but I bet with a bit more tinkering I could polish it up a tad. I can hit those chords in the left hand, but I'm questioning it now... maybe I should change it up a little for them to be heard at such a loud dynamic marking. We'll see, but thanks for your thoughts on this Thanks! This one was an old idea, and I was really proud of making a 7/4 piece with a groove instead of feeling jaunty. Idk why, but it was really easy to write. I came home from work and started writing it and the next thing I knew it was 2 a.m. with the bulk of it done. Wow, awesome thoughts on some of the ideas returning. It wasn't purposefully done, but maybe as I said earlier some of the previous ideas bled into this piece. I stuck with the diminished scale, which maybe the score looks weird, but I had Ab and A nat. in that scale so I mostly notated them as individual notes of the scale, hence the obsessive A nat. signs when normally it wouldn't be needed. This one I was basically like "screw form" and just tried developing the material in a fantasy/free form kind of way. I really like this one, but it seemed less popular among those I know who have listened. I'm glad you found it clever 🙂 oh how right you are. This one was technically the last one I wrote (but not finalized). It was kind of a throw away piece, as once I settled on the idea of it being 7 bars long, I felt relieved to be done with the brain work. No.10 DID feel like the last piece I wrote, and I'm very happy you heard the set the way I do. So, when I started writing these preludes, it was right when I decided that I'd make a drastic life change and move states, leaving my friends and career behind. Throughout the entire time, I had this looming sense of dread, sadness, excitement... lots of conflicting emotions brewing and boiling inside. I started to think of them as different things I've learned and experienced living in Colorado, and love was among them. This one makes me sad to listen to, but I wanted it to be hopeful as well. It's a culmination of the bombardment of emotions I've been shackled by, and in the end, I wanted these to end on a positive note (lame pun). I'm glad you agree In all, thanks so much for how much thought and time you put into reviewing my music. Hopefully with the tweaks and corrections I make, it'll satisfy all the issues you and everyone else nice enough to share some thoughts had, to make it the best I can possibly craft. You're a reviewing legend my friend, thanks again for your unfailing kindness in critiquing my work. Vince

Fun piece i made a while ago, quite happy with it.

I like this idea, it can help with music discovery. We'd need to put more visibility on this thread / idea. I'm someone who always is looking for new music, and lately I discovered a composer that is like Rachmaninoff. His name is Nikolai Medtner. Here is part of his piano concerto 1 that I clipped. It's really beautiful and in many ways, superior to Rachmaninoff in my opinion: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxeuAhScw6CzjVoioEoJnWKfOrAvgYuPb5 But his entire piano concerto is just stunning, if you enjoy that type of music, which, I do. I was drawn into the full concerto, and while I hear similarities to Rachmaninoff, I just felt like this music was better orchestrated and more pianistic. The problem some people may see with the first concerto is the lack of thematic development. However, to me, I don't even mind, because his variations are really well done. I'm sure I can come up with a more examples of "music that sounds like". But let's see what others come up with.

Hello there. This is a solo guitar piece I recorded for a video that's being made. The details of it aren't final, but there will be dancing in the woods, and things to that effect. I have this tabbed out, so if there's any interest in seeing that I'll make it look pretty, but otherwise, I hope you enjoy! Oh yeah, it's about a girl 😄

An improv based on a 2 bar theme I created to demonstrate how to create a modulating period in a lesson plan I'm working on with Aaron. It's a first run so very raw and noisy. Influenced by mozarts piano sonata in D I think because of the repetition of the theme in ii.

This is a piece I recently wrote. I was inspired by looking upon so many problems that are going on in the world, as well as being inspired by problems going on in my own personal life.

Thank you all for taking time to listen to my piece 🙂 @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu (As far as I know, we didn't have this ability to "at" people when I was here last, so this is pretty cool!) Thank you for your thoughts. I'm glad the authenticity of the performance is shining through, because that's always my goal with a MIDI playback. I didn't even think about similarities to Beethoven's Pathetique, but now that you say it, it is quite similar. Also, I've never heard Sakamoto Ryuichi's music: I'll have to take time to listen to his music sometime! @Samuel_vangogh Thank you! For me personally, my musical philosophy is simply, "if it works, it works, and if it doesn't, it doesn't." So I have no interest in whether something is academically correct or not, but rather, do I personally find something to be an effective choice, or not. Parallel 5ths can sound very sloppy in some contexts, and sound beautiful in other contexts, after all. @Luis Hernández Hey you! Thanks for listening. @Thatguy v2.0 Thanks Vince! You really hit the nail on the head with the "baking" thing: I've had the exact same thought about my way of composing, and I've often thought that there are strange similarities between cooking and music. I don't think I've heard Muse's music, that's another recommendation I'll have to check out. If you do come up with any thoughts for the ending, by all means, please share. My first draft of the piece had a significantly worse ending, where mss. 126 to the end didn't exist, and it just ending on a Cm on ms. 126. When I listened to it a few times, I was like, "there's no way I can end the piece like this." I'm open to more suggestions to "improve" it further, with the condition that it doesn't end in a "happy" or "positive" way, which I think would really undermine the piece.

It's very well done, I think. So, yes, we are in a fairly predictable harmonic context and the orchestration effects lead us a little where we expect, but I find that it fits perfectly into the very popular musical genre at the moment for the accompaniments of music in the image, in series, (epic...) sequences of films, and also some probably video game sequences (I know little about this field). it therefore seems that the criticism of this too predictable aspect is related to the fact that we lack the image that it could accompany, to judge the whole. But for my part, I find that the goal is achieved with some thematic passages that remind me of Grieg

Hey there Well this was quite the ride. This is jam-packed with emotional extremes; it's hard not to feel power and heaviness of it. I like your style. I've listened to this several times now, and I keep hearing more and more influences. It's like you bake a cake from classical/early romantic music and put modern musical icing on it. It's a cool sound 😄 Along with Beethoven, Rach, and Chopin stuffs, I at times thought of the band Muse. You know them? I like the overall form, with the choral melodic moments balancing the motivic and vigorous sections. It's a back and forth from A and B sections but varied ways of developing each section. Even the repeated spots are developed further. I like the improvisatory nature within the confines of a well balanced structure. Very cool There's not much I could say critically (sorry!). Every time I thought of something I'd do differently, I realized it was merely subjective, and actually kind of fun to hear when the unexpected happened. It made me think that I should pay more attention to the fine details of how I'm trying to execute a particular effect. I'm mainly thinking of your usage of sudden dynamic changes and texture choices. For instance, in the first choral type section (the intro), you went back and forth between 3 and 4 voices. Sometimes it felt like the texture got weirdly thin, maybe even awkwardly. But was that intentional for effect? Either way, I don't see it as between right and wrong, just compositional choices that are interesting to me. As far as the 2/4 measures of rest, I like it. In fact, the spacing you give in the lamentation sections are one of the best parts. What if you made one of the 3/4 or something? Might be a cool variation, especially if the section is a fixed tempo without rubato. I wasn't super satisfied with the ending...Idk though. I'll think about this some more and edit the post with some ideas if it comes to me. Overall though, this was great to listen to, and a wonderful (although maybe tragic? 😞) reintroduction to your music. I look forward to hearing more from you, whether it's your music or thoughtful advice.

Thanks @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu for your wonderful interpretation!!!

This is such a nice short and simple piece there’s nothing to criticize. The structure is good, the motif is fun, and the piece as a whole flows very well and has good pacing. Since you say you’re a bassoonist, you should prepare a performance for us to enjoy 🙂

I am a bassoonist, while it is quite much, it's all playable.

an interesting shower thought piece that i came up with while sick with covid last june. this is the only piece i've done in this style, and it's definitely very different than anything else i've done before.

I agree, an emotional work with a mix of traditional and new things. I particularly like some of the transitions between parts.

Hi @Awsumerguy, I think if you are learning to write one in sonata form, you can just try a typical modal and without caring other issues first. I had written quite a number of failures in that form before writing some good one. And when Haydn and Mozart writes sonata form I'm sure they don't have sonata form in their mind! Polonaise and mazurka are not musical forms but rather different types of dances I think. I don't think it's necessary to write in Mahlerian scale unless you have something real big to write, like life and death, religion, humanity etc. For me it's always easier to write stricter rather than freer. I always find writing a fugue is easily then a free piece, since in fugue you only have to follow the rules to write good music, while in free piece you cannot rely on many things to make the music sound good. For me my themes are always born out of inspirations and I start to find some interesting features of it to make a motives to be used later on, or in the case of my recent Sextet movement I just let it go without drilling too much in it. Maybe my suggestion here is trash haha! Henry

Now that I've had time to listen to all of the preludes, I'm going to go ahead and write more of my thoughts here on one post rather than post them on all the separate posts. Prelude 1: in addition to what I already said above, I think it's great when preludes both work as a part of a cohesive whole in the set, and also could work if just plucked out and played on its own without context. This piece is just really well-constructed and well thought-out, you could really just play it by itself, and even though that's not necessary, it's still worth mentioning, I think. 2: Just gorgeous. And yes, mss. 4 & 6 are very "Final Fantasy", and that's fine. This piece is interesting to me, because it feels like a "what-if" on the development of the 1st prelude. As in, "what if I stripped the jazziness and the moody whole tone harmonies from the first prelude?" And this piece comes out kind of naturally as a result. So in a way, it almost feels like a "reduction" of first prelude, at least in terms of its "language," which makes perfect sense as a form of development. 3: And then this one is the exact opposite. "What if I cranked the moodiness and more jagged harmonies up to max?" This one's just genuinely brilliant (and props to the subtlety of the performer, playing the r.h. with a very slight "swing", giving an illusion of triplet, causing the rhythm to feel "off" somehow, but in a way which complements the discomfort of the piece). Sincere, profound. Bravo! 4: Another really cool piece. However, this is a classic example of a composer's intention and what an audience would hear just not quite coming together. You're wanting the top voice to sound like it's offbeat, like so: But what it actually sounds like, is: And so it is syncopated, but not the way the score indicates that it wants to come across as. And so, I wondered what could be done to help bring your intention across without ripping the entire piece's intestines out, and what comes to mind is something like: So, basically, some way to announce clearly to the audience what the beat actually is, (maybe even adding another opening measure) and then purposefully undermine it with your intended offbeat. Because otherwise, even looking straight at the score while listening, it's really hard to hear an "offbeat" at all. 5: Kefka xD Always popping in at the most inappropriate places and doing the most inappropriate things. I don't have a lot to say, but I will say that the L.H. chord on ms. 14 is perfection, and is so deliciously and comically evil, like kicking a grunt off a bridge or something, LOL. 6: I think this piece is lovely, but I do have a few critiques. The C natural in the L.H. in ms. 11 sounds fine in those thirds, but after ms. 12 being Cb, ms. 13's C natural sounds rather "dorky" for lack of a better word, and I think it would be better just going ahead and making it a Cb like you do in the following measure on 14. Also, I like the crescendo from mss. 25 - 28, but I think the FFF is too much for the climax, as it's not quite "earned" in terms of emotional weight. I think a F, maybe a FF at most, followed by a less pronounced pause. This feels more like a poignant story, but the kind that is told in passing, not one that causes a pause and deep reflection. But that's just my opinion. 7: BAHAHAHAHA Brilliant!!! "Praise Jesus" made me guffaw! Oh Lawd have mercy, I couldn't hardly read the score. I live in Southern USA, and this dialect is just killing me. But red neck stuff aside, the music is totally and utterly convincing. This one's a surefire crowd-pleaser, no doubt about it. Pieces like this that allow a performer to let loose and play with more "sloppy charisma" are some of the most fun to play, as well. Again, brilliant, well done! *clap clap clap* 8: Those quartal harmonies and mysterious scales are really absorbing. The shadowy part at mss. 15 + 16 complement and contrast the angular sound of the constant quartal harmonies: I kind of wish you had leaned into those phrases just a little bit more, because in context, they sound amazing. But it's better to be left wanting a bit more, than for something to overstay its welcome. I think you probably agree it sounds awesome, seeing as how you ended the piece on the same riff. (On a side note: that is a well-earned FFF.) The 9ths starting at ms. 25 took some getting used to, but I think a live performer would help bring out the "crunchy" textural purpose of the chords better than MIDI is capable of doing, so that's worth considering. 9: God, this one is just cool as hell. The 7/4 time somehow sounds completely organic and natural, and your way of developing the material is smooth as silk. This one's a masterpiece, honestly. 10: This one is cool, and so clever. If I'm not just hearing things, it sounds like there's a lot of echoes of previous things that happened in previous preludes: quartal harmonies and scales, "Kefka's return" at mss. 41 - 46, 7ths reminiscent of the 9ths in the 8th prelude at mss. 124 - 132 for their textural component (and a striking D7 chord at ms. 156 that's been consistently striking since first coming around in the 17-18 mss. of the very first prelude). Structurally speaking, this piece just really "fits" in the grand scheme of the whole set, and adds to the cohesiveness of the whole. Not to mention it just sounds awesome. 11: And so, my current impression is that prelude 10 is actually the "ending" of the set, with so much being summed up, and this 11th prelude is actually a short "interlude" which leads into prelude 12, which I assume will be an "epilogue." Am I correct? Let me listen and see. 12: I think so. I listened to this one first, since it was the first one I saw, and now after more context, it seems a natural epilogue. Instead of the jagged edges that the quartal harmonies and clustered 2nds have brought, we now have a resolution to conflict, and the harmonies uplift, bringing about an ending. Even the more discordant section results in a clear resolution. In my life, I've learned to appreciate both "happy" endings and "sad" endings, and it feels right that this one ends on such a positive note. Really, this is an excellent set of music. I think there are a few little weak links in the middle of the set, but overall, this is A+ material. Thanks for sharing, it's been great listening to them 🙂 (Forgive me if some of my feedback is nonsense, lol)

here you go

this is an album includes 8 microtonal piano pieces I composed previously, sound effects have been adjusted to be more pleasant to the ear, hope you like it! the video: 【微分音专辑】作品5 八首微分音钢琴音乐的开山之作_哔哩哔哩_bilibili

Haha thx Darren. But maybe sometimes my comments are quite trash though and my own posts are not good enough as well to guide others. Henry