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Regarding this, I personally don't mind conservative harmonies. I know I said this in one of my videos, but good harmony doesn't necessarily mean, who can create the craziest and most unique harmonies in a piece. I think that crazy harmonies may actually ruin this piece, just given its style. One of my complaints around composers who try to get too creative with their harmonies, is that the overall piece sometimes starts to lose its meaning. In my opinion, use harmony where applicable. In a piece like this, the tamer harmonies are ok in my eyes, simply because the rest of the piece has other elements to give it color. One instance of this is the polyrhythmic section which is one of the most beautiful sections of this sonata. Perhaps the phrase may contain basic harmonies, but the clean harmonic structure makes the phrase easy to follow. And don't forget the melody. Melody is probably one of the hardest aspects of composition, and I do think Henry excelled in that area. Interesting, because I recently listened to nearly all of Beethoven's sonatas, and I find that most of them are not really lyrical. Some exceptions would be Moonlight Sonata, and perhaps Pathetique. But Henry's sonata is perhaps neo-romantic. I found myself enjoying this 1st movement sonata more than a lot of Beethoven's 1st movements. I'll have to give Schubert a listen one of these days.

let me point out why this movement is quite the Beethoven inspired one.... first, mini-variations. phrases get repeated and harmonically identical short phrases in 1-4 bars or something like that, but because of the varied speaking it never gets too boring. second, retaining the Haydn style treatment of cadences third, the coda... the endless V-I-V-I etc. lol don't forget the massive resemblance of the development ending to recap to the c-sharp quasi una fantasia, and the triplet motion of Appassionata as well Actually in terms of motivic development I don't find this movement follows the Beethoven treatment too much, it's more Schubertian in that sense, especially the more free harmonic progressions, introducing new lyrical themes, like that. Bars 230 and 232 the rest make the otherwise furious atmosphere feel like a bit empty and suddenly come to a halt, I feel like the triplet motion still needs to persist (unless coming to a halt is entirely the intention, but I subjectively find that less likely?). also its basically twice as fast as your pastoral 1st mvmt, how is this even possible, but you proved it... 😞 but thanks for sharing your expression here!

Hi Henry! This is a great sonata movement and it coheres very well and is thematically unified but with enough variety to sustain interest from beginning to end! It also is very smoothly connected by good transitions. My complaint is in the type of pianism and style that you use throughout the piece giving me a very melodramatic and heavy impression because of all the sturm und drang. This is a problem that I might have to face in the future myself if I ever plan on trying my hand at writing a piano sonata (so take this review with a grain of salt since all I have is a very short sonatina which I've tried to learn but am not good enough to play). The problem is: how does one write a piano sonata in today's day and age avoiding stereotypical and clichéd pianism and including an original harmonic and melodic language? Don't get me wrong - your sonata is perfect the way it is and I don't think it can be improved in any way, being what it is, but I can't help but find some parts of it overly melodramatic and overblown and somewhat clichéd (bars 50 - 51 and 185 - 186). I guess it does sound Beethoven-esque and Chopinistic, but with quite original melodies. But the harmonic language and style is very conservative to me. I understand that the aforementioned bars cannot be excised from the piece because they are a logical consequence of things that came before because the piece grows it's ideas very organically from previous material. But I can't help but feel a sense of bombast despite its being very bold and incisive and sharp (and it's possible I might be more enthusiastic about its good features if it was a better recording and not so dry as well). But of course, overall this is very enjoyable for what it is and is meant to be, but I do wish you explored some more of your own original harmony. Most of the great composers in music history found ways to create their own original harmonic language/formulas that were unique only to them and I wouldn't want you to shortchange yourself by never embarking upon this pursuit! Thanks for sharing! Peter

Wassup Henry, I hope your doing well. Firstly, I just want to say that this recording is much better than the one you sent me earlier, the bass is far less muddy and the treble is somewhat clearer (from what I can hear). Also, good job on playing your own pieces. This seems very difficult, you must be a great pianist. With regards to the music, I think this is near perfection. My favourite is probably the development, it sounds like Autumn leaves falling down to me. Like Mike, I think this sounds like a modern Beethoven with touches of Chopin in the pianistic sections, but overall I'm hearing Henry Ng rather than those two. Henry, I think that you should at least try to get this performed, or at least teach it to your piano students when they reach the level, the way the old master (Chopin, Liszt etc.) taught their students their own compositions. It's up to you in the end, but this piece is definitely something I'd want to learn if I was a pianiast. Anyways, lovely piece, hope to hear the other movements soon! Ciao, Arjuna

Hi everyone! I am posting the 1st movement of my Third Piano Sonata in C sharp minor. This movement starts at 2019, but was abandoned since I had to focus on composing my two Clarinet Quintets then. Then after finishing my Sextet movement I wanna write something trash to restore my originality, so I choose this one to work on. What I had is only b. 1-8, b.177-180 and b.225 till the end, so my job was to extend them and make the music as smooth as possible. Luckily the final product isn't quite trash at all, even though the style is less original than the Sextet. I know the recording is bad, especially with those tears, but hopefully it doesn't hurt! Hope you enjoy it! This movement for me is furious, but it acts as self therapy by composing and expressing all my anger and confusion. I was in a state of depression at the composing period, worrying from the world to myself. Luckliy this movement saves me from falling to the depression trap. I make use of the opening falling fourth motive and that triplet rhythmic motive all through the movement, which results in something Beethovanian and reminds me of his Appassionata. I started to enjoying it more and more after playing it myself. It's challenging but very enjoyable to do so. Piano Sonata no.3 in C sharp minor First Movement.pdf Piano Sonata no.3 1st Mov Audio.mp3 Here is the structre of the movement: 0:03 Exposition, First Subject. Uses the falling fourth motives and the triplet rhythmic motives in the whole movement due to coherence (and laziness LoL) 0:39 Transition 1:02 Exposition, Second Subject, in dominant G# minor. 1st theme more chordal, 1:17 2nd theme, more cantabile in nature, 1:35 3rd theme with furious octaves, and the next passage with 16th triplets on top with the fate motive underneath reminds me the Appassionata most. 2:10 Development, begins with imitation and canon, then reach the more beautiful theme in 2:44, but soon crushed and the Appassionata related F minor comes in at 3:29. The progression here I am sure I have learnt from Schubert's Fantasie in F minor for piano four hands. 4:19 Recapitulation, First Subject. Try something Bramsian here. 5:10 Recapitulation, Second Subject, same as the exposition except in the tonic key. 6:19 Coda, using that beautiful theme from the development again (except with that freaking wrong note LoL). Building up climax until reaching 6:51(my favourite passage!), and is agitated till the end. Feel free to criticize it or just take note on something interesting of it. I will be very happy for all your opinions! I know the recording is bad, especially with those tears, but hopefully it doesn't hurt! I recommend the YT video version more since it seems to filter out some of the tears! Henry

Oh dear. I don't want to say I agree with the above which would only clog up the thread. But I am in agreement with Henry. The work sets out as a gorgeously light, energetic scherzo...some brassy episodes in what I thought was going to be the middle; and was expecting a recap with the opening lightness (even if with altered/developed material). But no, the brass got really heavy handed and discordant in that it seemed out of place with what had evolved." The way the opening unrolled, the harmony and decoration was great, a lovely well-rendered, balanced piece, something if it persisted would bear repeated listening. But I have to confess the close was a bit of an off-put. But then, you're the composer and final judge and if this is how you want it, so be it! Cheers.

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There's nothing to criticize with this piece, other than the audio recording quality. It sounds like I am listening to a modern Beethoven who had some inspiration from Chopin. I hear slight hints of Chopin's first sonata, but other than that, this is your own voice. In fact this piece is much better than Chopin's 1st sonata. You have a gorgeous melody going on here which helps boost this piece's listening value. In fact, a lot of Beethoven's sonatas aren't as lyrical as this one. I found myself playing this theme in my head all day today (due to me listening to this piece like 4 or 5 times last night). I also had no idea you were quite the pianist either. Don't worry about the missed notes, it's more about the overall playing, and ability to convey the message clearly. Really the only thing missing here is the sound quality, because everything else is perfection. I might have to do a dedicated video of this piece on my YouTube channel, because this movement really captured my interest. I may experiment with recording parts of your piece in midi, to see if I can help bring out the clarity of some sections. And since you compose in polyrhythms, it's really a perfect study because I can demonstrate how Music Jotter can use the polymeter to score certain sections of this piece. What we have here is an expertly written composition and well executed performance. May I ask how long it took to compose this movement?

I read this a few hours ago and I must say it drew a smile in my face. 🙂 Thank you so much for the comment! I needed something like that. I'm doubting myself more than a few weeks ago and I feel like I'm falling short.