Hey Mike, (not intrusive to say “Hey”),
I don’t know why I write with more and more Pentatonics. It seems like I’m more attracted to it after writing the pentatonic passage in the fourth movement of my Clarinet Quintet as hinted by @Thatguy v2.0.
The intro is quite out of place, except the rhythmic motive and the first half of it keeps being used in the 2nd Episode. I think of removing it to maintain the coherence, but at last I keep it.
The opening theme is written without any emotion at all LoL, and I never realise its beauty until probably a year later. At the time of writing it it sounds weirdly official and a routine slow movement melody to me, but that can be a bias. I now know it’s quite good haha.
The melody in 2:40 is the one I love much more, since it contains the painful emotions I suffered last few months. I am afraid the harmony is too simple but I decide to keep it as the melody with the flourishing notes and counterpoint is already quite complicated.
The 6:10 is the false recapitulation of the opening theme. I like the way I twist it to F minor. And all those key changes are easy, they are octatonically related keys. I just let the music go where they want and I almost have no control on that haha!
The 8:35 breathing point as @PeterthePapercomPosernoted is deliberate. I want the pentatonic keeps flourishing and it makes the sufferer forgets his own suffering by just hearing the pentatonic notes, like one forget his own pain when noticing a utopian world.
Thx! I always put coherence as the most important aspect in my music, since without it my music would be just fortuitous sketches combined together.
Thx for your recommendation haha!
Henry