Thatguy v2.0

Dang how did I miss this one I know every midi rendition of a piano piece could be enhanced with a live performance, but this especially could. I found myself wanting to hear so much rubato, it would definitely give this piece added life. I forget, do you play? I hear a lot of pain and despair in this, broken up by little rays of sun here and there. I think when you have writer's block, something improvisational is a good move to get out of it, where you kind of forego form and just write. I like the story-arch of this, because it was hard to "expect" anything, and I was just forced to listen. Bar 72 was probably my favorite moment, the high register was a lovely touch in color to your theme. Reminded me of some of Liszt's stuff. 106-108 was really cool too. But I think my favorite thing overall was the fact that nothing really felt forced. If you wanted to be simple, you were. If you wanted to added dynamic depth, you did. Nothing felt like you were trying to break boundaries, you just wrote good music. I took a lesson from a jazz piano player one time, and he asked me how I play my C chord. Not how to play C, but how to play MY C chord. Did I like to add a 6th, or omit the 5th, or whatever. I didn't care for that, because sometimes a plain old C chord is just fine as it is, it just depends on what you're going for. The language in your music is simple yet elegant, and it sounds like you're a wise and mature composer from it. I like Henry's suggestion of small pieces, they are helpful when in a rut. The act of starting something but COMPLETING it too can't be understated for your compositional well-being, and might be an avenue worth pursuing in the future when stuck in your musical ways. Great music as always, it's good to hear something from you again. Excited for more!

Very beautiful Ivan, this has so much emotional depth wrapped up in it for such a short piece. Well done!

Your music is always so unique and complicated, a collage of wonderous sounds. I listened without analyzing, just wanted to say I enjoyed the ride you put me on with this. Well done 🙂

Also, the larghetto section at bar 817 is my favorite part of the whole 2 movement piece. I've relistened to it so many times, it's the perfect summation to the entire work to me.

Congrats dude. Hopefully you've found the forum helpful in finishing this one up. I'm excited to hear more of your stuff 🙂

We've talked at length about this, and I've heard it more times than I can count lol. Well done buddy, this is a masterpiece to my ears.

This reminds me of some of the Frank Zappa stuff. 🙂

What's funny to me is that when I first started listening, it sounded exactly like the Prelude no.1 I posted here a while back. It just started similar, and is unique and very different from my piece haha. Is this really electronic music? Is it because of a synth or something? Sounds like solo keyboard to me It's a beautiful melancholic piece, and I enjoyed this a lot. You should post more, it's only been a year and a half or so lol Nothing you mentioned about Noah sounded confusing to me. This is lovely, thanks for sharing

Hey man This final (?) version is really cool. I wanted to share some takeaways that I hope you consider for FUTURE music, not this piece in particular. Your music has a lot of emotional depth and tone color, and your studies and/or admiration of film scoring shows in this work. You do a great job at providing the background to something happening on screen, or as part of the story. Is this correct? Sorry if I'm wrong. If that's the case, what does this go with, or what were you writing this for? I'm always curious of the story that film music chooses to be supplementary to. I only say this because your music completely ignores (imo) melody, which is what the listener of an abstract environment has to grasp onto. There are no lyrics, so I can't grasp the story. There's no melody, so I can't hear what you intend for me to follow. I only have lush orchestration with harmony and tonal colors to hold onto, and although great, it leaves me asking what you are trying to say. Like I said, if there's something specific this is about, or if you wrote in general to be applied to a multitude of different scenic variations, then that's cool. But it was just hard to grasp only harmony and color to what you're portraying. If you're anything like me, I too first was orchestrally inspired by film, but then I soon found the masters and was blown away by the level of musicality within their work. Want to know how to create divine melodies? Start with Mozart and Chopin. Want to better yourself with contrapuntal writing? We all revere Bach. Want to know the secrets of drama and storytelling within an orchestra? Beethoven, Sibelius, Shostakovich, etc. etc. If I were you, I'd take my passion and obvious talent with music further by really grasping what made the greats so great. Incorporate their technique into your writing. Hell, steal if you want. It'll all make you better, and you have a fine start where you are right now. You have a nice grasp of emotional harmonies... now let's take that a step further. If you add a keen sense of melody writing to your music, it'll only make it that much more wonderful. What about rhythm? Even if you're going for a lush cinematic sound, having parts of the orchestra hold a static but flavorful rhythm would do wonders. I'm excited to hear how you continue to improve, as I know your passion for music is unavoidable in getting better. P.S. If you ever come to Nashville, I know nothing about cars and probably get scammed when I need a fix. Help me please lol

when Henry uses the F word, it's always brings joy to my heart

I think computerized renderings are the key thought here. Your music would absolutely flourish emotionally in the hands of an accomplished player. I understand that fugues in general can sound mechanical and scripted, perhaps even emotionless. But everyone who's been around here for a while knows how exquisite your craftsmanship is, and it's no knock against your creativity or talent to say that this particular style is soulless (not that anyone said that). There is emotional depth, but I think it's buried underneath a rigorous toolkit designed to "puzzle" the notes into existence. Luis said what I couldn't say any better. This is devastating, I'm so sorry for your loss and grief. But life goes on, not to sound insensitive, and your pursuit forward is a trademark of your perseverance. I love seeing new posts from you, even if I don't comment and offer insight. Mostly it's because the heavy contrapuntal styles are foreign to me, but I always appreciate their beauty. Thank you for sharing.

No one can play Sweet Georgia Brown like me, except the guy that taught it to me ofc

First of all, I'm the dog whisperer. It breaks my heart to read the backstory of your piece, but thankfully he at least has a chance because of all your and the teams' work. All variations of canines have my heart, and the words you gave us resonate loudly within me. You could of just "not cared", but there's too much of that in the world, and it makes me happy that you chose to pursue the path of effort in helping this poor creature return to safety in the wild. Now that my eyes are dry (lol), onto the music. I don't know much about choral writing, but I have some thoughts. For one, I'm a little sad to hear midi... haven't you made videos where you're singing all the parts? Perhaps for a future time 😄 I love all the dissonance created by 2nds. Some where treated as suspensions, but others seemed to be used for color. It seemed very impressionable with the content you wrote about. I also really love the lyrics, especially this: "He is everywhere, a scent on snow. He is the unforgiven air. He is the curled leaves. He is everything". I've lived all over the country, and my dad was the man that taught me about the outdoors. I lived in Alaska, and have had many encounters with wolves. It's always surreal, and there's a great deal of respect I have for them, for how they are one with nature and their environment. As dumb as this sounds, I've learned from them too, and your words reflect a great deal of wisdom and admiration for the wild world around you. Your music is always lovely, thank you for sharing

hmm I like the reverb and ambiance of the second version more, but the clarity of the 1st version is better to me, the melody doesn't seem as far away. I think the way you're using microtonality is best served when going for an effect with music, or using a more ambiguous language. When you've been very tonal, it's been a bit harsh. But when using dim or aug scales, chromaticism, "getting weird", it seems to work more advantageous. As I mentioned on discord, posting a lot of small pieces composed in a short time really shows the techniques we lean on. You show a variety of motif-driven invention type of pieces. What about exploring rhythmic variation, or longer melodies in your studies? Not sure of the overall goal (if there is one), but these could be easily organized into a set of microtonal studies, and the more variation in your compositional technique you offer, the better outcome they would be as a set or the on the whole. I like this one more than some of the others because it was weird haha, perhaps microtonal deviations in your language enhance that. Well done, this was great. 🙂

you know, I've recently changed my view on this I think we write for ourselves, and most of us don't have much of an audience outside of ourselves. I've recently gone back and listened to a whole bunch of stuff I've written, and it's better than I thought when I closed the chapter in my mind. It's inspirational to listen to your stuff, because, well, if you're like me, I'm constantly writing. And sometimes I forget the efforts I've put into past work, even if I think it was amateur at best. You are your own biggest fan, and you should get enjoyment out of the music you write. Although I cringe and hear the mistakes I would have changed, it's cool to hear live recordings (thanks Henry) of me or others who have taken the time to make a moment of music special. Listen to your music, people 🙂