Kamil Adamčík

Yes I do feel the end was a bit rushed and the intermezzo before middle accelerando section has vaguely variated material. I should definetly work on clearer and longer phrases. But the original melody is four measures and text 5 two versed stanzas long so I wanted to avodi too much repetition. Singer singing 4 bars over and over again the same way would be boring and too many different ways of singing chaotic. Maybe you know of some folk songs with short melodies and little text that have been developed into two minutes or more yet still feel balanced and not like solo piano with voice accompaniment? I'll keep your advice in mind in the future. Thank you.

Fair point, thank you. My intentions were to change the declamation of text from legato fluid one to an accented one with more tension. Not a complete staccato "cutting" the syllables from each other but rather creating more tension contrasting the previous phrases. I suppose the change from staccato quarters to normal eights (or eights with tenuto?) would be enough for singer to recognize that change of the style of singing is needed. The quarter staccatos could confuse the singer to "hiccup" the notes heh. I'll change it to eights then and ask the singer's professor about how to better indicate the phrasing that I want there.

A small playful piece for my friend who asked me for something fun. Approximate translation: Never mind, never mind, yesterday I had a girl today I have none. Now It's bad, now I'm gone I: my wife sold my oaxes for a bonnet. :I She sold a cow aswell bought herself a thingy-lingy on her head. She sold a stallion too, bought herself laces for bonnet. Never mind, never mind I: yesterday I had a thousand crowns now I have none. :I translation only for understanding the text purposes as always. Any advice on what to try out next in piano+voice songs would be much appreciated. I feel that I am getting stagnant with these "clashing" sharp dissonances at sections where there could be a conventional consonance (the intro would be a nice example and that style of harmonization is in my previous pieces as well). The only thing that differs is stylization and even that one is lacking creativity in left hand. Maybe something contrapunctual with conssonant harmony without the necessary clashes? That might get boring though. An attempt for quartal harmony would be a step up from this. Less harmony changes on a short section and maybe try using silence for tension or letting harmonies last rather than changing them so quickly. Some tip in this spirit would be appreciated. I will try so on my own but a perspective from someone more experienced would be gladly welcomed.

Oh lol! How did I miss that? That's the con of notation softwares of today I guess :D. I just put transpose a major second higher for the singer and don't mind the key the software has chosen. Gotta keep an eye out on the details next time.

Hello and thank you. I had some fun translating the lyrics although the translation is to be taken only for practical use of understanding the contents of the songs. Tam pod Salatinom was a song on request by one professor at conservatory who has a young mezzo-sopranist who sings in a folk band and there is one older person who collected plenty of Slovak folk songs through villages and such{he also helped folk music in Slovakia to grow by creating communities, bands and places where people could learn folk dancing, singing, folk instrument playing and so). This person took the melody of one such song that has been given from one generation to another via ear only and added his own words. When I received it it was just one voice melody with lyrics. So even the introduction is harmonization of the given piece of sheet music and those little tails at the end of each stanzas are variations of the motive at the original sheet that was given to me. The original had the melodic end wirtten as it is in measure 60. So I can take credit only for the harmonization part. The development of stylization in the piece was a theoretical goal I gave myself before writting the music. (Fast "rustling" triplets flowing around in the first stanza, more dance-like and grounded at rhythm for the second stanza about the celebrations and a sensitive usage of typical chords with those added seconds/combined harmonic functions where they sounded good to my ear [which annoys me for the fact that the harmony was 80% intuitive and 20% knowledge based lol]) So it was on purpose and I am glad that it found a positive feedback :) Yes I agree on the intermezzos not being smoothly compatible with the voice parts and the repeated although variated introductions cut the flow of the piece. Of course it should be divided but the way I had executed it was more theoretical than musical I think. But that's something I avoided quite efficiently in Pockaj Diouca although that is two stanza short piece. But better start small first right? I was much more happy with Pockaj Diouca for harmonies and definite form of stylization came very naturally and I finished it in cca 3 sittings. And those aleatorics in the end were meant to be played differently not by glissando. The original was in dorian mode from d but the recording is from e for the singer. The footnote at the last page says "Play with all ten fingers on the white keys." Which was a quite poor way to indicate the way I wanted it to be. Rather than boring classical cadence I wanted to add this climb in a fast irregular spider walking with figures. But the white keys from e have half tone between i-ii and it did not sound as good and trying to hit F# while doing that irregular spider walk was uncomfortable if not aleatoricaly possible. A small question for the end: As the dynamics of the piece with Tam pod Salatinom go... didn't you miss some culmination point? Apart from the measure 47 which goes nice with the succeeding text I generally feel the tectonics of the piece very calm in a not interesting way.

Two pieces from song cycle I was assigned to write at summer semester at conservatory. Tam pod Salatinom has lyrics for a woman singer but my friend liked the piano so much that he took the liberty to change the lyrics a little bit so he could sing it at concert in our city. The second one is a short song I liked because it was fresh and funny and I learned a lot there about how not to complicate things. The main thing I am looking for in critique would be notes on form and piano stylization. For example I learned that Tam pod Salatinom has hard changes for hand and making it unnecessarily difficult to sight read it and even a little awkward to play it. This summer I am trying to work on my form and developing an idea so I can create more cohesive works. The three stanzas of Tam pod Salatinom are based on the meaning of text so each stanza has different stylization. Also I tried to avoid unison of piano with voice to some extent at least since I find it hard to be at home while doing harmonic background for voice and hearing it how it sounds together. So gotta challenge myself in that I suppose. Any other suggestions? What do you guys got to say on harmonies and the sound overall? Looking forward to reviews. EDIT: Lyrics for the songs. Tam pod Salatinom (There, below Salatin) /Salatín is a mountain in Low Tatras, Slovakia/ There, below Salatín rustles a little green mountain, my beloved told me, my beloved told me, that she does not love me so I put a new feather, so I put a new feather behind my hat and I wonder away la dee da dee, la dee da dee to far far away (into the world) In Biely Potok (White Stream/sort of a village south from the city of Ružomberok/) at Biely Potok they play a music for dancing and there in Martinček (another village near Ružomberok) and there in Martinček people celebrate (Bursujú - have fun, eat and dance mostly in a folkish tradional way) A white goose flew, a white goose flew onto the water and she (the girl) lost her freedom (she got married). Mother, do not cry, mother do not cry oh it will be soon, for at the celebration, for at the celebration a beloved one I shall find I will take her, I will take her on a white horse and I will love her la dee da dee, la dee da dee to the final days. Počkaj diouča (Wait girl) Wait girl I have something to tell you wait girl I have something to tell you Yesterday night you didn't want to open for me neither the doors nor the gate not even talking with me Wait girl for you will regret.

Oh sorry haven't been here for some time. Thanks for the comment. Not sure if "commanding sense of how chords work" is a compliment or not :D Not a native speaker and literal translation doesn't make sense to me. And oh my you are absolutely right about the A' section. Even the text is wrong in the sheet music. I must have accidentally added a wrong pdf. A one without the change in text and change to a lower key. My attention to detail needs some more working on. Apologies.

Sang by slovakian choir Omnia. Text by a writter called Jan Fratrik (in sheet accidentaly Jozef) was at a collection of his many poems to choose from to composittion at year 2015. Finally recorded at May of 2016 so I can post it here. Very simple harmonies, colors in the middle (although hard to understand words don't you think?). The piece was also reworked and the silent spots have been reduced, harmonies (especially at the empty ending cadence) reworked, some rhytm altered in some cases where the nature of the words demanded it and solo added to the middle part. Also transposed to f minor as I felt sopranos at the premiere had a bit of problem to have a clear f2) If you want I can add the reworked sheet music but unless so I don't find it necessary to put it here since the recording is in this first version. I'll try to translate the best I can: Girl of pale cheeks, you have the desires of swallows, soft, velvet voice smile always full of brightness. Girl...from the suburbs. With charm you know to wheedle, you won't say about beauty, when in shivers through my whole body I loose myself in a white dream even rhyme lost itself from poems, and heavy smoke from cigarettes. Stop oh stop the time, may it flows by us, may music sounds forever, on precious noon. To the girls...of our cities. (By no means my translation represents the poem in an aesthetic way. I translated it only so you may know roughly what is it singing about if you don't speak slovak language.)

So many pieces to go through. Thank you. Love the modulations and harmonies especially in Vaughan WIlliams although not very modern but beautiful. I'll certainly pick some inspiration from the collections you offered. Thank you.

Ooh something new. I have never heard a classical song in Slovenian language. IS there somewhere I can listen to these new songs or are they not yet on the internet?

Oh my I apologize for not specifying. I mean only piano + voice (+ additional instrument most preferably violin would be fine as well but not strictly necessary).

Thanks for the suggestions. To put it simply I need songs for piano + voice (preferably tenor since my friend is tenor and asked me to write something for piano, his voice and violin). But the best outcome would be to have sheet music available for it on imslp as well so I can analyze it better than just by ear. It can be tonal or atonal. Examples of both are great. I heard Boli mnie Glowa by Bacewicz on one singing competittion at my school and it moved me like nothing else before. So something like that as well. I am searching as well but Faurre, Debussy Schoenberg, Webern are the names that keep appearing over and over again so that's why I am asking here to have something more to start from.

Preferably piano + violin + tenor but anything will do. So far I only found some bits and pieces on youtube, Anton Webern, Massenet, Ravel and others. It can be also the end of 19th century but I am mostly interested in structure of melodies for any voice and how did they change through the century starting from the end of the 19th. If there is some good collection on imslp (like Schubert's Winterreise for example) from this time period please let me know. Thank you.

You know.... you are not the first person to tell me this. So it must be true to some considerable extent :D But I have exams to get into Academy of Arts and I have to give as much repertoir I can and it should be more than just piano instrumentation. So I cannot give myself vacation and be ok with it. But I should certainly lay down somewhere in the garden with a good book and chill for a bit. Thank you. As for the stage fright that is also very true. I got less nervous to train when people around me thanks to practicing on a piano in university and later in conservatory as well. But I know it's nothing when I train. But to play on exams or a concert I gett jelly fingers and cold sweat. BUT! I am going to fight that once more this year in internal concerts (which I ignored with an excuse I had two schools to go to and no time to stress over a concert with 10 people) so no time for self-pity here. :D

Under contemporary here I understand 20th century europe (not Russians) and further. In my case I did not like it as well but at that time I was still discovering Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann(pff Kamil so basic sheesh) and had chills when listening or playing their piano music. Later I felt some obligation to check out this contemporary music. Schoenberg's Pierot Lunair got me so thrilled I slowly got into the real dissonance. To the point where I listened Xenakis's S.709 on my way to university at 5.00 A.M. when it was still dark. "Modernism is a sort of neurosis." Funny. It could be true at least for me. I was on therapies due to stress and anxiety yada yada and diagnosed with neurosis. And by that time I was listening only to atonal, electronic and serialistic music on daily basis because it felt as if my own dissonance within me was connecting with the music and it sucked those feelings up like a sponge. Now I don't think that's what those composers aimed for. Specifically Schoenberg. With him I would assume he wanted to change perspective on music and have us understand that tonality is just the thing our brains were used to for a plenty of time but is not superior to it's counterpart? But this can be just me and I am rudely putting words into his mouth. (Apologies Arnie : I) Anyhow the chills from romantic and classical changed to feelings sponging and structural + technical analysis of a piece. Did someone actually have chills sent down his spine when listening to something let's say Pargeiani: De natura sonorum or really that Xenakis S.709? :D Should "Contemporary" stand for popular music I would be surprised. It would be no confession of classical composer to dislike pop music but to dislike evolution of the classical sounds like a confession to me. I like the "pyramid scheme" description though :D Although instead of money I am offered an interesting topic of discussion the more people I recruit. And I actually get that to happen. ..............sometimes............