Theodore Servin

@Gwendolyn Przyjazna @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu @Ivan1791 I just want to say, thank you all so much for your kindness, I really wasn't expecting this. Sorry I don't comment on here much these days, I ought to review some music here again. I'll probably have something original to post here soon as well. Ivan and Gwen, I'm really happy to see you two getting acquainted! It's wonderful for me to see friends of mine to become friends with one another.

Thank you for your kind words! I'm glad you liked the piece and the performance! Regarding the meter(s) of the piece, this piece (along with my Fantasy-Variations Op. 12) was one of my first to use frequently-changing time signatures, as up till then I had also been pretty strict about meteric "sameness". No, I haven't made any attempts to orchestrate the Ballade yet. I might still try sometime, but it's not something I've been planning on doing just yet. However, I do think it would still work well as a short concerto... Hope you're doing well! It's been quite a long while since I've commented here!

Thank you both very much! Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment! It is indeed my own performance, not a digital rendition. And I'll send you a PDF privately.

Many thanks! I'll send you the score over PM. I really should comment on this site more!

I like the ending, I thought the unexpected non-tonic final chord was a perfect way to close the piece, and it fit the piece very well emotionally speaking.

Ivan, this is wonderful! I genuinely think this is your best and most beautiful piece yet! And in spite of what you said, I think your performance is great, it truly captures the character of the piece perfectly, and the way you shaped the melodic lines was excellent. I'm glad you posted this piece, it's really wonderful.

@FredericBernard Thank you so much! I'm glad you like it 🙂

Thanks @SSC! I'm glad you enjoyed it the piece and the recording! I'm admittedly surprised about the comparison of the fugue to Shostakovich's own fugues, since he's a composer I don't normally listen to, but I'm glad you still like it.

Thank you @Quinn! I'm very glad you liked the piece! I'm actually playing on an electric piano, the Roland FP-80, a model that sadly is no longer made. It's probably the best model of the FP Supernatural series, as the quality of the series has since downgraded substantially.

@PeterthePapercomPoser@chopin Many thanks to you both! I'm quite glad you enjoyed the fugue, I've only tried a few times to compose in this form so far. Indeed, many other composers wrote fugues in much more grand and intense ways than I have here, and I was a bit worried it wouldn't fully come across as a "real" fugue, but I still thought it came out pretty decent. Though, I'm glad it made an impression on you, especially in that it sounded like something unique and interesting. I hope you get to hear the rest of the piece, and I hope you enjoy it! Thank you! I'm very happy to hear that it was moving for you, and I'm glad you enjoyed the emotional characters of the variations. I've been composing since I was about 9, but I wrote my first major work/opus when I was 13. In some of my other bigger pieces, I do try to explore free forms in larger scales, and I think I'll continue down path for a while. Thank you both again for your kind comments!

Twilight, Op. 15, is an album for solo piano. Written in 2021, it is a variation-suite consisting of a theme and 11 variations, but each variation has a unique character, and they can be played separately as individual short compositions, or as selected pieces from a set. The piece is 30 minutes in length. The album was inspired by a painting with the same name, “Twilight” (shown in the video), by the Russian symbolist painter and cultural figure Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947), depicting a monk praying with a candle in a mountainous area with a domed church in the distance. The painting is mostly composed of different shades of blue, which influenced some of the harmonic choices in the piece (particularly in the theme). The variations in order are as follows: Theme (B-flat major) Rêverie (B-flat minor) Gymnopédie (E-flat minor) Orientale (G minor) Mélancolie (G minor) Tempest (C-sharp minor - E major) Hommage à Rachmaninoff (D-flat major) Variación Española (B-flat minor) Intermezzo (B-flat major) Invocation (B-flat minor) Fugue (B-flat minor) Nocturne-Finale (B-flat major) Happy holidays, everyone :)

That's a pretty cool piece! Very romantic, and it sounds very professionally orchestrated, also the harmonies and melodies are very creative. I'm reminded of some British late-romantic chamber pieces, like the "Phantasy"-pieces by Frank Bridge for example. I don't know why this piece hasn't gotten more comments. I enjoyed it, and it's always nice to encounter a new beautiful piano quartet. Thanks for posting!

It's really beautiful! Excellent job utilizing counterpoint to express the emotional content in a deep and coherent manner. The music itself is very moving, you've definitely gotten the elegiac feel down. Also, I'm sorry for your loss. Anyway, beautiful composition, I really enjoyed listening to it!

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! And yes, I recorded it on my keyboard. I'm looking forward to hearing your piece too!

Thanks! I'm really glad you liked it! Even if you don't make it for this event, I would still love to be able to hear the finished product, it sounds like will be a really cool piece. 🙂