Giacomo925

It is the same, and it's great! It is so rare to listen to music thought through so well, and with a deep emotional content that goes well beyond the technical abilities or the mastery of expressive music writing. Sometimes life gets in the way, and, for better or worse, life is bigger than composing. But I trust you'll find the time and the peace of mind again, and I hope soon!

YES! We're all waiting for more sextet!!

This a great bday gift! Thanks 🙂 I know I need to revise this quite substantially. Alas, time is sparse 😞 but I'll find my way around it. Thanks for very constructive and useful comments, per usual!

Hi @Jqh73o! Thank you but if you have some extra observations about the music, they're very very welcome! Agree! But indeed, it's to make sure that Noteperformer plays the way I want. Human performers would need a fraction of those markings. About the double markings for the two hands, that's my issue with Sibelius, often times if I try to use one marking in the middle, it only affects one stave, or if I try to change the dynamics of one stave, it changes both. So I end up overnotatting both staves. Word. I need to add those! Yes, that is a great suggestion. When I have some time I'll do it with older scores and with this one when it's closer to definitive... which might be a while! Thank you very much for taking the time to listen and comment, Manuel!

In less than pp they would be too much, I think, so I took them out and added them in the crescendo. Thank you, I think that's better!

thanks! I tried to do without those, but I think I do like a thicker sound there. I was concerned about the 4th tho, which I read are not super friendly double stops, so I canged them into 6th and in one case 3rds you clearly know a thing or two about cello, so I'll take your advice here and erase the double stops in b75 and keep them in 76-77 ofc, thx for spotting that, it's B. I have added some connections and expanded the piano part in the middle Bb major section... so in case you have time to give it another listen, here it is. Thanks very much for your help! Much appreciated!

Hi @PeterthePapercomPoser! Thank you for your honest comments, very refreshing and useful! I agree, unfortunately! Believe it or not, I had a thought very similar to yours in mind when I started writing. Then listening and re-listening to what I was sriting I think I kind of fell for what was coming out and thought it was so good 🙂 But indeed, at the beginning, I was thinking of a few examples (Schubert, Brahms) in which the slow movement beging with a very simple melody, a very uneventful rhythm, but there's a catch, a diminished 7th, some kind of harmonic surprise that makes the simple theme memorable and the monotonous rhythm shine. In my theme, I was hoping to achieve some effect with the second beat of each bar, in which piano and cello fall in a grave register and - or so I thought - characterize the theme. (The second beat tries to stay relevant also in the B section, where the 8th stop on a dotted 4th, and in B' in which the 16th triplets happen.) Yes, I did like the simplicity of the melody and thought that the feeble accompaniment of the strings was enough to make it interesting... I'll think more about that. Hm. Here I took a three note element from the first few bars (bar 5 I think) and built a simple imitation with the duplets for effect. The melody is admittedly limited (G, F#, D on the last note, B, A, E, on the last note, C, B, E, etc.) The idea here is to take the simple A and expand the three descending note element. But it's true that it's less a melody than an experiment in using poly-rhythms Are you referring to the Bb major section? If so, a bit like with the beginning, I wasn't too sure about the rhythm with the strings kind of off-setting the piano. But then after many listens it grew on me and I found it... great. But it seems that I was right in my first impression instead! Ah, can you say more about this?! Thank you very much for listening and taking the time to comment. I'm going to not play the piece obsessively for the next couple of days and then try to listen to it with "fresh" ears and your comments in mind.

Dear forum... here's the third movement of my piano trio. I've been working concurrently to the second movement (which I want to be a scherzo - Eb? -, lighthearted, having still confused ideas about the middle section). The second movement did not want to come out of the hat, so I worked on the third instead. Hoping to get your always precious feedback. The structure is perhaps a bit odd: [g minor] b. 1-11 A b. 12-21 B b. 22-40 A' expanding A going through b flat minor then back to g with inganno b. 41-51 B' modulating to c minor b. 51-65 transition to B flat major b. 65-83 C middle section in B flat b. 83-88 retransition to g minor b. 88-140 A-B-A'-B'' with B'' staying in g minor b. 140-152 coda My biggest qualms are with section B', I think the modulation is a bit weird. The theme of C I like, but the different bits could be better stitched together rather than having pauses. the retransition to g minor I like but perhaps it would be more effective adding a couple more chords before the dominant D? The transition to the coda could be less abrupt? a few chords longer? Any reaction suggestion recommendation correction evaluation words of encouragement or gentle hints to just drop it all very welcome! Enjoy the summer! triopf andante.mp3

I think this is really good! I'm biased because I wish I had written it for my trio second movement 🙂 I like the dynamism and I like that the harmonic symplicity of the main theme is always a step away from making the whole thing kinda trite but instead there's always a balance that keeps the listener to the edge and supercurious about what's coming next. Also, very nice contrast with the more cantabile sections, which by the way have a lovely theme and some very cool harmonic solutions. Interesting and effective use of pizzicato as well. Loved it!

of course I don't remember either haha, all I remember is that K is looking at three operas by Mozart, or more exactly, three characters: Cherubino in Nozze, Papageno in the Zauberflöte and Don Giovanni in DG. He's looking for the traits of the "esthetic man" (as I recall the either/or is the choice between the "esthetic" and the "ethic" man? or something? :) Cherubino is the adolescent who discovers sensual love, still uncertain and eager to learn (voi che sapete che cosa è amore/ donne vedete s'io l'ho nel core - you, women who know what love is, see if i have it in my heart) and loves all women at the same time, Susanna, la Contessa, Barbarina, all of them. Papageno is the ethical man, he is simple in his soul, his desires, he wants a Papagena and sees happiness in marriage and loves and wants to love only one and for ever. Don Giovanni loves all women, but not clumsily and disorderly and all at once like Cherubino, but one by one, putting all of himself in each conquest, without any regard for the other - rapes Donna Anna, breaks Elvira's heart, tries to seduce Zerlina... But beyond the philosophizing (which I can totally see might be boring, I read it in high school maaaaaaaaany years ago, terrible conclusion if I'm right! I think it's mainly about the dilemma: Papageno is good but leads a boring life, DG is bad but leads an exciting (does he??) life, both the ethical and esthetical life have limits and therefore need to be transcended, if I remember correctly, into religious life), I remember some wonderful pages about the experience of going over and over to the theater to listen to DG and about why and how DG is the most perfect dramatic opera, so much so that sometimes he'd just stand behind the seats and listen without watching because the music and the dramatic construction are so perfect leaving no need for the visual element...

You are very welcome, of course! but I must ask you... have you read Kierkegaard on Don Giovanni?? Lots of philosophy in Da Ponte e Mozart together!

I listened to it again, with the 6 voice fugue afterwards, and it's a really beautiful diptych. My impressions are very... impressionistic and un-technical. First of all, I dig the two pieces together so much more than individually (and I like them individually as well!). The fragmented character of the lamentoso comes to unity in the fugue, providing balance and, in a sense, closure. I vaguely remembered the pentatonic theme/atmosphere from the first movement, and I was happy to hear it resurface in the perhaps most beautiful episode of the lamentoso at 170-196, but I forgot that it becomes the first theme of the fugue! and I forgot that towards the end the fugue also transitions into pentatonic territory, so seamlessly and beautifully. Wonderful. Given that I seem to remember that the first movement has a lot of pentatonic elements, I feel that this gives such a strong narrative force to the sextett and I can't wait to have the time to listen to first and second movement consecutively in one session. Also, forgot that the Razumowsky-esque "sighs" reappear in the fugue as well. Other observations: it's remarkable how you keep very tightly together a movement that not only has many themes but also many "souls". For instance, I like very much that (it might be my own feeling, unintended by the composer, of course) at the beginning (around 34ff) and then later on (147-155), the music and the singing of the voices become somewhat operatic. I really like how the triplets at the beginning are unexpected and really create sudden tension, drama, and darken a mood already dark. I like the high cello register at 47 and the dialogue with the other voices that follows it. However at 61-67 maybe it would be possible to have less intensity, fewer voices conversing, and then, as it is, have them all join together in the 74ff episode. I really like the powerfully expressive, late-beethovenian trills at around 110 (also appearing in a similar fashion in the fugue, though more regimented there). So to me there is the general sturm-und-drang tension and drama, but also opera-like singing and recitativi, there's the dialogue between classical harmony and pentatonic episodes (again so beautifully and seamlessly driving one into the other, esp in the fugue), and other things I'm surely forgetting now, or I didn't even realize they're there... and although all this wealth sometimes does feel a bit like a bunch of siblings fighting for attention (but they're all so cool and beautiful and well behaved), in the end they all coalesce and are elevated in the magisterial 6 part counterpoint. Can't wait to listen to the next chapter of this beautiful journey!

I love this so much! It's so intricate and rich, but also so direct and transparent. I want to listen more and with more attention than I have, but so far I love many things about this... the triplets in the initial parts, but especially the razumowsky memory in the agitato b. 93ff., and perhaps the part I enjoyed the most, from about 170 onwards, reminiscent (I think? haven't listened to it again but...) of the first movement, beautiful cello singing and then progressively getting more agitated, dramatic, losing the serenity of the first movment-ish themel. Thank you, can't wait to listen to it with more time and attention!

Final version, I swear. I have adjusted the b. 142-143 modulation slightly (violin part) to improve melodic effect. Then I felt that the secondary theme was a bit bare. I left it as is in the exposition but in the recapitulation, since it comes back in the minor key with the piano, I felt it could use some more volume, so I tried to harmonize it and to add a chromatic line in a couple of passages, while when the violin repeats it in major, now the cello imitates the violin with the secondary theme. I think it sounds better but please let me know your feedback because, as we say in Italy, all roaches look beautiful to their moms 🙂

thank you! but wait! I'm making another change *facepalm*