gaspard

thanks luis, i’m glad you sat through one of my long-winded compositions. Yep, there are still people writing in “historical” styles on period instruments, some of whom genuinely have “something to say”….but I definitely wish it were more. So I hope if nothing else my stuff prods others to do their own creations and that the scene can be a bit more vibrant for composers. I think there’s something about early music being distant enough from our everyday that gives it a novelty that actually makes it very fertile for new music, contrary to what might be assumed (that it is impossible to communicate or say something new and individual in styles that are of the past).

I recently recorded this keyboard piece that took me a while to write - some sections were actually partially written over 4 years ago, some about 3 years ago, and the rest more recently. Unfortunately I was having severe microphone issues and had to re-record some sections using just my phone. Since clavichord is a really quiet instrument, this isn’t ideal at all. But I just wanted to give an explanation as to why the audio quality is different in certain parts. I definitely should record it again on a more robust instrument. The influences are definitely Froberger’s Toccatas, Buxtehude’s organ “preludes”, and probably some other assorted stuff. Im definitely proud of the illuminated letter and it took me a while to make the “presentation” copy of the score….i hope you like it!

I think the orchestration is pretty good - I kind of agree with Peter that while the first group of themes are very capably written and do have drama, the second part (somewhere after the 2 minute mark) sounds more "majestic", it definitely gave me a Bruckner vibe.

@Henry Ng Tsz Kiu thanks, your reviews are something i look forward to whenever i post here. im really glad the narrative structure came through, entertaining interpretations of what’s going on in the story on your part, which is cool because i only had a vague outline of what’s going on myself.

It’s not a “composer death”, but one of the “best” composer near-deaths is a canon ball landing on part of Thomas Tomkins’ house during the English Civil War. A fantastic composer who wrote some great music in his final years, as well as making a kind of last-ditch (and ultimately successful) attempt to preserve some of the music of his age….. a kind of musical hero in some ways.

tchaikovsky 3rd piano concerto is imo his best. when i heard it i was baffled by who it could be because it sounded too complex in certain respects to be a melodic composer like tchaikovsky.

I notoriously prefer outer movements…..but i think my favorite scherzos is probably bruckner 7. Interesting because Bruckner is otherwise often times a very ponderous, plodding composer. but i remember the first time i heard it, the big augmented chord really hit. it manages to have energy and pace but be sort of noble simultaneously. I also think Bruckner 4 is a great scherzo, the quartal moments with the horns really adds to the vibe.

beethovens 9th, bach st. matthew passion, and many, many others, but most of all….. Let it Go from frozen. I never really hear lyrics so i’ll just leave that part alone even though personally i find “letting go“ to be an overrated concept……but the music itself is terrifyingly bland music theater…..not even much if any orchestration at all, just piano.

This is my finihsed competition piece although I haven’t submitted it yet bc i need to get the score in pdf format. It’s really a single movement but you see timestamps because of the programmatic nature of the music. i also recroded it in pieces just to make it easier on myself performance-wise. It should be playable on any keyboard instrument. Edit: Attaching a pdf score.

I really like film music and in many instances, I don’t see it as a distinct genre from classical because several great classical composers also wrote music for film which is played alongside their non-film (like Prokofiev and lieutenant kije), the forces and style are often very similar and in its greatest instances I think film music can achieve the same depths and heights as great classical compositions, and furthermore, there is a very direct evolution from Wagner and incidental music towards cinematic music, as they are fundamentally the same concept. With that said, it can also be really cheesy and cliche, especially today. Nevertheless I have a lot of “highlights” from the genre…in the interest of restriction I’ll just pick one for today.

i love this concept and the music is so interesting. I used to be all up in these kind of “next level” things so the fact that you combined it with music is ingeniously creative to me.

100 % that I feel like i have a bunch more early keyboard stuff on the docket, whether it’s composing or playing. Late renaissance, besides just being a foundation for me is also a language I feel I can use to express my inner self and not merely a relic of the past, so i think it would be a shame if i didn’t do more of that. But eventually i would also like to get involved in something more popular and maybe more symphonic in scope, like film or video game music or something, but in a way that’s not too commercial and in which i can still be myself. Perhaps there will be someone with some interesting or eclectic project, as i think that is what id work the best with. that might be naive and optimistic but w/e

Thanks thatguy, I appreciate it and I'm definitely excited for Mike's video (not putting any pressure on him or anything though) with all the variations.

LOL, I laughed but I suppose it could be true. @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu thanks for listening as always

Hi again, I had the thought that I wanted to do some smaller stand-alone pieces that would require less stamina for people to play and that were short enough that I could do the calligraphy aspect without a significant time investment (I don't use stencils or anything)....the thought kind of arose out of doing the piece for Mike's slur video which was along those lines. Here they are with the scores in the video, and the newer one is on flemish virginal instead of clavichord which is cool. They're not a set but they're both small so I figured might as well put it in the same post. It would be awesome if someone out there decided they wanted to play stuff like these, since I made them so they wouldn't be such a huge undertaking but would still give people the vibe they're looking for with the late Renaissance.