Henry Ng Tsz Kiu

Look quite interesting. Never take any kind of lessons, what will you offer for more advanced level? Henry

That’s the most important thing: every composers must be much less skilled in their first compositions, and noticing how bad they are actually prove how much you have improved, instead of having the same work as your “masterpiece” in all those years. I have listened to the original piece, and believe me it isn’t as bad as you think, it’s a great effort for a blossoming composer. Trying with tons of error will be much better than trying to be perfect in your head and afraid to have a single error in your work, because only writing with errors and spotting them help you improve, which your present day compositions prove it. Henry

Hey Peter, It always happens to me lol! Yup I need a bleak opening to counter the hyper-for-nothing ending of the first movement and reminds myself what’s happening in the world now. I love hyper motivic, it’s the easiest way to compose for me haha! And you are very acute to point up that the Tranquillo foreshadows the Religioso. In fact, I had the idea for Religioso earlier than the Tranquillo, and I told myself I need some foreshadowing of it before the fugue, otherwise it would sound odd and incoherent for me! I love the Mesto section myself! Yup I have mentioned before, I learn from Mozart’s fugue for two pianos for the constant dissonances of false relation for a subject entry. Btw, don’t link me with that bad man lol! I don’t know what that bad man had in his mind, but for my part, that 6 part fugue is technically the most difficult thing I have ever written. That said, it’s actually the easiest part to write in the entire 2nd movement because you’re just need to follow the rules, even though a tedious one, but other parts take hearts and soul to finish. For the pentatonic figures, since I know the whole structure of the piece, I think I must invite some pentatonic foreshadowing in the fugue section before getting to the pentatonic proper later in the final part of the piece, as this would make the structure much more reasonable! Wow I forget the term Metric Modulation since out of the university, thx for reminding haha! I really have something pious in my mind, though not related to any religions. And that on beat switch actually creates another layer of rhythmic dissonance so it’s good! Yup, it resonates b. 159 like @Fugax Contrapunctus said and foreshadow the last bar of the piece. It signifies the frog croak of heart. Yeah the energy is overflowing which even shocks me. The in extremis section is always my favourite section, so complicated in the emotion. And I love the pizz. gliss ending too, sounds philosophical to me and definitely not as bleak as the ending of Sibelius 1st Symphony. To be honest, I don’t know where will I go. Just like after I finished my Clarinet Quintet, I would never imagine writing this Sextet and finish it much better than the Quintet, I will just keep exploring. Short term projects would be for shorter and simpler pieces for relaxation. Thx! Henry

Hello @Modern Polyphony! Thx for giving your first post on YC to me!!! Thank you very much! I always put a lot of effort in coherence, especially a long work like this, because any incoherent or unreasonable passage can break the whole piece down. For the historical techniques, thanks to myself (lol) for studying Taurskin!s great Music History books, and also our boss @chopin for suggesting that in his review to my post of the first movement of the same Sextet. Thx for commenting! Henry

Hey bro, Yeah I can say that what I write here, or every of my music, is what I feel in real life, and there’s a soap in my brain to collect all those emotions. Once I need to use them in composing, they will come out while I feel nothing myself. I only use extended techniques when they are needed in the music, like fitting a narrative structure or effect, but not using them because it looks cool or it is compulsory to use them in a doctoral portfolio of music compositions lol, because those usages are useless in my opinion. Yeah I do think the fugue is harder to understand especially it’s a six part one, and I’m happy that you try listening this alone! I didn’t try greater rhythmic vitality fugue is because it doesn’t fit here, given the serious and tragic tone of the fugue, but I did use that in my Wind Quintet which was never posted here lol. I find the transition wonderful too, I don’t know how can I compose that. And the energy of the climax is too great to the extent that it sucks my own energy and causes me a month!s relapse lol! I really really love the in extremis passage myself, again I don’t know who is the real composer for that. Thx for listening and commenting! Henry

Hi @Giacomo925! In this occasion, I let the melody guide the vertical writing here. Yeah I think b.24 is a bit too sudden too, but I actually like b.63-64 as something like an instant reminder haha! Thx, I love there too! Thx for listening and commenting haha. Henry

Hello @Aleon Raven, Welcome to the forum! The track, like @PeterthePapercomPoser said, is varied, intense and mesmerising! I especially love your usage of voice here. I like in 2:20 you go for more contemplative passages, first with a solo violin, then with vocals. These really give contrast to previous passages. The modulation to one key higher is a standard technique in film music to heighten the drama, but I don’t mind here as it is in my favourite C sharp minor haha. The last decresendo is lovely too, esp. with the piano and harp here. The music reminds me of fellow member @olivercomposer’s film music posted here and you may check them out. Btw, I also like the visual effect here! Thx for joining and sharing your music here! Henry

Hey Pabio, How the hell for me not to reply this amazing review??!! Thx for your compliments man! Yeah I have stopped trying to find my style now. Maybe my style is combining many styles eclectically together like a curator and use them in their own places, I really don’t know haha. I always use motives since for me it!s the easiest way to compose, I can always copy and paste! But seriously, coherence is so important to every pieces of music. That is always the most important aspect for me in music. Yup that parallel fifth is a resonance to the opening of the 1st movement which also has parallel fifth. The avoidance of parallel is just to avoid the dependence of voices and that crude parallel sound, but these things are what I want here! I ALWAYS love a Phrygian cadence on C sharp minor, so beautiful. I like some of the Spanish music or Tango music because of that! Thx! I did pay some hard work for coherence by varying existing materials, I think that’s my way of composing since it’s the easiest for me haha! Believe me, the 3rd movement would be the best out of the 3 movements in the Sonata, though it is hard to play and I need some time to practice! 😄 Henry

This one is definitely easier to digest, as I do that in my posts haha, and a double benefit for using the video on YouTube too. I like this final final draft haha, Henry

Hey Pabio @Fugax Contrapunctus! I have never heard of your first version but this revised sounds nice for me. Just beware of b.71 to 73 when there are tenths which would not be playable for most pianists! It sounds amazing to me that you already tried to compose a Fugue while only composed for few months; I never had that courage until composing for 10 years or so! And I’m sure my counterpoint back then was worse as shxt. Thx for sharing! Henry

I think this one sounds better. I always hear from our master orchestrator @gmm here how good Spitfire’s Instruments sound like. Thx for update! Henry

Oh you notice that fluatando and relationship with b.199! They both resonate with 1st mov's b.401 section. Thx to @chopin I have introduced a more medieval atmosphere here after a Baroque treatment. In fact I'm listening quite some Hisaishi's music now becuase I am watching Hayao Miyazaki's films. Maybe I will notice it in the near future! I love that chord! Such a great description as "sunset-like"! I think it is sad but invites hope in it, which augurs the next section. I like the vivacity of this part, and as you said it's ritual like. The pizzicati on violins playing the chant theme and the cello playing the dance theme, and it is like a internalized ritual in my heart to find myself. And like you said, the pizzicati does sound like percussion instrument here as in a ritual. Oh wow you notice the connection! Here things undone is finally done! What is not understood is finally understood here in an epiphany in the form of snap pizz. This verse is so wonderful. It's one of my philosophy professor's favourite quote and I can immediately feel the beauty and wisdom the moment my professor told me the verse, and I couldn't forget it at all, so I used it here, with the pizz. glissando sounding quite like frog's croaks, or the heart's shake. Although there are two croaks here lol, possibly the first one by a younger frog and second one by an older frog haha. This phrase is added and framed by myself. You are so right to link the crossing of voices with heaven and earth because that's my intention here. It also happens in b.756. I do this because in Chinese I-Ching, the intersect of Heaven and Earth means auspicious, because there is interaction between them and hence the Qi (air) can constantly flow. I think I somewhat feel Tao myself. You can call this act as "escaping from reality", but I cannot undermine what I feel. I know wars and tragedies are happening, but my feeling and hope and reflection for transcendence should not be undermined. Exactly!!!!!!!!!! Like Lao Tsu said, what is speakable (道) is not Tao (道), and this already sounds paradoxical, at least in appearence. But all this paradox are just the appearence, if you get deeper, all those paradoxes and contradictions can be eradicated, just like the tritone of G-flat major and C major here. I feel like this passage is not composed by me at all, as I am always in awe of its power myself. I feel like I'm never capable of composing this passage. I thank myself for having a walk so I could miraculously write this theme and light up my creative power for finishing this piece. In Heaven or Tao or whatever, everything should be in harmony, and not just a primitive Eden in my opinion. That final recap is so wonderful. Again I think this passage is not written by myself at all. The more playful interlude is a joy after all the realization, and that last rise to heavens is probably inspired by the ending of Chopin's Fantasie in F minor. And I don't know why I end the piece in pizz. gliss, but like you said it is symbolic. Thank you so much for your huge compliments, I am really flattered by it. For me, I am happy I've outdone myself, and I will never be a master and remain a student to those real masters in my whole life. I do have some hard work for this Sextet and I'm so happy I've finished it in a way that even I myself don't imagine its coming. For me viewing the whole Sextet, I would relate it to Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained which I would want very much to read in the future. The Divine Comedy would also be my goal. And, a secret wish is that I hope the Sextet can match a bit of the momumental level Beethoven achieves in his late quartets. Thank you!!! Henry

Hello Pabio @Fugax Contrapunctus, I was and am in awe after receiving such a monumental review. I am so happy and deeply appreciated for that, especially when you point out the philosophical and Chinese references in the piece! I must take my 200% effort to reply to your great review. I know it's gonna be my best movement when I was composing the Return part because I was never this fervent in completing a piece at all. I can work at least 5 hours a day on it without feeling tired at all, and was in a hyper mood in those 18 days I was writing the Return part. Of course after that I was tired for a month or so lol! Yup for me the Lamentoso acts as an awakening call from the idealistic but naive first movement: go look into the reality and the world we are living now, don't live in your own dreams, and that awakens the yearning and sorrow, sometimes passionate like passage near 5:00 or 9:00. Yup F# minor is so great for the passion and sadness. At least for me, I think each keys have their own significance and own special colour. G minor will be too light here and will be much better used by Mozart's two great G minor pieces, the Quintet and the no.40 symphony, while G# minor would not be direct enough as F# minor. One little sad thing is that F# minor takes away the presence of my fav. key C# minor here, but at least they are related keys haha and I'm sure C# minor won't mind. Yup having composed the fugue before the Lamentoso, I deliberately used the head of the 1st subject of the fugue in the transition by the end of the Lamentoso to the fugue! Such a great comparison! To be honest, even I myself don't make this connection until you point it out here! I definitely agree with you here! For me I would want that dissonance to be more crude, just like the world now. Thx for noticing the stretti haha! Also the overlapped subjects at b.317! That C minor section after b.317 is always my fav. climax in the fugue and one of my fav. in the whole Sextet. And yes, the tritone modulation indeed is the cornerstone of the internal coherence, you are so acute on that! Tao can communicate between tritones btw G-flat major and C major, and pain can communicate between tritones between F-sharp minor and C minor. In fact Tao and pain cannot miss one and other, because without any one of them pain or Tao don't exist. Thank you! I use Bach's method here by treating the fugue subject as chorale in b.393-394. I do plan for the return to pentatonic C major because I know after the fugue I have to slowly return to pentatonic, so I have to kind of foreshadow its coming here first to make it less awkward. That arch shared melody of violin actually comes from a very important motive in both the 1st and 2nd movement, it first appears in b.19 in second viola, and in 2nd mov it appears in b.607, but here it's in C major. Yeah the power to return to pentatonic is still here without purification, so it's temporarily defeated in b.418. The rhythmic ostinato on 2nd cello comes from the coda of the 1st mov, b.708 violins, which was noticed by Vince @Thatguy v2.0 and he encouraged me to use more of that in the 2nd mov, so I used them here! Thx to him! The reply would be too long, gonna continue in the next post haha! Henry

Hey Peter! Yeah for 1. I think I take it from Haydn because he always does that in the retransition to recapitulation, finishing on V/vi and then go straight to I. For 2. it's random thought haha, given my reputation as a random composer lol! For me I treat b.26-34 as the reappearence of the original theme b.1-9, only changing the first half of the phrase an octave lower and into minor. Also, given my reputation as a composer who loves to use random pauses, I won't let anything to unrandomized my pauses! Yeah the 2nd point is legitimate. For me I just wanna keep everything simplest but at the same time maintain some interest, so I didn't modulate to another key or using augmented six chord. I use bunches of secondary augmented six chords and Nepolitan sixth chords in my ( ) piano piece already so I don't use them here haha, since I don't wanna increase the drama here! Give poor Henry a break! Henry

Hey My Arjuna, Thx! It IS made in a rush haha, and I wanna stop the children in the other rooms playing lolololol! The piano itself is not clear enough and my phone is as always, crappy and full of tears lol! Henry