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I would like some feedback on how to continue with this piece, the exposition is mostly finished (I only have the codetta left, and of course, to polish it), the recapitulation is also mostly done (except polishing and the transition), but I am having trouble with the development. I would like some feedback on the existing parts (as I am using very obscure modes that are prone to sounding weird) and some guidance to know how to continue with the development I used Phrygian-Dorian and acoustic scales for this piece, and it is entirely built around two motifs: one consisting on an iambic fourth, and the other one being three descending notes in scale. Therefore, I took this piece as an exercise in both having a thematic unity around the whole piece and the use of unusual modes In a few days I will try to play it in the piano to get a better, less mechanical rendition I hope it is evocative and you enjoy it Tale of a Forgotten Epitaph.pdf.pdf

Hello @Thatguy v2.0, thanks for the feedback. I think I will eliminate the ending figure, specially since this one specifically is not a really inspired composition, it is just for my examinations, and I want to avoid it looking overly unusual I am now in the process of writing three other pieces. But knowing myself, they will either remain forever unfinished, be left for much later or just take an absurdly long amount of time to finish. I will have to revise this one again around mid February, though.

Hello @PeterthePapercomPoser, thanks for your feedback. The ending doesn’t convince me too much either, what do you think that could be done there? I completely agree in the fact that the strings have a horrible sound, I will try to solve that problem in the future About the orden of the instruments, it was originally written for piano and violin, so when I added the cello it appeared there, and I was too lazy to change it.

Hello @Samuel_vangogh Thanks for your feedback. Could you expand on the preparing and resolving of dissonances? Could you recommend a book or website where I can learn the rules of how to resolve and prepare dissonances? What do you mean with A-/E E7, I am not very familiar with the chord notation you used here? For the image, it was just an attempt at a connecting passage, but I will probably just extend the part before to make it link to the part after

I have to compose a chamber piece for my final exams for school this year and I wrote this, it is an uninspired work and I personally think it is mediocre but it gets its job done as the subject is not very high level (we are encouraged to mostly use I IV V I, but higher level is fine) (we weren’t taught counterpoint) I think the playback really takes away some quality https://flat.io/score/65fac723fcf4dd81db3a3d59?sharingKey=ddd22da641baa7021a0f3fc031fdc35de6c6d27fed1acd84d930f68340714792324a6445bf990481e26352e79920fce9bf60f3f01139fe9e31dd99507321d308 I am looking for feedback to improve it, specially the details. Thanks BTW: there are things that are obviously wrong, but I didn’t bother to make them music yet and I just outlined the chords, specially on the cello

What are the basis to participate in the contest (what type of composition etc)

After all I will not be participating as I was not able to compose anything good enough to be sent to the challenge. Sorry for saying this so late. I was trying to compose something good but all of the compositions I wrote were just not good enough

I like the piece, it feels very dreamy. One thing I would do to improve it is to make the piano accompaniment faster and more impressionist (like in un sospiro or un barque sur le ocean)

Hello @Bjarke I agree with what has been said before about this work: About bar 45 and the unplayability, I would suggest writing it so each semiquaver is followed by the other hand in a different register (look at the last 20 seconds of Rachmaninoff’s second sonata if my explanation wasn’t clear), for bar 114, maybe change the register of one of the repeated notes. It would fit the music and the idea you are trying to pursue to add thematic material with tritones and minor ninths, as these intervals (specially the tritone) are usually representative of the devil. Other techniques regarding this would be repeated notes (at a lower pace than the ones you wrote, because on the piano it is very difficult to play them) or petrushka polytonality, as the two tonal centers are a tritone away. Or you could experiment with passages where the harmony shifts by tritones. I am waiting to hear how this work progresses (my favourite part is bar 67 onwards). You could include it in the Halloween challenge. Thanks for sharing Manuel

Hello @Bjarke I am really fond of the progressive distortion that you choose to implement in this piece, it sounds like it is trying to take over the purity of the beginning in a way, though, as Henry has mentioned, this piece would benefit a lot from being longer, as, among other reasons, this structural technique is much more effective in longer works as you can see more easily how the music has changed (or kept the same after a rough development), as it has developed more. I would have added the lower strings a little earlier, but that is just personal taste Thanks for sharing Manuel

Hello @Bjarke Very nice references to dies irae. They fit the feeling of the music. Moreover, adding them mostly in the lower register makes it even more eerie. I think a way to make it even eerier would be to use very low octaves in the piano part, and double it rhythmically displaced in the very high register if that makes sense I also like your ability to maintain tension by the addition of an (almost) moto perpetuo The section at 1:47 sounds a bit anticlimactic though, I think you should extend the work a bit more after and before that point. However, if the piece extends the elevated intensity throughout might be a problem. A solution I suggest is to bring the music to a climax and then in subito piano add a simile section. I find it very effective, specially in orchestral music Thanks for sharing Manuel

I agree with what has been said that the piece sounds like a piano transcription for orchestra: If it was written for piano here are some thoughts on the piano figuration: the doubling of the voices is excessive for a piano, in most cases you don’t need to double the voices too much on a piano, it will sound too saturated; the textures are too unstable, with this I mean that there are no clear patterns and you go from one texture to another too quickly, sometimes on the same phrase and there are almost no breaks between the different textures; the textures themselves have almost no running fast voices, in the most complex piano works texturally (rachmaninoff sonata 2, night wind sonata, sonata minacciosa) there is almost always a fast voice like this in their most dense moments; the fanfare motif sounds very difficult and slightly unpianistic, I would state just in octaves with maybe one of the voices of the chord (ideally one that repeats) being played too; the lack of pedal and quality of the midi also chastises the recording severely, so I think in a real piano it would sound much better. After writing this, I think you meant this for orchestra. Structurally I like the way you develop the first themes (and as this is a sketch, I believe that you will also develop the g major theme) But in order to understand it correctly it took me some listenings. I think this problem could be easily solved by adding some resting moments before introducing new material (kind of like a medial caesura, but not in sonata form) Thanks for sharing Manuel

Hello, I need help with learning more advanced Roman numeral analysis for chromatic harmony. I came across this problem when trying to write my analysis of Rachmaninoff’s elegy. In bar 4, the harmony is a dominant seventh flat nine without the root over a tonic pedal. And it is also a tonic prolongation. I have read, though I have no confirmation that tonic prolongations are just written as tonic all the time. But if it weren’t a tonic prolongation, how do I write it. Is the pedal point written separately or is it notated like in jazz with the / sign I have some other doubts such as: Is a tritone substitution notated as a Neapolitan seventh or does it have its own name in Roman numeral analysis? What is the Neapolitan is not in first inversion? What if an augmented sixth is not in a usuals inversion Etc Etc Etc. So, as I have an infinite amount of doubts: Could someone recommend a book or website that covers on Roman numeral analysis of experimental/daring harmony?

Yeah, I read some time ago that Open AI (the company that created Chat GPT) is going bankrupt Last year, a Spanish soccer team “hired” an AI to decide what players they were going to buy and sell and for what price etc, and they ended up having one of their worse results in the last fifteen years. Let’s hope something similar happens with music

Hello @Pianistikboy, Welcome to the forum. I like this piece, specifically because it evoques in my mind a sense of profound melancholy. However, it is not a Russian long chromatic melody that creates this effect by having a long line (which I also like), but a simple, yet effective melody built on shorter phrases. To me, it doesn’t seem to tell a story dramatically, as a first person narrator, but more like an old person looking back at the memories of his youth, revisiting a specific story, but as an external observer that reflects on them. However, as the piece goes on, that person gets more and more personally involved in the story, to the point of it seeming real (the climax of the work). But finally, it is remembered again that those were the past times. All of this tinted with heavy melancholy, triggered by the alarming thought that death is near, and those past experiences will never ever come back. Similar to op 62 no 2 by Chopin or op 39 no 8 by Rachmaninoff. This is a really deep interpretation but it is what it came to my mind Thanks for sharing Manuel PS: Why “Asturia” music, did you name it after the region in Spain?