sciolist

there are a couple of DVD's available on EBAY that have hundreds of piano scores for maybe 30 bucks. It's all legal because the editions are in the public domain.

Completely Bach. Is there a reason you ended it so quickly? I don't think there was really an idea developed; it just starts and abruptly ends but in Bach there is a progression and a climax. Is there a reason you are writing in the baroque style?

just curious about how you came to "get" composition. How do you recommend for that to happen?

I'm not sure why you describe any parts of it as freakish. It seemed highly regular and structured to me. There were some very nice sections with nice melodies and harmonic texture but most of the expression and intensity only came with quick tempo changes and brilliant runs and arpeggios. I recommend more development of melody throughout the piece that isn't so tied to a few specific rhythmic structures. Also, the transitions were always evident, it seemed more like an on/off switch rather than a buildup of idea and emotion. Overall, there are good ideas but it seems to have been composed too theoretically. The lines of thought are clearly evident and there is non-functional or non-expressive repetition. The recording was impressive for a digital recording. How did you do that? -jesse

Thanks for the comments. I'm not sure if I could explain the style or harmonic influences or why that would even be important. Shouldn't a work stand on it's own outside of any context of school of harmony or general style? I would like to hear more about that. I am quite an amateur and don't really know how all the music stuff works. I write what sounds good to me and relates my ideas (and is playable by my feeble (and full of tendonitis) hands). I am encouraged by the comments about the harmony. I was rather worried I was using rather hackneyed ideas, but they still had an affect. I actually look at the whole piece as a development of the initial idea, a simple rising melody--just played in different context, inverted, manipulated, etc. I'm interested in the respons of "erratic", or that the themes didn't last long enough. I think part of the reason is that I spent so much time with the piece and knew every single note so perfectly that, for me, the piece didn't need repetition. There are a couple disjointed transitions I think but they still seem to be anticipated, or the new material is related to the previous material in a way that connects the two--despite the abruptness of transition. The chords may be muddy, that's true. It may just be my performance of it though. The melody rings clear in my head, but does get lost a few times in the recording. Thanks so much. You all have given some good advice. -jesse

This is my first post on youngcomposers.com and my first real piano composition. I would post more recent ones but I cannot play them yet and, thus, I cannot record them. The piece has an extremely simple rhythmic structure, but I think the harmony works nicely in this simple structure. I hope a myspace account will be adequate: MySpace.com - mathbird - Santa Fe, New Mexico - Ambient / Experimental / Indie - www.myspace.com/mathbird and if that doesn't work I can upload a midi file. Thanks for any comments. I'm open to harsh criticism. prelude.sib