blackballoons

Hi everyone! I started this piece at the end of December and just finished it yesterday; I'll just copy/paste the description from the program notes I wrote: A liana is a type of woody vine that grow in the tropics; I found this term in my AP Environmental Science textbook one day during read period, and thought that perhaps it would be an interesting image to go after. I eagerly started a flute/viola/harp trio after this thought, but nothing came to fruition, and I set the work aside. About a month later, during a composition lesson David Conte told me, “Composition is like a plant.” I snickered but he continued: “When you create anything, be it music or a story or an essay or whatever, you have to let it come to you organically. A lot of music nowadays feels so restricted and confined, and sounds like it was assembled instead of grown. Music needs to grow, like a tree.” After toying with a few other ideas, I came back to the “liana” concept, taking after my teacher’s plant metaphor. While this piece isn’t explicitly programmatic, I like to think of it as a short exploration of “organic musical growth”: following a musical thought, writing more spontaneously than calculatedly, and letting the piece take me where it wants to go. The image I had in mind while writing was that of an idea sprouting in fertile soil and climbing upward, spiraling in knotted curls and ramifications; wildly sprawling laterally and always moving skyward, but never losing its tether around the tree to which it is tightly coiled. Stylistically, the piece is influenced by some of the music I was listening to at the time, including that of Toru Takemitsu, Kaija Saariaho, Henri Dutilleux, Olivier Messiaen, and Radiohead. -- Of course, use your imagination on the bits with extended techniques (i.e. sul ponticello, piano harmonics, string harmonics, etc). Feedback appreciated! :] Lianas

Cute, but inconsequential. Don't be afraid of trying something more interesting! Also, as someone mentioned before, definitely fix your notation.

These are cute! As jrcramer said earlier I think the score could be cleaned up a bit. Musically these seem to be tautly constructed (if actually a bit conservative, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing!), and it looks like you know what you're doing. Keep it up!

Thank you all for your kind comments! I understand the ending is a tad rough and (as Voce pointed out) the motoric eighths kind of wander a bit; if I ever go back and revise this piece or expand on it I'll be sure to keep that in mind. :]

Hey Black Orpheus, Thank you for your kind comments! It certainly is exciting to drop in for a visit as well. :] As for developing the piece; I used Lowell Liebermann's "Gargoyles" as a kind of structural model to start with (movement one in particular), and developed largely on two ideas: the eighth-note drive and the opening and the sixteenth-note melodic germ also at the beginning. At some points I use the eighth-note pulse from the beginning in retrograde or in different transpositions and I tried to integrate the sixteenth-note motive into the fabric of the piece as much as possible. Of course there are some sections that were not entirely derived (namely the bombastic 7/8 sections) but otherwise it was indeed a small exercise in miniature development. Again, thank you for listening!

Hey YC, I've not been back for a while! Thought I'd show you guys what I've been up to; here's a piano miniature that I finished in October. :] Pinball Etude

I submitted something in August! Still waiting on the results though. :/

Thanks Jason! :] I submitted my violin sonata.

I'm submitting my violin sonata...my first time doing this competition, so I'm not sure how it'll turn out. :/

Hey Jason, So naturally, as a flutist, I decided to take a look at your piece...can't say I was extremely impressed though. :/ The ideas are kind of bland, making the writing a bit bland as well. I agree with what SSC said; it does feel like you're trying to compensate for the fact that you're writing for one instrument, with those jumps. This is what makes solo writing so hard...lack of other definite voices to interact with. However, again as SSC said, it is a good time to practice coloristic writing. Extended techniques don't necessarily have to be used for this; simply thinking about the coloristic aspects of the instrument's registers and tone qualities will make the work much more interesting. :] In the solo flute repertoire I'd suggest listening to the following: Syrinx by Claude Debussy (ESPECIALLY THIS ONE, A SOLO FLUTE CLASSIC. :D) Partita for solo flute by J.S. Bach Eight Pieces (Acht Stucke) by Paul Hindemith Afterlight by Robert Dick rapid.fire by Jennifer Higdon Density 21.5 by Edgard Varese Hope I've been helpful...best of luck! - T

Hey! I was checking NYAE's competition results...congrats on getting honorable mention with this piece! :] Again, great job. - T

@Serge: Thanks! I agree...the MIDI is indeed screechingly horrid. But hopefully by next week I'll have a recording. And maybe even a live recording of the other two movements as well, that doesn't sound so unrehearsed. Yes, I do remember you saying you didn't really like the 2nd movement at first! No I haven't changed it at all since last time; glad you like it now though. :] Again, thanks for listening. :] @Anu: Hey! Thanks for listening. :] I agree with what you said about there being a lack of harmony in general (having been told a few times already). I will definitely keep this in mind with my next piece; thanks for bringing it up! I kept all my tempo text in English, and I guess all the expressions in Italian...I'll go change those. I can't even remember why; probably a strange habit I got into. It is indeed kind of an ambient movement, yeah...much like the other movements there's not very much (if at all) any harmonic gravity pulling it anywhere. Again arises the issue of keeping harmony in mind. :/ @benxiwf: Thanks for listening! I agree, the third movement is a bit of a departure from the other movements; at first I was worried it wouldn't go with the other movements but the more I thought about it the more I seemed to like the idea. Kind of like Barber's violin concerto. :] Again, thanks for the comments, everyone! Much appreciated.

I was trying to edit the movements earlier but I accidentally deleted all of them, and therefore deleting the entire thread. -_____-'' So here it is again. With recordings of the first two movements (the third movement has not been recorded...). But very very very very very rough recordings, we rushed and there were some intonation issues and a lot of smudged notes... Also I think I may arrange this for violin and orchestra in the future, as the piano part is very...orchestral, in a sense. In any case, let me know what you think. :] Sonata for Violin and Piano WINNER OF THE 2010 ASCAP Morton Gould Awards!!!!