6 small pieces for violin and cello

This is my second "full" composition (the first was a string quartet that I posted in the previous version of this website). It is better than my first one, I guess, but I still must learn a lot...

There's a compositional thing I learned a while back that says if you have a voice that holds a tone, and another voice that moves from that same note, it creates tension... in your first movement you might do it too much, to a point where is sounds kind of wrong, which is not what you intended.

The polyphony you introduce in these movements is kind of messy sometimes. Not that the notes clash, exactly, but it sounds like two different pieces started playing at the same time, you know what I'm saying. This doesn't apply to all of the movements, of course; the second and last movements do a pretty okay job of combining the sounds, but there's a little bit of compositional glue to tie these together that I'm not hearing.

I'm impressed by the overall effort in the score and engraving though! 

Cheers;

Nice work. Here's some criticisms.

Mov 1. 

I know that you titled this as 6 small pieces, but this movement is lacking in structure. It kind of just starts, goes up and down plenty, and then ends. It's lacking in any sort of strong melodic line through the whole piece, I couldn't make out any themes, and the rhythmic variation is lost because, to be honest, there's just way to much going on. Both the violin and the cello have moving lines simultaneously for most of the piece, and it just sounds awkward and uncomfortable. I recommend using a combination of some simpler repeating patterns with the other instrument having a more soloistic moment, sections where one instrument is resting completely, sections where one instrument is holding longer 'drone' notes, and sections where both instruments play the same melody. I feel it would add a lot of variation and direction to the piece, and would allow the piece to be far more peaceful and beautiful, which is what I feel like you were going for. I'm unsure if  this was intentional but your piece also ends with no resolution.

Mov 2.

This movement, though it still suffers from some of the issues I mentioned earlier is overall much much better in giving room to breath and allowing for some interesting musical shapes to take form. Particularly places like measure 15 and 16 highlight an interesting development. However this direction gets kind of lost later on, and I'm confused as to why you gave the violin piano and the cello forte from measure 23. It doesn't seem to have a musical purpose, at least that I can discern. I do like how at measure 34 you lead into restating the theme, it gives a sense of place and structure. 

Mov 3.

This movement starts off really strong. I genuinely like the first allegro. It has good character, a nice rythym to it, the two parts fit together nicely, and to put it simply, it just sounds nice. It's sad to me that you jarringly jump to what feels like an entirely different character so soon. I don't mind having fast and slow sections, but the adagio sounds like an altogether different piece, and there was still plenty of room to further develop the allegro in my opinion. Thankfully the theme does return, and you develop it nicely, though I still think it could be longer. This piece I really deserves a second look, because I think with a few revisions it could be excellent.

Mov 4.

This piece doesn't seem to really find itself until the moderato (perhaps that was intentional?) For this one I would say the main issues are essentially the same as the ones with the first movement. 

Mov 5.

I like what you do here in measures 18-23, it gives good build up. This piece and a lot of the other ones do feel like they lack a tonal center or structure. While there are exceptions, a lot of it feels kind of random.

Mov 6.

I'm tired now, but basically the things I've said earlier apply to this movement as well. 

Hopefully my critique is helpful to you. I may be a bit harsh, but don't give up, the more you compose, the better you get (and this is coming from someone who is still pretty bad himself).