Soliloquy for Clarinet No. 17

This is my 17th soliloquy for clarinet (in Bb). As with the 16th, I have provided the transposing score.

Here is the link to my 16th clarinet soliloquy:

http://www.youngcomposers.com/archive/music/listen/8305/soliloquy-for-clarinet-no-16/

Great! I love your "miniatures" or soliloquies... It's remarkable in this one the change in time signatures. It brings a feeling of flow but with slight variation.

This is, in my opinion, the best of your soliloquies so far. I think your improvement can not be denied. Also, it seems to me that your writing is typically much better suited to the wind instruments than strings. This is only my opinion, but I thought it was an observation you may be interested to hear.

Here is a challenge for you. Write a piece of music where you don't copy paste the rhythm you use in the first bar in the following bars. Perhaps for a duration of the phrase or perhaps during then entire piece. 

You write in a very formulaic way, perhaps imposing some compositional-technical challenges for yourself will improve your writing. 

On 6/27/2016 at 2:32 AM, Yachar said:

Here is a challenge for you. Write a piece of music where you don't copy paste the rhythm you use in the first bar in the following bars. Perhaps for a duration of the phrase or perhaps during then entire piece. 

You write in a very formulaic way, perhaps imposing some compositional-technical challenges for yourself will improve your writing. 

 

It is true that in many of my pieces, especially the soliloquies, I tend to repeat the same rhythm a lot of times. That seems to be a characteristic of me as a composer, especially in my soliloquies. You can't vary everything. You can't satisfy everyone. You can't be perfect. If you do so (or even try to do so), you will have nothing to distinguish yourself with, you will have no character as a composer. I have been told of this issue before and have even been given the same challenge. In fact, my first soliloquy for viola was composed in response to that very challenge. In it I never repeat the same rhythm. However, the issue of repeating the same rhythm does not seem to me as necessarily a weakness to be overcome, but rather as a characteristic of, especially, many of my soliloquies (and in particular those written for monodic instruments) that I have accepted and have no problem with. I think that the actual performance of the pieces will remedy the perception of such a piece - as this one - as formulaically repeating the same rhythm. I am of the opinion that a great interpretation will even make the audience not notice the repetition of the rhythm (or focus on it) but rather leave the impression of it as an integral and inevitable part of the music.

I respectfully disagree. The performer can of course add something of his or her own, but speaking purely in compositional terms, there is not much there to work with when compared with anything else that could be given to them. The fragmentary nature of your music (I've listened to quite a few of your pieces) results in these stilted phrases that start and stop constantly. There is no way for a larger arc, a sweeping gesture or a long lyrical theme to emerge. This is largely due to the copy paste repetitions of the rhythms,as well as ending each phrase on a strong beat and a tonic or other strong note. This results in music that only gives to me a banal and maybe silly, comedic character. The performance isn't a mystical magical thing that can salvage any situation. 

Certainly composers have their individual voices and with those they can please only a certain audience, I agree. But an individual voice and works of genius never come from a position of naivety. Individual voices are developed, learned and built upon existing music. If you just start composing without cultural musical context and knowledge, you'll end up on forms and patterns that have been thought of thousands of times before.