Kinderstucke (Pieces for Children)

I've posted these before but I though I'd share it again as I made some minor edits since it was last posted on some of them.

This is a set of six pieces dedicated to my daughter that I wrote around the time she was born four years ago.  The keys of the pieces (loosely) spell out her name.  They have a pretty large range in terms of difficulty since I initially set out to write short simple pieces suitable for an intermediate level piano student but over time, they evolved to become more thematic in nature loosely depicting a childhood scene.

Here's brief description of each one:

No. 1 in C major - A simple sonatina movement, perhaps depicting a child's first steps on their own. 

No. 2 in A major - A waltz-like piece, perhaps hinting at a young child dancing with her doll (my daughter loves to dance).

No. 3 in B-flat major - A fast scherzo somewhat capturing the happy chaos of young children playing together.

No. 4 in B minor - A hybrid rondo-variation form.  The A theme is supposed to depict the child in various moods over the course of the day as he spends the day with his mother, starting off a little grumpy when he wakes up and ending quietly as he is put to bed.

No. 5 in E minor - A set of simple variations on "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" which used to be my daughter's favorite song as a toddler.  Not surprisingly this is her favorite one.

No. 6 in G major - A march celebrating the transition from childhood to young adulthood.

It's a nice collection.

I remember some years ago I had to write something for "children". Difficult. It's not the same something children can sing than something they can listen to.

Besides, if you put some emotional part in it, it's different. This is the way I see what you have done here. The piece I see more "adult" is the waltz. But they all are fine.

On 7/22/2016 at 1:47 PM, Luis Hernández said:

It's a nice collection.

I remember some years ago I had to write something for "children". Difficult. It's not the same something children can sing than something they can listen to.

Besides, if you put some emotional part in it, it's different. This is the way I see what you have done here. The piece I see more "adult" is the waltz. But they all are fine.

 

Thanks for listening and commenting.

I agree, the waltz is probably the one that least fits the general theme of a children's piece and in retrospect I probably should have substituted something a bit lighter and more playful.

Aw, these are adorable! I don't really want to put review criticism on this one, because whenever I write "children's" pieces, they always end up either atonal or polytonal... i guess I just don't like the simplistic texture of those kinds of music. I can tell that's not at all what you were going for.

Good work; I hope she likes them.

On 7/26/2016 at 7:15 PM, Monarcheon said:

Aw, these are adorable! I don't really want to put review criticism on this one, because whenever I write "children's" pieces, they always end up either atonal or polytonal... i guess I just don't like the simplistic texture of those kinds of music. I can tell that's not at all what you were going for.

Good work; I hope she likes them.

 

Thank you!  When she was younger (around 2 or so) she did like them a lot, especially the Twinkle, Twinkle variations which I used as a lullaby for her.  Now her tastes have matured, she likes Beethoven and Prokofiev so I can't say I blame her!

Just an update as I've been going through older works, making some revisions and also used some nice new piano samples.

Really good stuff, you are an awesome composer. Do you have any recent work you'd like to share?