Sketch No. 23

For a while now, I've been challenging myself to write a short piece every single day, with a very low time limit. This happens to be the 23rd, for solo piano, a Scherzo study in major 7ths and diminished fifths. It's not really my best work, but I was wondering what you'd all think.

Pretty powerful stuff! If this is not your best work, I wonder how your best work sounds. I like the first 23 bars better than the rest. Keep up the good work.

13 hours ago, luderart said:

Pretty powerful stuff! If this is not your best work, I wonder how your best work sounds. I like the first 23 bars better than the rest. Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks a lot! And yes, I feel similarly... 23-52 always felt  a little weaker to me, but in these exercises I try not to reedit things if possible.

Interesting stuff. I would agree that the first 23 bars are a bit better. The octave F# vamp immediately following it seems to me to go on a bit long, and that section is I think the weakest point i the music. Maybe it wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't repeated. Generally I enjoyed this piece a lot, and I'd like to see more of these. To have been written in one day with very little revision, it's great work.

Writing a small piece everyday seems like a really good idea to me. I imagine you get the chance to explore lots of different ideas that way. Certainly better than my current method of slowly working through fairly large pieces.

2 hours ago, fishyfry said:

Interesting stuff. I would agree that the first 23 bars are a bit better.

Coincidental that Sketch 23 has only 23 really good bars, eh?

2 hours ago, fishyfry said:

Maybe it wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't repeated.

I tried it out, and that was absolutely the problem. I don't know what I was thinking.

2 hours ago, fishyfry said:

Writing a small piece everyday seems like a really good idea to me. I imagine you get the chance to explore lots of different ideas that way

It's been really good for me; gives me an orchestration lesson everyday and a bank of ideas for larger-scale works if I need it. I absolutely encourage it, if you're at all interested!

Very interesting, reminds me of Lowell Liebermann's first, percussive works, such as Piano Concerto 1.

If I were you, I would have explored more the melody between bars 27-30 as a contrast with the subsequent octaves in the low register.

Very useful -and difficult in the last part- as a study in right hand stretching!