Nocturne in Gb

Hallo my friends!

In these days some of you have been uploading works for the Shakesperean YC-summer competition. They are all amazing. I'm surprised how a general theme provides inspiration for so different musical approaches. I still have to listen to some of them (some are large works).

Meanwhile, I bring here a little nocturne. Usually, I write music at nights, I like it, and if I don't feel sleepy, I prefer to stay up and do something.

This nocturne is in the simple form AA' with a brief transition in the middle.

I love it! It's very calm and peaceful, and it has a nice jazz-like quality. Great job! By the way, I enjoy staying up at night too to write music -- I feel like you can get a lot done at night.

It reminds me of what you might hear at a fancy restaurant with a grand piano. really cool. Might be cool to write it out for a jazz band. At the end i want to hear like. a 15th chord. but it's really cool nonetheless. 

This is really cool. Peaceful and very unique with its chords. I'm not entirely convinced by the 3/8 chords transition; for me, I think it interrupts the melody a bit. But little things like that aside, I liked this a lot. I'm never good at jazzy progressions and it's always nice to see these and learn from them. :)

3 hours ago, Jared Steven Destro said:

... it has a nice jazz-like quality. .

 

Yes! I think that a "nocturne" can sound different from romanticism. Keeping that feeling of peacefulness.

1 hour ago, Samtaylor said:

At the end i want to hear like. a 15th chord. but it's really cool nonetheless. 

 

Some times when the chords are extended they cn be named as 13th or 15th, in this case what matters is the min(maj7) quatily. Anyway this happens to me because I always write the chords (when possible).

1 hour ago, Monarcheon said:

I'm not entirely convinced by the 3/8 chords transition; for me, I think it interrupts the melody a bit.

 

Well, the piece is so short..., in fact the second part is the same as the first one, but more ornamented... I wanted to put something in between, and these polychords are a way of showing ambiguity. Besides, the final chord Bbmin(maj13) is here anticipated.

Hey Luis:

Yes, I LIKE this.. I love the chords.  I like how you kept the Gbmaj9 with a moving melody, then 6 bars in the chords move faster and more than the melody..  and of course the descending lines. Doing MORE with LESS..  

When I was a kid, the black notes on a piano 'scared me'.. and I tried not to use them.. Then like in your piece here I fell into songs in Db or Gb for a while The tension of the key added something. .. I seem to remember reading somewhere the 12 tone scales doesn't exactly resolve perfectly. so some keys have a bit  more color or 'sound excitement'.. Then lastly (or firstly) the time signature..  All these techniques, so elegantly woven into a seeming simple piece.. make it a great example of efficiency in expressing a sophisticated mood..  

9 hours ago, markstyles said:

I seem to remember reading somewhere the 12 tone scales doesn't exactly resolve perfectly. so some keys have a bit  more color or 'sound excitement'.. Then lastly (or firstly) the time signature..  All these techniques, so elegantly woven into a seeming simple piece.. make it a great example of efficiency in expressing a sophisticated mood..  

 

 

Perhaps you wre thinking of alternative tunings? That is to say, before the tempered system a C# didn't sound equally than Db, etc... This has been lost, except in instruments like the string family.

Other question is why one uses a tonality and no other. Why this is in Gb and not in F#? Sometimes I have the feeling of a particular tonality. This little piece would sound the same in F# but the score would look "ugly" to me.

Hi Luis:

Yes, I get the tonality thing of the different keys, took quite a while.  At first it was a concept I read about, but didn't really 'feel'.. Then at some point, especially when I was writing something in a lite jazz vein.. I would start with a nice chord progression, melody.. Then when I put into score, I realized it was Gb or Db.. 

I think your right it's the 'tempered' system. The 12 tone scale tuning, developed when they created pianos.. Cause they had to 'stretch - sharpen' the tuning as they went up the octaves to make it. At some point, I'll have to go back and reread this again... I read about it many years ago,  and it didn't seem of immediate concern to me.. 

I certainly have noticed when accommodating different singers, if the song had already been written and then needed to be transposed by 4 whole notes or more.. I felt the need to rewrite some parts, cause the song got darker, or lighter than I liked, or some of the parts didn't work as well.. . So.  Often when I write a piece, it sounds wrong to me, if I have to transpose to far. I guess in other words, the key colors the parts I write.  I guess like cleansing the palette between tasting wines, one needs to 'cleanse' the brain, of the old key and accept the new key.. 

Your music is always (well, mostly always) simple and direct, which I really love. Toward the end you almost seduced me into expecting a proper cadence, but I guess it wasn't meant to be, and that was lovely too.