Sonatina for Viola and Piano

A short piece I put together for viola and piano. I started with the theme I had at the begging and then developed it as I had ideas on what would be fun/interesting. I do like some of the ideas and may expand upon it, but I do like it as it is, a short showpiece of sorts with lots of variation in dynamic and tempo. Please excuse the failure's of my program's audio rendering regarding certain things.

I am still very inexperienced at composing for the piano though, so advice especially in regards to that is much appreciated. 

Sonatina_for_Viola_and_Piano.pdf

Sonata_for_Viola_and_Piano.mp3

You play viola don't you? Some of those double stops (especially the jumps) are incredibly treacherous. Awkward octaves too.
Some of your buildup passages don't really do a good job of capturing that essence, especially since the tempo doesn't move there. It grows sonically, but not enough.
m. 57-59, you need proper placement of notes and rests.
Why did you have the top note of the last chord an A instead of repeating the high D (easy fingering too... 1 1 2 3)?
Piano writing is fine, awkwardly sparse in some places but well fleshed out in others.
I appreciate the fluidity through it, but it still seems very restricted in terms of where it seems to want to go harmonically and structurally. 

I liked it overall though Monarcheon, as always, makes good points about the playability of many of the double stops, many of them seem unnecessarily awkward.  The piano part is a little sparse and there seems to be a tendency either of a "tag team" like approach (viola plays a bit, then the piano alone plays a bit, then the viola plays etc.) or parts of the piano accompaniment seem to just drop out.  Also the range of the viola part is fairly restricted, it would have been nice to see some exploration of the upper register for contrast.

9 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

You play viola don't you? Some of those double stops (especially the jumps) are incredibly treacherous. Awkward octaves too.

I sort of assumed someone would point this out, but I assure you it was completely intentional. We're entering an age where violists are expected the technical prowess of violinists. Usually I try to keep things from being excessively difficult but I wrote this as a piece to highlight technical skill. The only area I may adjust is the m15 with the E octave to the F octave (there no good way to finger it without just sliding back and forth) but all the other double stops I would not consider particularly difficult. Most of the big jumps take place when it's not moving as fast.

9 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

m. 57-59, you need proper placement of notes and rests.

What do you mean? If you're referring to the piano part I placed that note there on purpose, it is supposed to sync up with the begging of the three note slur in the viola part.

9 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

Why did you have the top note of the last chord an A instead of repeating the high D (easy fingering too... 1 1 2 3)?

Now that you mention it, I have no idea. That makes much more sense.

9 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

Piano writing is fine, awkwardly sparse in some places but well fleshed out in others.

Thank you. Listening to it again I do see it gets pretty thin particularly towards the end.

9 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

I appreciate the fluidity through it, but it still seems very restricted in terms of where it seems to want to go harmonically and structurally. 

Perhaps it could use some more interesting development, though I do want to keep a sort of lightness to the piece.

Thanks for your comments they were very helpful.

12 minutes ago, bkho said:

The piano part is a little sparse and there seems to be a tendency either of a "tag team" like approach (viola plays a bit, then the piano alone plays a bit, then the viola plays etc.) or parts of the piano accompaniment seem to just drop out.

Yeah this is evidence of my inexperience with using it. I think if I added some more interesting counter melodies and build up in the piano part, especially towards the end it would feel much more complete.

15 minutes ago, bkho said:

 Also the range of the viola part is fairly restricted, it would have been nice to see some exploration of the upper register for contrast.

I thought I used a fair amount of the upper register to be honest but reviewing the score I see what you mean as I usually save it for the end of phrases to accentuate buildup rather than focusing on it alone.

Thanks for your thoughts! :)

3 hours ago, SebastianViola said:

What do you mean? If you're referring to the piano part I placed that note there on purpose, it is supposed to sync up with the begging of the three note slur in the viola part.

I mean it doesn't adhere to the correct placement of notes and rests, i.e. properly splitting the 4/4 bar equally using ties.

3 hours ago, SebastianViola said:

I sort of assumed someone would point this out, but I assure you it was completely intentional. We're entering an age where violists are expected the technical prowess of violinists.

Here's the thing. In classical writing (which this seems to be trying to emulate), double stops are, yes, used as a demonstration of virtuosity, but their use is fairly restricted to the bigger moments in the piece. The Kabalevsky Cello Concerto is a good example of this. Additionally, many of your octaves are unnecessary with proper writing in the piano... critics will view it as difficult for the sake of being difficult.

On 11/18/2016 at 0:05 PM, Monarcheon said:

I mean it doesn't adhere to the correct placement of notes and rests, i.e. properly splitting the 4/4 bar equally using ties.

Here's the thing. In classical writing (which this seems to be trying to emulate), double stops are, yes, used as a demonstration of virtuosity, but their use is fairly restricted to the bigger moments in the piece. The Kabalevsky Cello Concerto is a good example of this. Additionally, many of your octaves are unnecessary with proper writing in the piano... critics will view it as difficult for the sake of being difficult.

 

Thank you, that makes much more sense. The use of double-stops came mostly from me trying to get used to using them more often, as I tend to underutilize them (as is particularly evident in my duet). Still have a ways to go. 

This is really nice and it flows pretty well. Not much I can say that hasn't been said already. I do wish there was a little bit more interaction between the piano and the viola, besides just trading off and the piano acting as accompaniment.

Also, as far as double stops go, I would say that overutilizing them is a much more dangerous habit to get into than underutilizing. Often, I think it's best to explore what all you can do with the single voice, only using the double stops sparingly for emphasis. The shining example I always think of is the Prelude from Bach's Partita No. 3, which is brilliantly intense and virtuosic, and doesn't use any double stops until the very end. Andy makes those double stops all the more effective.