piano Variations in E minor, #1

Hello all,

I am posting today with my first complete piece for piano, a series of three variations on three themes for piano, of which this piece (I. Allegro moderato in E minor) is the first. The second two movements (II. Vivace; and III. Adagio) are still being written, but I figured it would be best to release this piece first to the public to see what kind of reception it got and what people thought of it.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

I don't think your main chord progression stays the same entirely to back up the variations. Your prime form of the variations changes as well... too often I think [0 3 5 7] vs. [0 1 3 4 6] in other variations, for example, measure 33.
It's simple writing, and that's not necessarily a bad thing by any means, it just doesn't sound very concert-appropriate, if you know what I mean. It does tend to get a little less engaging as it goes along.
I liked your pivot chords and chord progressions very much. They sounded quite fluid and led to other parts of the piece pretty well. 
Cheers!

5 minutes ago, Monarcheon said:

I don't think your main chord progression stays the same entirely to back up the variations. Your prime form of the variations changes as well... too often I think [0 3 5 7] vs. [0 1 3 4 6] in other variations, for example, measure 33.
It's simple writing, and that's not necessarily a bad thing by any means, it just doesn't sound very concert-appropriate, if you know what I mean. It does tend to get a little less engaging as it goes along.
I liked your pivot chords and chord progressions very much. They sounded quite fluid and led to other parts of the piece pretty well. 
Cheers!

 

Thanks for your feedback, that helps me get my bearings with this piece a little more. I am confused by your use of the brackets though. What do they and the numbers in them mean? Forgive me if that's a trivial question.

Also, I'm here on these forums to learn - so do tell - what's your take on how much a "variation" on a theme should vary from its original presentation? Obviously the integrity of the line should be kept.

1 minute ago, rburton17 said:

I am confused by your use of the brackets though. What do they and the numbers in them mean?

These are called prime forms and they denote a compact unit of intervallic relationships a melody or bassline uses, used in Schoenbergian analysis, and is helpful in determining the main motives of a piece, such as a theme and variations piece.

2 minutes ago, rburton17 said:

what's your take on how much a "variation" on a theme should vary from its original presentation?

My opinion is that a change in the theme should be deliberate and should contribute to the further elements of the piece rather than making a change only to return. The prime form, at least for the first motif should stay the same, though it can be manipulated in inversional or transpositional equivalence.

I'm sure other people think that as long as some thing is noticeably similar, it should qualify as a valid variation, but in my opinion there needs to be something more to hold it together.

I'm not sure... there are sets of variations where the original form is completely lost. I don't know, I see variations as a composing tool that may bring something totally different.

Anyway, this Variations in E min sound nice !