Piano Concerto No.1 in a minor - Unfinished

Hi all,

A friend of mine asked me to write a piano concerto for her - I was already planning one, but now I really began to set the first notes on paper.
The early romantic composers' concerti (Schumann, Mendelssohn, Beethoven etc.) have had a huge influence on the piece until now.

Sadly enough, I feel I am not able to continue and finish this concerto. It sounds too repetitive and it really bores me listening to it, but also composing.
I have reached the capitulation of the first movement. 

Any ideas how I can recover my motivation of finishing it?

I have attached the score and music. Note that this is a rough sketch.

Feedback would be nice too!

Maarten

What you've got done so far is pretty good in my opinion. It can be a difficult thing to come out of when you're working on something you don't feel totally satisfied with or able to complete. My advice would be to spend some extra time listening to piano concertos, the ones that inspired this, or perhaps others, and looking for new ideas that might re-invigorate the work for you. If you really can't bring yourself to finish this recapitulation, maybe you could even spend a little time away from it and work on one of the other movements.                                                                                                        

17 hours ago, fishyfry said:

What you've got done so far is pretty good in my opinion. It can be a difficult thing to come out of when you're working on something you don't feel totally satisfied with or able to complete. My advice would be to spend some extra time listening to piano concertos, the ones that inspired this, or perhaps others, and looking for new ideas that might re-invigorate the work for you. If you really can't bring yourself to finish this recapitulation, maybe you could even spend a little time away from it and work on one of the other movements.                                                                                                        

 

I am glad you like it. I made a mistake by saying I have reached the ''capitulation''. I mean the development section...

Thank you for the advise of starting on another movement. I will try that!

3 hours ago, Maarten Bauer said:

I made a mistake by saying I have reached the ''capitulation''. I mean the development section...

 

Here's a useful thread on the forums that might give you some ideas to help push the development forward when you get back to work on this movement.

On 23-1-2017 at 8:32 PM, fishyfry said:

Here's a useful thread on the forums that might give you some ideas to help push the development forward when you get back to work on this movement.

 

 

Thank you, I will certainly take a look at it!

The beginning is very nice orchestrated!

I also would rewrite the piece and make it a bit shorter, you have to much ideas so its a bit hard to follow. The Piano parts are very nice!

And in my opinion it's a bit fo fast for Adagio? I would call it Allegro.

Best regards

K. D.

2 hours ago, khddbbss said:

The beginning is very nice orchestrated!

I also would rewrite the piece and make it a bit shorter, you have to much ideas so its a bit hard to follow. The Piano parts are very nice!

And in my opinion it's a bit fo fast for Adagio? I would call it Allegro.

Best regards

K. D.

 

Thank you for listening.

I am glad you like the way it is orchestrated. The main goal of this concerto is to learn and practice orchestration. Which part do you mean with ''the beginning'' or do you mean the entire exposition?

I think that is the problem! Thank you! I shall limit the themes to just the themes and not develop them in the exposition, as I did now, but in the development section.

The tempo really is 60 bpm. Adagietto may fit better. The tempo becomes faster at Più mosso.

Hi Maarten,

It helps me to think of the various things I've laid out in the exposition as characters to play with in a development. Just a quick listing of the ones that catch my ear:

1. The downward triplet gesture in right hand in m. 9

2. The arpeggiated texture in the left hand in m. 9

3. The right hand figure in m. 10 with the turn

4. The opening motive of the B melody in m. 43-44

I think there are probably a couple more in there, but that's a start.

Now, homework: Listen to Dvorak 9. The last movement's development section takes themes from throughout the symphony and squares them off against each other in a "tournament" format. Only two themes are left standing to duke it out for the championship. It should shed some light on how to treat the motives as characters of their own.

You've got a ton of really solid material to work with. Your challenge is (as you say) not putting too many good ideas in, but paying off the good ideas you already have.

6 hours ago, Adrian Quince said:

Hi Maarten,

It helps me to think of the various things I've laid out in the exposition as characters to play with in a development. Just a quick listing of the ones that catch my ear:

1. The downward triplet gesture in right hand in m. 9

2. The arpeggiated texture in the left hand in m. 9

3. The right hand figure in m. 10 with the turn

4. The opening motive of the B melody in m. 43-44

I think there are probably a couple more in there, but that's a start.

Now, homework: Listen to Dvorak 9. The last movement's development section takes themes from throughout the symphony and squares them off against each other in a "tournament" format. Only two themes are left standing to duke it out for the championship. It should shed some light on how to treat the motives as characters of their own.

You've got a ton of really solid material to work with. Your challenge is (as you say) not putting too many good ideas in, but paying off the good ideas you already have.

 

Thank you for your very useful feedback. 

Dvorak's 9th Symphony is one of my favourite symphonies!

Kind regards

Hi Maarten,

Glad to help. Hopefully you can get unstuck on this piece. You've done too much good work to abandon it!

Man..this sounds great! DON'T STOP!

The beginning is Beethoven-like but then the piano solo is like a romantic motion picture-like. And these changes between (too) static orchestration and piano part are not very convincing. You certainly need more active use of orchestral groups and more extended harmonies - too many tonic-dominant relations and lack of modulations. BTW- where is "a minor"?

The piano part is promising at 0:35 but you don't make it brilliant or more active. You should prolong this section with effective counterpoints in orchestra and use richer harmonies. Good luck!

4 hours ago, Sojar Voglar said:

The beginning is Beethoven-like but then the piano solo is like a romantic motion picture-like. And these changes between (too) static orchestration and piano part are not very convincing. You certainly need more active use of orchestral groups and more extended harmonies - too many tonic-dominant relations and lack of modulations. BTW- where is "a minor"?

The piano part is promising at 0:35 but you don't make it brilliant or more active. You should prolong this section with effective counterpoints in orchestra and use richer harmonies. Good luck!

 

Thank you for you useful feedback!

When I look at it again, I will certainly try to improve the elements you mentioned.

The "a minor" is a mistake. Thanks for the reminder, I will change that in the future!