Dramatic Piano Song - The Knight-errant

An attempt to compose a small, fairly simple adventureous and journey-like piece. I'm not sure how to classify the genre of this piece, maybe something between romanticism and pop songs. I'm not used to music theory , writing scores etc and this was the first time I tried to compose a piece completely in a score software, so this is probably the main reason for this piece's shy melodical appearance. The exported midi file was rendered in a DAW.

Feel free to comment.

Thanks for listening, I hope you enjoyed it!

The overall shape of this piece goes like: a - b - c - d1 - d2 - c' - d1' - d2' - a' - b' - b'' - e

a: Introductory theme.

b: dramatic theme/development to part c

c: Small "good-feeling" melody in a major key.

d1: fast dramatic theme

d2: variation of d1

c': festive variation of c

d1' and d2': variations of d1 and d2

a': Theme from a played one octave higher with slight variations.

b': Variation of b with a faster arpeggio pattern and fuller chords.

b'': Variation of b' in a major key with a finishing festive character.

e: final chords and quotation of the ending of the introductory theme (a)

The idea itself is great, but the sounds aren't good and I can't really enjoy the piece that way.

Can you please upload the midi here (and notify me about it) so I'd be able to put it in my cubase and export it with a better piano sound?

Don't worry, I won't put it under my name. I'll just export it with better sounds and send it back to you here.

If there is a story behind it, it would be interesting to know. It sounds like the music wants to narrate something. The beginning offers jarring dissonances, the ending festive chord blocks. Sometimes in between I felt a bit lost, as I had no idea where the music would go next, but this can be exactly the intended effect for a piece about a “knight-errant”. (Without a score, it is difficult to say exactly where this feeling occurs). 

1 hour ago, Rabbival507 said:

The idea itself is great, but the sounds aren't good and I can't really enjoy the piece that way.

Can you please upload the midi here (and notify me about it) so I'd be able to put it in my cubase and export it with a better piano sound?

Don't worry, I won't put it under my name. I'll just export it with better sounds and send it back to you here.

 

Thx for listening! I am actually using a pretty good VST. Why is the sound bad in ur opinion (of course its not a real piano..but still ;-) )? Could u pls describe it? Too loud,too hard,not enough dynamics,..? Maybe I can try to do some adjustments...

33 minutes ago, Willibald said:

If there is a story behind it, it would be interesting to know. It sounds like the music wants to narrate something. The beginning offers jarring dissonances, the ending festive chord blocks. Sometimes in between I felt a bit lost, as I had no idea where the music would go next, but this can be exactly the intended effect for a piece about a “knight-errant”. (Without a score, it is difficult to say exactly where this feeling occurs). 

 

Thx for listening! Sry,I can't provide a score atm. Could u maybe tell me the approx. timestamp of the moments u r talking about?

17 hours ago, alex2east said:

Thx for listening! I am actually using a pretty good VST. Why is the sound bad in ur opinion (of course its not a real piano..but still ;-) )? Could u pls describe it? Too loud,too hard,not enough dynamics,..? Maybe I can try to do some adjustments...

 

Idk. If I'll realize what is it exactly that I don't like I'll tell you.

Around 1:47 and 2:48, though it didn't sound that aimless when I listened the second time. 

3 hours ago, Willibald said:

Around 1:47 and 2:48, though it didn't sound that aimless when I listened the second time. 

 

Alright, glad to know that it's better now. Thanks for the effort !

On 10.12.2017 at 10:18 PM, Willibald said:

If there is a story behind it, it would be interesting to know.

Okay,... so here's the story :-)

Part a:
A knight returns back to his hometown after a long journey and finds it destroyed and devastated by a horrible beast.
Being mournful, angry and appalled by the devastation he decides to use his anger to find the courage to hunt that beast, to revenge his folk and free the lands from it.

Part b:
The knight sets out to a new journey of which he expects nothing but dangers, fights and all sorts of adventurous challanges.

Part c:
Feeling strong-willed he crosses wide fields, passes befriended villages which place their hope into him.

Part d1:
Suddenly, being in a village, the beast, a dragon-like creature, descends from the sky. The knight pulls his sword and tries to defeat it but it turns out that the beast is now hunting the knight more than he's hunting the beast.

Part d2:
After a short seesaw of hitting and running the knight finally gains the whiphand, starts to fight back and puts the beast to rout.

Part c':
The village celebrates the knight fervently. The townsfolk, feeling glorious and secure during the celebration, gets suddenly surprised by the beast, which is now even angrier than before.

Part d1' and d2':
The knight starts off to fight the creature one more time and gets entangled into a brutal chaos, a mess full of rage and destruction.

Part a':
After having defeated and put the beast to rout the knight, tired and muzzy, realizes the vast size of the village's demolition that resulted from the fight.
He mournfully walks through the village's destroyed streets, looks at demolished buildings. All the feelings, the depression, the sadness and the helplessness, that initiated his honorable trip start to burn deep inside him again.
Feeling more determined to hunt down that beast than ever before he sets out for a last fight.
He cries for revenge. The cry gets heard by the beast which is ready for a confrontation again.

Part b':
The knight jumps on his horse and rushes towards the beast, decided to end it all forever and starts a fight.

Part b'':
Having a better understanding of the beast's nature, the knight, in the course of this fight, starts to gain more and more control over the creature and jumps on it's back.
After a couple of failed attemps he finally manages to tame the beast instead of defeating it.
The knight, riding the beast, ascends to the skies and gloriously flies over the lands, showing that he has tamed the creature and brought peace to the people.

The end.

On 6.1.2018 at 12:14 AM, ilv said:

Interesting harmonies and melodies. Nice ideas. I think some material was repeated too much. Also, the motion suddenly stopped and came back for a few seconds near the end of the piece, which was kind of awkward. I think the momentum would've been continued if the left hand played faster notes. How is one pianist supposed to play this? Sounds like it is only playable by two people on one piano.

 

Hi!

yes,i also think that some themes are  repeated too often.

The ending of this piece was intented to surprisingly break up the speed and finish in the mood of another theme that was played previously in this piece.

This piece isnt supposed to be played by a real pianist. I'm not a pianist myself and I also dont have training in music theory.I composed this piece in a  notation software,edited and renderded the midi file in a daw.

Thanks a lot for listening and commenting!

Alex2east