A Brisk Walk

A little piano piece I wrote over the last day or two. The initial idea occurred to me late in bed one night while I couldn't sleep.

It's probably one of my least tonal pieces so far, although I wouldn't go so far as to call it 'atonal'. I'm really having some fun exploring the sounds and harmonic colours possible once I start accepting a little dissonance into my style.

I'm starting to seriously think about compiling a bunch of small piano pieces into some sort of collection - I seem to be writing a lot of them lately, and I intend to continue doing so. My aim is to write one short piano piece at least every two weeks.

This is really, really good! I wasn't as huge of a fan of the section starting m. 86 to the end... maybe it was too stark a contrast for me with not enough weight in it (a little anticlimactic, maybe), but the rest of this is extremely impressive.

@stewboy

Cool piece! Very unique and fun to listen to. Definitely I would do this compilation you mentioned. As to churning out a piece every couple weeks, that's totally fine and good, just remember not to sacrifice quality for quantity :) This doesn't seem as though it would pose a problem for you so just keep up the good work!

9 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

This is really, really good! I wasn't as huge of a fan of the section starting m. 86 to the end... maybe it was too stark a contrast for me with not enough weight in it (a little anticlimactic, maybe), but the rest of this is extremely impressive.

 

Thank you! I was never really sure, while writing, of what I was going to do at the 'climax' of the piece - it had to build up to something. What I wrote is just what occurred to me at the time - it just felt 'right' to me. So it would pain me to lose it, of course :P But I'll ask my tutor and see what he thinks.

I enjoyed this a lot and I usually listen to atonal works with a bit if a skeptical ear.  Great job!

I absolutely loved this. I especially like your very specific use of rhythm in the first measure, as if to "get going". I also really like the idea of a compilation of miniatures.

I actually thought this piece was too long, believe it or not. You got your point across 3/4ths of the way through or even sooner. Short pieces are the most difficult to write, of course -- getting your idea across without cutting it short, yet staying direct and to the point so that it can be, well, a miniature, but this piece enters "too much of a good thing" territory for me. I would see this better as an ABA with a much shorter B section. But these are just my initial thoughts--feel free to think that I'm crazy and not pay attention to me. :)

Keep writing these and let us/me know as you write them. I would love to consider learning them myself and record them for my YouTube channel once you have a few that you feel are revised and complete, if that is okay with you (as long as they don't end up being too difficult). Can you play this particular piece yourself? This style of music is substantially more difficult to play than it looks and sounds, and there are some very cumbersome passages from a performer's point of view (not that that should stop you from writing it, though, but just be aware of it).

Don't be afraid to stick with the abrasive tonality.

Oh, another thing: Pay very close attention to your articulation marking in the score--right now you just have some staccato here and there. Do you want two-note slurs leading up to the staccato notes? Do you want the non-staccato to be slurred? The score has great attention to dynamics and phrasing, probably so that the realization would come out accurately, but certainly revise your articulations in the score, too. There is much ambiguity in that regard, I feel.

1 hour ago, SonatainfSharp said:

There is much ambiguity in that regard, I feel.

What's wrong with that?

39 minutes ago, Monarcheon said:

What's wrong with that?

 

Depends on the composer's intentions, of course, but this piece doesn't seem to want to lend itself to ambiguity. There is a time and place for ambiguity, but this doesn't seem to be it.

On 27/01/2018 at 11:05 PM, Monarcheon said:

This is really, really good! I wasn't as huge of a fan of the section starting m. 86 to the end... maybe it was too stark a contrast for me with not enough weight in it (a little anticlimactic, maybe), but the rest of this is extremely impressive.

 

My tutor actually made a similar comment as it turns out - it was too light to really work as a climax, but it doesn't need a dramatic rethinking. I'll return to it some time after this weekend and maybe just add in a couple of bars and notes. I'll also probably take another look at the articulations.

@SonatainfSharp I was trying to keep playability in mind at least a little while writing it, especially the larger intervals. So in theory I'd hope it's possible. But I haven't actually looked at it on a piano yet. I might sometime!

1 hour ago, stewboy said:

My tutor actually made a similar comment as it turns out - it was too light to really work as a climax, but it doesn't need a dramatic rethinking.

That's all I meant, really. As far as I can remember the timing was just fine; it was probably just execution.