''Melting Icicles''

Hello folks,

In a long time I post one of my works here.

Melting Icicles is a winter prelude, which represents a two-sided story. On one hand, the piece shows the utmost beauty of winter ice, in particular icicles, which reflect themselves in ice caves. On the other hand, Melting Icicles makes clear that this beauty is in danger due to climate change. Furthermore, there wafts a kind of melancholy over the music: If we continue our lives in the way we live now, there can be a day without these ice diamonds.
* The piece starts fff , so watch out with ear plugs!

Feel free to share your thoughts with me.

~ Maarten Bauer

This is powerful and a bit sad. I love it. This is music my heart "understands",.... Thanks!

On 5/21/2019 at 4:34 PM, Luis Hernández said:

This is powerful and a bit sad. I love it. This is music my heart "understands",.... Thanks!

 

I am glad it touches you! 

Thank you! 

It's a nice piece. I like that contrast between the quiet, beautiful sections and the loud, dramatic sections. But I'm wondering, why do you have slurs that don't end in a note in some bars? Is that to show that the note is sustained across the bar? Because the pedal marking alone would do that. So having those slurs not ending in notes to show that the note is sustained across the bar might be confusing to a pianist who plays this piece. Also, it seems so rooted in 3 flats that having no key signature just doesn't make any sense. Sure, it goes back and forth between Eb major and C minor(and I think there are some places where Eb major and C minor are played simultaneously(which is called polytonality when there are multiple keys at the same time)) but both of those keys have 3 flats. So putting in a 3 flat key signature will make things easier on anyone playing this piece.

13 hours ago, caters said:

It's a nice piece. I like that contrast between the quiet, beautiful sections and the loud, dramatic sections. But I'm wondering, why do you have slurs that don't end in a note in some bars? Is that to show that the note is sustained across the bar? Because the pedal marking alone would do that. So having those slurs not ending in notes to show that the note is sustained across the bar might be confusing to a pianist who plays this piece. Also, it seems so rooted in 3 flats that having no key signature just doesn't make any sense. Sure, it goes back and forth between Eb major and C minor(and I think there are some places where Eb major and C minor are played simultaneously(which is called polytonality when there are multiple keys at the same time)) but both of those keys have 3 flats. So putting in a 3 flat key signature will make things easier on anyone playing this piece.

 

Thanks! 

Of course you are true about the pedal marking, but I wanted to visually show that the note is still sustained. Placing a rest would imply that there would not sound anything and slurring the note would imply that you hold the note for the entire duration.

Obviously I thought about using a key signature, but this goes against the idea of me: a three note piece with a C, E flat and B flat, not thinking OR suggesting any tonality. Maybe you disagree with me, but I find it easier to read it this way too. Even IF I would use a key signature, I would leave out the A flat, because it is not used. Tonality in this piece is not as important as the three pitches themselves. 

Ligeti would use a key signature as in his Musica Ricercata, but for me that is something I want to avoid. 

Thanks again for the well-thought questions! 

This is deep, and has a lot of sense in its back. I love you using actual discussion (global warming) to tell this story, it's short, but has a good material.

If i would make something better is making it longer (variating it, or even using the theme to make other kind of form/piece), but this is your piece, is up to you. Really good!

On 5/28/2019 at 5:08 PM, J.Santos said:

This is deep, and has a lot of sense in its back. I love you using actual discussion (global warming) to tell this story, it's short, but has a good material.

 

If i would make something better is making it longer (variating it, or even using the theme to make other kind of form/piece), but this is your piece, is up to you. Really good!

 

Thanks a lot!

Personally, I feel that the piece has just the right time arch!