contemporary Ballade No 1- Draft audio

Hello,

So, I’ve been experimenting with ways to modernize my classical approach to music. I’ll get into what techniques I used to accomplish this later. I’ll start off with the form of the piece:

One piece for piano I love and will likely learn soon is Chopin’s Ballade No 1. I lightly based the form of my own ballade off this one. The beginning and end are in G minor (same for both pieces), but the middle section I chose to make in C# major because of the Tritone relationship between it and G minor. 

The beginning has an introduction that will lead to the opening theme. From there we get some bombastic octave passages leading into a return of the theme. At the end of the return, we start modulating chromatically and growing quiet until the piece suddenly bursts into a coda that ends on a Tritone and the C# section begins.

The middle section is very classical and lyrical, but as it progresses it gets more modern and dissonant. Near the end, we return to g minor and transition back to the main theme. Then we have one last great coda until the soft end.

The techniques I use:

-chromatic modulation

-modulation based upon physically close keys

-chromatic scales

-whole tone scale

-a lot of pedal

-m2nds, M9ths

-Sudden pauses

Im trying to find the balance between these as they’re the techniques I currently like to play with.

*No sheet music yet because I have not gotten a change to transcribe audio. 

*sorry for bad quality of audio.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yov_wpfmD-jMqJsn61l_r6V1hjN9utOC/view?usp=drivesdk

Equilla, that was masterful! It sounded like Chopin could have written that himself. I'd love to see the score, of course, in order to provide more structured feedback but do I have the following bits of advice based on the recording:

The phrasing was difficult for me to follow. I heard the opening theme—which was marvelous—but after a few minutes I got lost in all the chromatic passages and free tempo changes. Who knows, though? I might just be too musically obtuse to catch all the musical ideas you presented.

Speaking of musical ideas, I would have liked to have seen them developed more. To me—an amateur musician—they seemed disjointed, unrelated, and a tad ostentatious, as if they were there more for the pianist to display his/her virtuosity than for thematic development. (In my best Cockney accent: Just me 'umble opinion, though, miss.)

There's no question you are brimming with talent and promise. Some works I've heard by amateur composer are so musically unsound that I can hardly give any feedback at all. Yours I understood—for the most part I could tell what you were doing and where you were going—and that ability to connect with your audience I think speaks to the depth of composer you are... and will become!

Keep up the great work! Cheers!