Beginner's Piano Suite

This "Beginner's Piano Suite" marks my so-called '3rd Opus", which sounds so odd to say. (The idea of having an "Opus" sounds awful self-important to my ears, but at the same time, it gives a sense of beginning, middle, and end, and the thought of "I'm done with this, I'm moving on to something else" is liberating, so I really like that aspect of it!) Here's a little backstory. For one thing, I was tired of making pieces of piano music that were extremely difficult to play, and I have a fondness for pieces that are simple, straightforward, and "tell a story", so to speak. So I tried to tone down virtuoso writing as much as possible, and focus on "what" I wanted to say, instead of "how" to say it. I took some inspiration from the idea of video game music, thinking of a scenario or character and having that be what started me off. Most of them are played at a really slow tempo, which is inherently easier to play. A couple are more up-tempo, and probably offer the greatest challenge. Some sections may be tricky, and might be cheating to have in a "Beginner's Piano Suite", but I did my best. 

It's not a very long suite. There are seven pieces, and to listen to all takes maybe 15-20 minutes or so. Here they are:

https://app.box.com/s/3i5d36uhkfwmd0gj5b84jmqplhoioebp [Op. 3 No. 1, "Dawn's Lullaby" WAVE File]

https://app.box.com/s/0ecvpduruu110pa9ukksgty2bqmlt8jx  ["Dawn's Lullaby" PDF]

https://app.box.com/s/9rknasfzt22sdm8kcqx1ot7jzq7ei9y7   ["Op. 3 No. 2, ""A Lamentation" WAVE File]

https://app.box.com/s/nfclmphylif5ztavoq7t1d5h5p6y6ifq     ["A Lamentation" PDF]

https://app.box.com/s/csiounws38ep6waojlityorrdofgt3z1    [Op. 3 No. 3, "Cynical" WAVE File]

https://app.box.com/s/rrdfpfkmwortupqtqb1hqh581u16kevb  ["Cynical" PDF]

https://app.box.com/s/oa840nl7vfyadcv3ey0302fwotrar8h3   ["Op. 3 No. 4, "The Fireplace" WAVE File]

https://app.box.com/s/p8haj6opgevr8g90v2i0z9b2qitdxxz9   ["The Fireplace" PDF]

https://app.box.com/s/yumtrw9w5rlppww2pi5m0dix24a206jg  [Op. 3 No. 5, "Resistance" WAVE File]

https://app.box.com/s/fg5mr8o4x6ydnsloqp5q6a82vcrgcz09   ["Resistance" PDF]

https://app.box.com/s/5ilpdnvqx27gyj05l7atnyc3d9ar414c   [Op. 3 No. 6, "Remembrance" WAVE File]

https://app.box.com/s/vgaadllbnc1izmm7meits7vzom2x9rmc  ["Remembrance" PDF]

https://app.box.com/s/tv8akqk6i409ibxz3i5187571syxwpjn   [Op. 3 No. 7, "Adagio" WAVE File]

https://app.box.com/s/qhompslta6x3wzh1owzj2a6g7tu74a2m  ["Adagio" PDF]

Thoughts/comments/criticisms all welcome. Thank you!

Focusing in on Fireplace:
I'm not totally sure why you're not using layers for things like 12-23... from your other ones I know you can.
I found the modulation back to 30 to be a little heavy handed here. The binary form you have before hand doesn't really have any alterations the second time little "A" goes through which already kind of loses me, then the tonicization repeating sounds more like you didn't really know how to get back to F-sharp, as opposed to a soft return to big A. 
Other than that, chord choice was lovely, I particularly like B/C# for the stepwise motion.

Thanks for your comment! I was beginning to think this poor suite was just going to be completely ignored 🤷‍♂️

I have a question: when you say “layers”, can you explain what you mean by that? I don’t get it.

Sure thing: you know how in Cynical (the part with the triplets with quarter notes on the bottom at 39) you have the quarter note on its own implying it's held? You use two layers to create the effect; later one is on top to create the triplets, and the second later is the bottom with the quarter note. In Fireplace, you have a bunch of notes tied together to hold the chord instead of using multiple layers like you do in the other ones.

Something like this in m. 13, for example. 

Ohhh, I see. I’ve always called them “voices” in my head (pun intended).

But anyway, there’s no special reason in particular why I used the tied chords instead, it just kind of happened that way.

I enjoyed this suite. I agree that chord choice was lovely throughout. Looking at the sheet music for resistance in 5/8 and adagio I'd say they look more like intermediate pieces, but like you said you tried your best! The transition from light to heavy dynamics was a pleasant surprise in adagio. Cynical was an amusing piece. A lamentation was my favorite. Thank you for sharing! 🙂

Thanks a bunch for taking time to listen, Em, I appreciate it 🙂 I agree with you on the difficulty spikes in the suite, some are definitely around intermediate. I figured it’s a necessary evil, because I didn’t want the whole suite to be only extremely slow, quiet pieces. Although the abundance of accidentals in Adagio might be just a tad sadistic on my part for people who are learning to read sheet music 🤭 oh well. Mwa ha ha!

Again, thanks for listening!