Op. 4, "Ruins" -- No. 1

This is the start of a new series of works I'm currently composing. I've decided to nickname this entire Opus "Ruins." I'm inspired by the thoughts of desolation, loneliness, a lament of what used to be brilliant and full of life, now a hollow, dilapidated shell of what used to be. The series is intended to touch upon all sorts of thoughts and emotions, ranging from resilience and fierce, vivacious struggle, to outright despair and nihilistic acceptance of oblivion. 

This is the first in the series. I've actually written No. 2 as well, and will upload it later. I have yet to see how numbers 3 -- ? will come about.

Unlike my Opus 3., the "Beginner's Suite" (a slightly misleading name, but only slightly) that I uploaded some time ago, which really needs to all be heard together, these piece while being part of a set, are meant to also be able to stand on their own, as well.

https://app.box.com/s/v1czthmkbthqdssl51wrifiw5h2jmzf8   (Op. 4 No. 1 WAV File)

https://app.box.com/s/hplwci0js063eh4fep09ea6711r4dl1m   (PDF File)

Any thoughts/comments/criticisms appreciated 🙂

@SergeOfArniVillage Nicely done, Zach! I particularly enjoyed the foreshadowing elements at the beginning that are later joyously transformed into their major counterparts. The transition at m21 is very effective. The constant movement in the second half of the piece spoke of the ruins' exciting former days, although I was a little disappointed that we didn't return to its "shell" state at the beginning.

There are a few things that didn't sit 100% well with me. The chord progressions starting in m16 and ending at the key change were a little jarring to me, perhaps even a little random. I could be missing some motivic element, though. Another thing is the architecture of the piece, if you will. It's rather... prosaic. By this I mean that the right hand largely plays the melody and the left hand largely plays some exposition of the supporting chords underneath, as if this was originally written for an orchestra but reduced for the piano. As a pianist, I prefer works that give equal rank to both hands of the player. The left hand doesn't have to play as much melody as the right, but it does need to have some interesting rhythmic structures of its own. In a related vein, I would have personally preferred more counterpoint—but that's a stylistic difference, so no worries if that's not your bend.

The score looks great! There are, however, a few measures where I'm not sure which hand plays what (m44, for example). You might also want to reduce the amount of articulations on a given note, like the accents and tenutos (tenuti?) in m48. To me that's a little over-the-top, but it's probably, again, a stylistic preference. And lastly, thanks to Sibelius' (I assume) amazing programming, there are a few measures toward the end that are littered with rests in unused voices (m50, for example). I truly don't understand why the program can't clean those up... it's an endless source of frustration for me.

I felt like that was a lot of criticism and very little praise... my apologies. My overall impression is that you did a great job conveying the meanings you intended to convey, all while constructing a fine piece of music! I look forward to hearing the rest!

“I felt like that was a lot of criticism and very little praise... my apologies.”

There’s nothing to apologize for, constructive criticism is good, and your thoughts are really perceptive. I’m aware my compositions are far from perfect.

When you say that the chord progressions starting at ms. 16 feel random, I think you’re actually referring to mss. 18-20. I came across a very irritating problem with this passage. While I happened to like how it sounded on the surface, I wanted it to be a motivic element that would be tied in later, but I toyed with several things, and not a single thing I did felt natural. After a while, I decided to leave it as a purely transitional phrase.

It’s also really interesting you say that this feels like it was reduced from an orchestra. That’s really perceptive, because in a way, it actually is! I know nothing about actual orchestration, but sometimes when I first conceive of something, it’s not from how I imagine it’d sound on a solo piano (I’d prefer it if it was, though), but from how I imagine it would sound as an orchestra. That’s what happened with this piece. This isn’t always terribly practical, though, so I’m trying to just stick with the solo piano, and I purposefully listen almost exclusively to solo piano compositions to try and get out of that mind set. Because there were orchestral ideas originally, I had all sorts of wacky ideas that I had to scrap because there’s no way it’d work with a piano. However, the piano can “imitate” various sounds and characters of different instruments, so I guess it’s not complete hogwash! XD But yes, I’m trying to make my piano writing more organic and idiomatic as I continue to write for it.

About the score — some things, I’m just flat out too lazy to write in, write out, or correct, because I hate tedious tasks. If I were more professional, I’d include finger suggestions, L.H./R.H. marks, make the score immaculate, etc. But unfortunately, I grow bored very quickly, so I always end up not doing it. 🤷‍♂️ I know, I really am just a hot mess with a train wreck on the side!

I will say this: I hate happy endings, in general. This particular piece ends happy, but that’s not going to be the tone for most of the set!

Thank you for taking time to share your thoughts and observations with me, I really appreciate it! 😌

Sorry, edited out for now.