piano Lofsálmur (hymn) from Icelandic Suite

Well, folks, I'm very pleased to offer you the final installment of Íslensk svíta! This one is called "Lofsálmur," which means "hymn." It's a kind of song without words, and brings together a few themes from the other movements (if you look closely 😜). It represents the simple, glorious joys of that North Atlantic island. This movement begins easily and quietly, then moves through various dark passages before the main theme is realized near the end. Then the piece ends as simply as it began.

I find this finale to be extremely moving, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do! As always, I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions!

And... it feels great to finally be done with this suite! 😅

All i have to say is: Congratulations.

This just sounds amazing. I'm impressed about how many great composers I was able to find in this forum in just a few days. Yourself included. 

It reminds me of Janáček, but more lively (and at moments more profound). I really expect to hear more about you in the future. 

Best wishes, Jean.

18 minutes ago, Jean Szulc said:

All i have to say is: Congratulations.

This just sounds amazing. I'm impressed about how many great composers I was able to find in this forum in just a few days. Yourself included. 

It reminds me of Janáček, but more lively (and at moments more profound). I really expect to hear more about you in the future. 

Best wishes, Jean.

 

Why, thank you so much, Jean! Your kind words mean a great deal to me!

I've really been impressed with this forum, as well. I waited until my 30's to start putting myself out there as a composer, and this forum has been a godsend in that regard. I've gotten lots of feedback from fellow composer whom I admire (yourself included), plus I get exposed to great music I otherwise would have missed! I'm very glad communities such as this exist!

Again, I appreciate your humbling remarks.

Regards, Jordan.

m. 47 - The double E# in a row will take a very steady hand to not emphasize both and sound awkward. I would pick one to emphasize, but that's just me.
m. 81 - the way you have the arpeggio written is a little strange, since the notational contour is one-directional but there's a note that goes down.
Overall, I think this is a lovely piece. Great mixed sonorities reminiscent of Debussy's good ol' underwater cathedral. If I had one formal complaint it would be that the beginning kinda takes a while to get going. Establishing themes is great and in a sort of hymn style it makes some sort of sense, purely as a listener and not a theorist I found it a little start-stoppy. As soon as you start going, however, everything flows beautifully. 

5 minutes ago, Monarcheon said:

m. 47 - The double E# in a row will take a very steady hand to not emphasize both and sound awkward. I would pick one to emphasize, but that's just me.
m. 81 - the way you have the arpeggio written is a little strange, since the notational contour is one-directional but there's a note that goes down.
Overall, I think this is a lovely piece. Great mixed sonorities reminiscent of Debussy's good ol' underwater cathedral. If I had one formal complaint it would be that the beginning kinda takes a while to get going. Establishing themes is great and in a sort of hymn style it makes some sort of sense, purely as a listener and not a theorist I found it a little start-stoppy. As soon as you start going, however, everything flows beautifully. 

 

Thanks, @Monarcheon. I appreciate the feedback from a theorist's perspective! I'm in agreement about the double E#—deliberated over that for a good hour before I decided to just leave it. I'll put some more thought into it and see what I can come up with. With m81 (and m83) it's an octave repeat of the previous two arpeggios, so the first note in the repeat tuplet is a whole step below the previous one. It will be played with alternating hands, so maybe that helps? And I apologize for the start-stoppiness. Hopefully, with more composing practice, I'll get better at stringing themes together.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Slowly but surely growing into my own style...

Maybe it's just me, but you seem to use 7/4 time in a very natural, lyrical way. Usually this tempo sticks out like a sore thumb for me, but I don't think I would have even noticed if I wasn't looking at the score. Interesting.

I like the way that the previous piece hinted at the maestoso here. In the piece before this one, there was this short climax at its grandiose theme, but here, it's like it gets a chance to be further elaborated on in this "remix" of all the previous pieces that came before it. It's a satisfying climax! And the ending C Major chord is also really satisfying and feels truly "final." (I think my favorite part are the 2 bars labelled martellato soon after the quasi cadenza, those chords are positively delicious!)

I'm looking for things to critique, but I just don't see anything to criticize, personally. I just really like this suite, and your way of writing. What can I say? I'm sure your growth as a composer will come naturally with more writing, anyway, as all composers do. I hope at some point you can get a live recording of this music, because the only thing holding it back is the MIDI performance.

Thanks for sharing with us! :D

7 hours ago, SergeOfArniVillage said:

Maybe it's just me, but you seem to use 7/4 time in a very natural, lyrical way. Usually this tempo sticks out like a sore thumb for me, but I don't think I would have even noticed if I wasn't looking at the score. Interesting.

I like the way that the previous piece hinted at the maestoso here. In the piece before this one, there was this short climax at its grandiose theme, but here, it's like it gets a chance to be further elaborated on in this "remix" of all the previous pieces that came before it. It's a satisfying climax! And the ending C Major chord is also really satisfying and feels truly "final." (I think my favorite part are the 2 bars labelled martellato soon after the quasi cadenza, those chords are positively delicious!)

I'm looking for things to critique, but I just don't see anything to criticize, personally. I just really like this suite, and your way of writing. What can I say? I'm sure your growth as a composer will come naturally with more writing, anyway, as all composers do. I hope at some point you can get a live recording of this music, because the only thing holding it back is the MIDI performance.

Thanks for sharing with us! 😄

 

Again, I'm humbled by your remarks... 

I do think this final movement is some of the best writing I've done—it all just felt so natural and flowing—but it might have just been a fluke incident! I'm glad you liked the martellato passage, as I'm quite fond of that, too. So edgy!

And I think the 7/4 time signature flowed so well because I sort of treated like 6/4 with a last-note fermata. I made some revisions before posting this work that, in my opinion, really helped out with the flow.

Crossing my fingers that I can get a recording of this, too. If I had time (and a little more talent) I'd record it myself... but I'd much rather someone better skilled than me bring it to life.

Appreciate your ever-kind remarks!

Jordan