Minor but Not Quite There: C Half-Whole Octatonic

I wrote a short piece for solo piano using the C Half-Whole Octatonic scale. I used the same key signature that I would use for C minor and as you can probably tell from the title, I emphasize the C minor tonality while also making it very obvious that it isn't your normal C minor by outlining diminished sevenths and using them in place of your regular dominant in the cadences. For the ending, I decided to go dramatic and have the C Half-Whole Octatonic go down 4 octaves during a creschendo and then have Cdim7 go straight to C minor with no chord in between. I found 2 cadences so far that I could make using the Half-Whole Octatonic scale, an Authentic Cadence and a Deceptive Cadence. And guess what? Each one of those is the hand inversion of the other. In the Authentic Cadence, the melody goes Db, Bb, C, and the bass provides the chords. In the Deceptive Cadence, it is flipped, the right hand provides the chords and the left hand does the melodic motion. Same chords, same inversions, but much weaker than the Authentic Cadence.

What do you think of my short piece in C Half-Whole Octatonic?

I quite like this! 

What I'd point out about this (and some of your other pieces) is the lack of slurring, and sometimes dynamic markings. It's good practice to determine the interpretation to the best of your skills, not only because you guarantee that it will at least resemble the interpretation you had in mind. Also, because as we now have midi sounds that can reproduce with some acuracy the instruments in real life, we can sometimes lose the ablity to picture them in our heads. If you get deep into specifying the interpretation you intend for the parts, you make sure you are thinking through every note and are able to internalize them.

Also, something else I feel could be improved in your pieces is your use of cadences. I believe that the way you currently use them is quite limiting. There are too many strong cadences, which makes the whole piece sound "chopped". Try not cease melodic/harmonic movement so often. That way, not only your form will work better, as you'll be able to mask it and make it work in favour of the music, not by itself, but you will be able to work on longer projects without sounding like you glued together a bunch of diferent pieces.

As for the piece itself, I don't have much to say besides that I like it, as I've never used this scale in much of a depth. I just felt like this piece contained the same issues that bug me in your other pieces. 

I hope I was able to help with something.

Best wishes, Jean.

Interesting piece.

But I think this scales deserve to be exploited much more. The main misleading concept is that you keep on thinking in tonal terms, everywhere: the key signature (for me it's confusing, in this case I prefer no one), the title (minor....), the false equivalence with tonal cadences (ii-V-i, diminished authentic cadence).

A full use of this (and any) scale is to work with it as a MODE. What you wrote here is fine and good, but notice that there is no harmonization at all, of any phrases or whatever. You have here a "safe" counterpoint, false counterpoint (long note against a motif), and some chords in the cadences, and scales.

What about harmonizing a melody with progressions that are not in major or minor mode but in ocatatonic mode? This is the way you make a mode-scale strong and unique.

This is how I do it: make a chart of chords that this particular scale provide. Three note chords, four note chords, but there are many others: by fourths, by seconds...

I you want to establish a tonic (home), do it: C (in this case it could be Cmaj or Cm). Now look for cadential chords. This chords include the notes in the scale that make it different from major or minor scale. In this octatonic scale these notes are Db, F#, perhaps Eb.... So cadential chords are, for example Dbm(b5), Eb+, Gm(maj7)b5, etc..... AVOID cadences that will lead your ears to major or minor modes.

Then use your chords to harmonize the melody.

Take a look at Messiaen and his "modes un limited transposition", and all the chords he invented.