Pieces for Pianoforte Op 21 No 1 - Intermezzo(revised - feedback welcome)

This is a new revision of the first composition for solo pianoforte from a collection that I am currently writing slowly. I have written the second one a while back.

This was my first attempt at a sort of East-meets-West theme. The A section features a great deal of change in time signatures, with an Asian-style melody in G minor. This then bleeds into the B section that is mostly a regular polonaise in E-flat major, before returning to the A section. This is only a rendering using MuseScore3. I plan to record myself playing this piece again soon and upload a video of it as well. Enjoy.

Very nice job!! It's beautiful, it's me or Do i feel some asiatic music influences?

I like the middle part more, it's more classical/romantic alike, the start seems more modern.

10 minutes ago, J.Santos said:

Very nice job!! It's beautiful, it's me or Do i feel some asiatic music influences?

I like the middle part more, it's more classical/romantic alike, the start seems more modern.

 

Thanks! Asiatic influence in the melody. Yeah, the middle was more reminiscent of the classical polonaise. The start and end are the experimental bits with the Asiatic melody. 

Nice music.

It's remarkable the way you get a really (but mild) oriental sound, just using scales and some chords (not all) with 5ths and 4ths in the bottom. Surely you would get a stronger (oriental) sound with other devices (pentatonics, scales with augmented seconds, etc...). But it's OK, because it blends very well with the polonaise part.

There is only one thing I'm not very fond of, and it is, particularly in the first part, the "excess" of arpeggiated chords. I think it weakens the piece, I mean, it makes it sound more "¿corny?", and it belongs to another style. I know if you have wide chords there is no other way but to roll them, but I would figure out other solution (just my opinion, if you like it ...OK).

7 hours ago, Luis Hernández said:

Nice music.

It's remarkable the way you get a really (but mild) oriental sound, just using scales and some chords (not all) with 5ths and 4ths in the bottom. Surely you would get a stronger (oriental) sound with other devices (pentatonics, scales with augmented seconds, etc...). But it's OK, because it blends very well with the polonaise part.

There is only one thing I'm not very fond of, and it is, particularly in the first part, the "excess" of arpeggiated chords. I think it weakens the piece, I mean, it makes it sound more "¿corny?", and it belongs to another style. I know if you have wide chords there is no other way but to roll them, but I would figure out other solution (just my opinion, if you like it ...OK).

 

Hey, Luis! 

Thank you very much for your feedback. 

For the case of the oriental sounds, yes, I would probably get a stronger oriental sound if I leaned deeper into those devices, but as you have mentioned - and I agree - the mildly oriental style suitably blends with the more Western polonaise part, and that was my intention. I only fear that leaning in too strongly on the oriental sound might create a jarring contrast, though. What do you think?

For your point on the excess of arpeggiated chords, I think I see what you mean. Upon multiple listens, I felt the parts in question didn't come off as cohesive with the rest of the piece. I have since played it out, experimenting between arpeggiation and just plain chords (some with additional embellishments) and found possibly other more cohesive sounds for these parts. I'll probably take some time in the coming weeks to look into these.

Once again, thank you for your feedback 🙂