Springtime Springs for Flute and Piano

When I think of Spring, I think of the warming temperatures, the days upon days of rain, the blooming flowers, the new growth, and the birdsong. I figured that Flute and Piano would be the best duet to evoke this, so that is what I went with for my piece. The only structure I went with at the beginning was a basic arc of the piece. I knew I was going to have changing tempos in it. It wasn't until later on, after composing a lot of the piece, that I knew the structure in more detail. What I did know was that I would be using expansion of multiple types throughout the piece. Even just going from minor to major is an expansion. I think it turned out well, though maybe I should modify the D minor and E minor entrances in the Molto adagio so that it isn't rote repetition starting at different pitches. Or do you think the solo passage adds enough contrast that I don't need to modify the Molto adagio? I'm also wondering if I should add a crescendo through the final flute cadenza, where I make it sound as though the flute's cadenza is coming out of the piano and have the final chord of the piece at fortissimo. What do you think of my piece?

Nice work, as a whole.

I like some dissonances you have there (others may tell you they're wrong or awkward). But the piece has some modern elements apart from that. The concept of the arc is, in mi opinion, overused, a bit, it could be transformed here and there. The ostinato bass changes from one section to another, that's good.

Good effort. I do think you should consider your motivic development as I find you repeating certain phrases in a manner that one might remark as “over doing it”! The essence of story telling is that we must move on, and if it takes too long to do that, people will naturally lose interest. 

That said, however, you do have plenty of ideas here. And your Eastern European folk influences are refreshing. Much better than the last piece that I listened I’d yours - I think it was the minuet. 

Thanks again

Hmmm... this piece sounds a bit different then your other work. I do get the sense that Luis was talking about regarding the harmonic exploration: you're definitely pushing into newer waters (which is good and refreshing -I'd like to see more of that). 

I'm not sure the walking octaves in the bass really do much to support your material. I think there could be more of an interplay between the right and left hand. The left hand seems to come from a different piece altogether at parts -in other words, there's a sense of separation there. Even the alberti bass section seems to seem different from the rest. I'd work on better solidifying the bass relationship to the flute and piano right hand (in other words, spread your material across the three).

Scalar material is often the hardest to work with -even when you limit the extent of the scale itself. One of the best things to do is to spread the scalar material across the full range of the piano -this allows you to explore more remote tonal regions (which is something that you seem to want to do here). I think if you had taken the scalar material and expanded it... underneath the theme you introduced first at measure 3.... it would lend some nice contrast to that line (and be away to push those two motifs closer together). I hope that makes sense.

Finally, watch the transitions to contrasting textures and sections. The ending contains to sharp changes in the texture -which might sound a bit better with live instruments- but, it's definitely noticeable.