Moments

I was busy working on a project for Euphonium when I got the ideas for this piece. Over the last few days, a week really, I've added and changed stuff. The work slowly expanded from there. 

When I got the idea, I thought about doing a sonata based on it -but, as my composition advanced, I decided a one movement work would suffice. 

The form is pretty straightforward -so I won't bore you with the details. I can, however, say I'm happy with this draft of it. The language is very intimate and, I'm sure some would note, there's a sense of doom and resignation in the piece (largely due to my stressing over the coronavirus and it's potential impact on my family). But, in the end, the show must go on -and life itself will ultimately return to some sense of normalcy. 

At any rate, I hope you all enjoy this. 

Your bowings need serious revision. mm. 11-14 are insane.
I really like the development. The expo and the recap throw me off especially when there's a pattern of the piano outlining a cell repetition and the violin doesn't interact with it's not clear that it should be; that is to say, it sounds stratified. I'm also not totally sure how effective the cadenza is. Because everything is so tonic centered and metrically adherent to itself it sounds empty when I don't think it really needs to be; other double stops without the open strings might be interesting. The ending is also nice. 🙂 

I probably should put a marking there. I want the violinist to use a down bow for both measures 11 and 12. I thought about either leaving a note on top of that or using a breath mark to indicate that. The up bows for measure 10 and 12 into 13, I realize I could've used a slur to indicate this. But I want a definite stop between each note, while still using the up bow. I think this is a matter of transcription though -and I'm probably not marking it correctly. I can play these passages though easily. 

The violin and piano are stratified in many sections -intentionally. I hoped the dynamic differences would've made this known by looking at the score. The cadenza really is what I've labored over the most. My goal with this was a sort of meditation on some of the ideas that came before. I'll probably rewrite some of this too make it sound more hollow -as that was what I was going for. I wanted the open string double stops intentionally -as is probably indicated with the opening double stop material (perhaps I should provide some contrast with other stops?)

Glad you like the development. 

6 minutes ago, jawoodruff said:

I thought about either leaving a note on top of that or using a breath mark to indicate that.

Probably that. The way I read it now is stop the bow but use the same stroke.

I also do see that stratification is a theme throughout the piece (to me, culminating in the tritone register split followed by a diatonic cluster at the end of the cadenza). The short term jumps in this process might have been what prevented me from hearing the whole thing as a process to that end, but I'm not entirely sure. 

Do you want all of this without pedal? If so, you should probably put "sempre senza ped." in the beginning. It would probably really change the feel of the whole piece otherwise.

I like that in this piece the motives are pretty "integral". They contain clear rhythmic, melodic and harmonic material.

Also, the balance in instrumentation is very appropriate, I never got tired of any texture, sound, colour, etc. 

I find the end either overwhelming, or underwhelming. I think you could go to one of the extremes: either the reaches a peak in intensity, or it fades into nothingness. That's just my opinion though.

Once again, the Jason Woodruff sound shines through. Love it 🙂

33 minutes ago, Jean Szulc said:

Do you want all of this without pedal? If so, you should probably put "sempre senza ped." in the beginning. It would probably really change the feel of the whole piece otherwise.

I like that in this piece the motives are pretty "integral". They contain clear rhythmic, melodic and harmonic material.

Also, the balance in instrumentation is very appropriate, I never got tired of any texture, sound, colour, etc. 

I find the end either overwhelming, or underwhelming. I think you could go to one of the extremes: either the reaches a peak in intensity, or it fades into nothingness. That's just my opinion though.

Once again, the Jason Woodruff sound shines through. Love it 🙂

 

I'll probably add pedal markings to it myself. 

I probably won't change the ending -I did think about fading to nothingness. I'll consider it.

Glad you like it!