Große Cello Sonate Nr.1

This weekend I've been working in this cello sonata. The first movement I've finished but the second and third not. I feel that in the first movement I use to much the cello in its high register. In the first movement some parts are a bit akward I'm working on that.  I would be pleased with feedback.

If you go to this youtube video, there is a time analysis in the description with what I wanted to achieve:

You have the beginnings of a truly great piece of music. there are flashes of truly great melodic writing. However I think the relatively limited scope of the piece is letting you down quite a bit. there simply isn't enough happening in the rest of the music in order for to justify the title of sonata in my opinion. some counter point plus variations In the piece are desperately needed I think what you have currently would work really well as a second subject as sonatas tend to have more of an attention grabbing first subject. at the moment there is predominantly one style for 10 minutes. as I said there are flashes of really great melodic writing. perhaps turning this piece in particular into a song will help but principally I think in order to call it a sonata work needs to be done on it.

The piano part is too much repetitive, you should really try to use more different chords (not harmonies) or piano progress (counterpoints, thematic material, more varied rhythm, motivic variation and development etc...) As far as you address the use of high register: actually, it's not the highest register at all - cello can relatively confortably play up to d6. It is accesible to most players with about 6-8 years of cello playing.

Thanks @Sojar Voglar and @Bradley Scarff for taking your time and listeing through the piece 😊! I've been trying to change the piano part (but the baseline I still need to perfectionate). At the end it is not in sonata form (as It did not acomplished it well in any way) and I took some liberties to make it in a more free form (therefore cuting in half the repetition of what was supposed to be the exposition and reducing the overall time) I'm trying to add more counterpoint but in this update I've focused more in adding more rithmic variation.

Thanks again for your feedback, it really helps!

That's an interesting piece also a dark one. I like the dotted rythm in piano right hand and the low figures in the left hand, it contributes to built a tense atmosphere you are aiming to create, but I aggre you could create more constrast with differents textures to change for a few seconds the accompaniment...Maybe just a solo cello part in the middle or a choral-like passage would help to create some contrast. 

I find some great ideas there, but I'm not able to classify the style. Have you taken particular a composer or style as a source of inspiration?

I suggest you take your time. don't feel you have to rush. sonatas are an ambitious undertaking so I recommend you take your time. 🙂 best wishes 

@Guillem82 Thanks for the comment! 

11 minutes ago, Guillem82 said:

I aggre you could create more constrast with differents textures to change for a few seconds the accompaniment...Maybe just a solo cello part in the middle or a choral-like passage would help to create some contrast.

Yes, I have started to write again the movement form organazing better the ideas and give the piece more textures and variety. 

20 minutes ago, Guillem82 said:

I find some great ideas there, but I'm not able to classify the style. Have you taken particular a composer or style as a source of inspiration?

I wrote this movement sunday and has been proably the only piece I've ever been able to write in 8h, I usually compose super slowly, when I say slowy is really slowly. I had a family discussion on saturday and that is proably the main source of inspiration. The drawback of composing so fast is that it has turned out cahotic and disorganized and now I have to polish it. 

That's a nice exemple, how sometimes bad events can be turned into beautiful music 🙂.

Thank's for posting! 

27 minutes ago, Guillem82 said:

I aggre you could create more constrast with differents textures to change for a few seconds the accompaniment

I aggree there could be more diversity. However, for a piece written in 8h this is quite an accomplishment. Some things I can say might help you with this piece:

Change in register can really help you diversify the texture in your piece, without necessarily changing the accompanimental figures. Just the fact that the instrumentist are having to reach for the extremes in their instruments might already make a whole lot of difference, even if is just psychological as the instrumentist is trying to not mess it up.

Also, the accompaniment could be a lot more expressive if it had a bigger importance in the overall effect of the piece. You could have countermelodies, contrapunctal lines, you name it. When you take the accompaniment as something as important as the melody itself, you'll probably be more critical about it, therefore making the best out of it.

Its really reminiscent of Beethoven, with the rather dark themes.

I do agree there needs to be some variation. And yes a change in register may help, like make the piano go much lower, if you like. I also suggest that the piano can take up parts of the cello, so as not to just make it a mere accompaniment. You can also consider more techniques for the cello, like double stops and pizzicato.

Its an interesting piece, and I have to see more developments!

Quote

Its really reminiscent of Beethoven, with the rather dark themes.

I do agree there needs to be some variation. And yes a change in register may help, like make the piano go much lower, if you like. I also suggest that the piano can take up parts of the cello, so as not to just make it a mere accompaniment. You can also consider more techniques for the cello, like double stops and pizzicato.

Beethoven was also obsessed with those dotted rhythms that you use in this.  It's just a shame that you use the dotted rhythms so insistently only in the piano without letting the cello see any of that in its part.  Another technique that you might consider using on the cello is spiccato.  But in order to do that you would have had to write some sixteenth-note runs for it or maybe employ that dotted rhythm in its part.  Either way there is still plenty of rhythmic variation you could apply to this and maybe some faster motivic ideas.

Here the second movement. I had it finished already some time ago but I had no time to post it here as I was away from home. The second movement is a slow movement in ABA form in wich B is a Theme and Variations. Sorry that this movement does not fulfill many of the points you told me I should include in my music (as double stops, more counterpoint, pizzicato, rythmic variation, piano immportance or cello spiccato) but I promise that my last movement does include many of the things. The last movement will be in a hellenistic rondo concluding with a fugue.

Here the second movement:

Finally this poject is finished. Here the final movement wich consists a ABA structure followed by a fugue (Just warning, It does not have more than two mesures that do not break a rule) and finally a C section. I hope you enjoy and feedback would be apreciated.

And here the pdf and audio of the last movement. (The fugue starts at 2:20 of the mp3 file) :