Scherzo and Variations for Piano and Orchestra (revised & with score)

Hello everyone!  I have finally revised my Scherzo and Variations for Piano and Orchestra in MuseScore 3!  I composed this piece on paper back around April when the corona-virus quarantine first hit.  I imported the midi I made on my old machine into MuseScore and revised it and published a score (although admittedly - it's still not perfect).  Thank you to everyone who showed an interest in this piece even with the poor quality of my old mp3 - you've given me the motivation I needed to do this revision!

FYI:  Each section of this piece is followed by a solo piano cadenza-like part.  The Scherzo theme is in 6/8.  Variation I is in 2/4.  Variation II uses irregular meters and frequent meter changes.  Variation III is a slow 3/4 version of the theme.  Variation IV is in 2/4.  Variation V is the finale and is a fast 2/4 version of the theme.  It explores the triplet idea in fast runs up and down the keyboard.  I didn't write this piece to be particularly difficult nor virtuosic but the final variation is the most difficult and there are moments in the other variations that are difficult.

I welcome your criticisms, feedback or observations!  I personally think that Variation IV is the weakest harmonically and the contra-bassoon part is a little boring.  Let me know what you think though and thanks for listening!

For the old, lower quality version of this piece go here:  

a seasoned composer who knows exactly what hes doing, when he's doing it. I envy that. Very bright and colorful piece and orchestration. Love how its always moving around quickly.

Nice piece that has a unique style and sound to it. I like the textures!

The one thing I can think of is that it's a bit hard to hear the different passages playing at the same time. Like it sounds a bit muddy, might be the MIDI sounds also. How about panning the instruments just a bit (Right and Left), so the sound gets more separated. I don't know if that would work? And see what reverb is on the sound. In this case, perhaps dry is better than a room reverb, for instance.

7 hours ago, Olov said:

Nice piece that has a unique style and sound to it. I like the textures!

Thank you!  I am glad to hear that you found my style in this piece unique.  When composing, I felt like my melodies were inspired a bit too much by video-game music but I think I orchestrated it quite differently than that.

7 hours ago, Olov said:

The one thing I can think of is that it's a bit hard to hear the different passages playing at the same time. Like it sounds a bit muddy, might be the MIDI sounds also. How about panning the instruments just a bit (Right and Left), so the sound gets more separated. I don't know if that would work? And see what reverb is on the sound. In this case, perhaps dry is better than a room reverb, for instance.

I think you're totally right about all that - I just do not have the capability to do anything about this currently with MuseScore 3.  I am hoping however, that when MuseScore 4 comes out some of these capabilities will be added to the program as it will be both a notation program and a sequencer simultaneously from what I heard.  Thanks for your input!

Hi @PeterthePapercomPoser,

I greatly enjoy this light-hearted piece!

You theme is itself varied with the modulations and the contrast of solo and tutti. That provides much materials for later variation! Var. 1 offers slight variation to the theme which is great for the overall structure of the piece since it can remind you what the theme is like more. I love variation 2 with its alternating meter as rhythm usage! Very broad var. 3 after the funny var.2. Using the oboe for sure gives some pastoral sense to it! The augurs of piccolo in var.4 is great, and with the shorter 2/4 time signature the music is more lively here. I love the polyrhythm in b.226! Var.5 is so humorous with the chromatic and minor flavour. It even reminds me of Gershwin or Nino Rota here with some of the magical sound, and the ending is funny and satisfying to this overall light hearted and cheerful piece!

I don't have anything to say regarding counterpoint or orchestration since they are always great.

The flat for the trill in b.43 should be put above the "tr" sign to denote the Bb, but I am sure it's the MuseScore issue!

I really hope the pause between the variations can be reduced though! Those pauses do put me off a little bit with how flowing the music is!

Thanks for sharing and I will keep listening and reviewing your music here if I have time!!

Henry

Really lovely piece of music, it has a good energetic feel to it. I particularly liked the piano part right around 3:40.

 The only thing that threw me off were the pauses. A couple of them felt like the music just randomly stopped and then started going again.

 Other than that I really liked it!