The Ambulance Waltz

Hi everyone!

A few weeks ago an ambulance passed by the street where I live, and I was kind of inspired by the "sound" of its siren (if you are curious about how italian ambulances sound, I leave here a link: https://youtu.be/V_cBeUij0Jk). I tried to make something more graceful and joyful out of it, and I came up with a waltz. I - logically - called it "The Ambulance waltz" (or Waltz no. 118, as the italian emergency number).

The first bar is the exposition of the "source", which is a 6th interval: it is playable ad lib. like a "cadenza" (and as such there's no time references). Then, in the first section you'll hear the main theme in Cmaj, based on the same 6th interval. The modulating passage also comes from the same idea, and it brings to the second section: a variation of the main theme where the 6th interval is presented first inverted, and then in minor (the expressive mark is "crying, as a lamentation"). The third section is basically the reprise of the main theme, even though with some variations and, finally, there's a short and calm coda ending the piece.

Here there are the sheet music and a recording of me playing it (please forgive me fot the mistakes and the variations I made from the sheet).

Hope you'll like it! And obv, tell me what you think and if you've got any suggestion to make it better.

Thanks!

This was quite an ingenious idea!  And the interval you use didn't necessarily have to stay at a 6th to carry the same associations that you establish in the beginning which you took full advantage of.  I noticed that you omitted some of the notes in your performance (and not necessarily because of difficulty because it seemed like many of the notes you omitted were quite easy to play).  I liked the melodies you created.  They were quite charming.  Thanks for sharing!

2 hours ago, PaperComposer said:

This was quite an ingenious idea!  And the interval you use didn't necessarily have to stay at a 6th to carry the same associations that you establish in the beginning which you took full advantage of.  I noticed that you omitted some of the notes in your performance (and not necessarily because of difficulty because it seemed like many of the notes you omitted were quite easy to play).  I liked the melodies you created.  They were quite charming.  Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks a lot!
Yup, I omitted some notes: that's because I had first recorded my performance and then transcribed it, changing some armonies and adding some notes but I couldn't play it right now. I didn't upload the final MIDI version as it was difficult to distinguish the melody from the accompainment in it.

Anyway, thanks again! I am thinking about some way to develop it, maybe a different second theme (with just some glimpses of the main one).

2 hours ago, composerfeb said:

 

 

I indeed took the inspiration from Alma 🙂

youre literally chopin man.. nice

1 hour ago, Left Unexplained said:

youre literally chopin man.. nice

 

You're litterally exaggerating lol 🙂
Thanks a lot man

Pretty good, loved the modulations and the developtment that you made for the melody.

This is incredible

Very good idea and very nice result!

Best wishes!

This waltz is a nice piece to hear, and I like how you get the inspiration to compose this music. I enjoyed the waltz very much, but this piece has great room for improvement, especially how you harmonized the melodies. There is no problem with the chord progressions (cadences); however, the chords sound too distant, making the accompaniment less smooth. For example, you used a iib chord in bar 5, with the bass note being F3 and the tenor and alto being A3 and D4, respectively. In the next bar (bar 6), I would expect the tenor and alto to be B3 and D4. In your case, you used B2 and F3, which sound too distant from the notes in the previous bar.

A good example of smooth voicing is seen in bars 38-39 (although I suggest that you omit the note D4 in the left-hand part in bar 39) and bars 61-62. One of my favourite parts of this waltz is from bars 70-71, where the harmony is smooth (the F-natural should be an E-sharp), but in bar 72, the A-note is missing in the F-sharp minor tonic chord. In most of the chords, the third is an indispensable note because it determines whether the chord is major or minor. To illustrate this statement, we will look at the C major tonic triad, whose third is an E, while in the C minor tonic triad, the third is an E-flat. Try not to omit the tonic and the third in major and minor chords (although you may occasionally omit the fifth) unless you know your intentions.

Overall, this waltz is an enjoyable piece. I really liked the arpeggio in bars 27, 104, and 135: they moved me a lot. I look forward to listening to your other pieces!