Mood River - for solo piano

1 hour ago, Sahir Haider said:

The title "Mood River" suggests flowing through various different moods, and sometimes even moving between subtle shades of the same or similar moods.

I think you succeeded in that undertaking.  It definitely feels like the unstoppable onslaught of water through your constant driving ostinato rhythms.  I once wrote a piece for piano in this kind of style and showed it to my composition teacher and he said "why don't you try writing something un-metered?"  I was kind of flabbergasted by that but it made sense.  I have yet to write an un-metered piece but I understand that even with all of the rhythmic variety that I (and you in this piece) employ, there's a kind of exhaustion that one experiences in listening to something that is constantly so busy.  Also the sound of the piano does not sustain for a sufficiently long enough time to make some of your melodic statements seem connected.  On the whole this piece also does not seem very thematically unified.  You certainly seem to be quite an accomplished pianist for being self-taught though.  For an example of a piano piece that still manages to have a very lucid and connected melody despite many arpeggiations and complex figurations listen to Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit - Ondine (ironically this piece is also concerned with portraying water).  Overall it was still an enjoyable musical adventure!  Thanks for sharing!

2 hours ago, PaperComposer said:

I think you succeeded in that undertaking.  It definitely feels like the unstoppable onslaught of water through your constant driving ostinato rhythms

Thank you ! 🙂  I'm happy to hear that you think I've succeeded in what I was trying to do here. 

2 hours ago, PaperComposer said:

I have yet to write an un-metered piece but I understand that even with all of the rhythmic variety that I (and you in this piece) employ, there's a kind of exhaustion that one experiences in listening to something that is constantly so busy. 

 I don't think I intended it to be so "busy" when I set out to compose it. It just got composed that way haha..  I rely primarily on intuition and my experience at the piano while composing. I understand though that some parts may sound too busy to some.

2 hours ago, PaperComposer said:

Also the sound of the piano does not sustain for a sufficiently long enough time to make some of your melodic statements seem connected.

This, I'm aware of. There are definitely imperfections in the recording ..And I play on a mid of the line digital piano... It does what it can. I'd like to have recorded this on a Steinway grand or something.  But I won't blame it all on the piano 😄 , the pedalling required for the correct sustain in certain sections is quite tricky to pull off too and I probably messed up here and there.

2 hours ago, PaperComposer said:

On the whole this piece also does not seem very thematically unified.  You certainly seem to be quite an accomplished pianist for being self-taught though.  For an example of a piano piece that still manages to have a very lucid and connected melody despite many arpeggiations and complex figurations listen to Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit - Ondine (ironically this piece is also concerned with portraying water).  Overall it was still an enjoyable musical adventure!  Thanks for sharing!

  I do have to mention that's exactly what I wanted though.  Maybe that sounds odd, but it was the idea of contrasting themes that still flow or lead  smoothly into each other but in a "one directional flow" kind of way, is what I was going for.  I was actually quite sure of receiving this criticism 😄 .  But yes, I purposely didn't use the common methods often used for achieving "thematic unification".  For a piece that does that though (atleast I was told it does that ! ), please listen to my previous piece "The drifting waltz" on my channel.    

Ravel is my favourite composer. I've played Ondine and I could not dream of achieving that level of awesomeness and perfection haha.  ( I have a performance of his Jeux d'eau on my channel too if you'd like to hear).  I must have heard Gaspard de la Nuit countless times, its an absolutely untouchable masterpiece. Us mortals can only aspire to that level. Ravel has talked about how his first goal was achieving technical perfection.  He certainly did or got as close to it as a human could ! 

I want to really thank you for your critique.  Its always nice to get some detailed feedback. Gives me something to work with.  I'm glad you still enjoyed the pieces despite its imperfections 🙂  

Very accomplished, and amazingly played. Did you say you were completely self-taught? So no piano lessons?

Got the feeling that your piece could lend itself very well to full orchestra, where you'd have proper sustaining instruments and could bring out the melody with greater impact. Just like some of Debussy's pieces appear both for piano and orchestra. Just a thought though. One critique (if I may) is that your ostinatos are generally in the same area middle of the piano for the whole piece, maybe be nice if you expanded them up and down a bit for variety. Loving your jazz harmonies and plus the simplicity of your melody. Brilliant how you've done the video too, very eyecatching! Must have taken you some time. Thankyou very much for sharing Sahir, wish you all the best.

Mike

6 hours ago, Mikebat321 said:

Very accomplished, and amazingly played. Did you say you were completely self-taught? So no piano lessons?

Thank you so much Mike !  I should elaborate on the "self-taught". I'm completely self-taught as far as music theory and composition goes.  I started teaching myself these about a couple years ago, although at an intuitive level I knew some of those things from having played/improvising/composing at the piano for many years before that.

For piano, I'd say 99 percent self taught ( If i had to put a number to it ! ). I took some piano lessons for a few months at a point of time when I was already playing my favourite pieces by Ravel , Debussy, etc. So, by that time my technique was sufficiently well developed ( although obviously flawed as it still as today). I say 99 percent because my classes focussed mostly on things like interpretation and musical phrasing regarding the specific pieces I was playing at the time and not so much on general technique/keyboard skills itself. I would've continued my classes  but I lost my job back then, had to move back to a different city and for one reason or the other never took lessons again.  So really most of my piano learning has come on my own and from spending a crazy amount of time listening to the great recordings of the past... and spending a crazy amount of time at the piano.   I should mention I'm a terrible sight reader though as I learnt piano by ear first for many years.

6 hours ago, Mikebat321 said:

Got the feeling that your piece could lend itself very well to full orchestra, where you'd have proper sustaining instruments and could bring out the melody with greater impact. Just like some of Debussy's pieces appear both for piano and orchestra. Just a thought though.

I'm glad you pointed this out. The thought has occurred to me. I just started teaching myself orchestration  last year ( using Sam Adler's book and some of my favourite scores by the likes of Ravel, Stravinsky etc).  I already have ideas regarding the instrumentations of certain sections.  But not having orchestrated before, I think I might start with a simpler piece first. But yes, I totally agree with you that I should orchestrate it. 

6 hours ago, Mikebat321 said:

One critique (if I may) is that your ostinatos are generally in the same area middle of the piano for the whole piece, maybe be nice if you expanded them up and down a bit for variety.

I understand your point. Its true most of the ostinatos are in the middle register, and I'll consider that for future pieces ( or if I create a revised version later), to perhaps add more variety on that front.   This is helpful !

6 hours ago, Mikebat321 said:

Loving your jazz harmonies and plus the simplicity of your melody. Brilliant how you've done the video too, very eyecatching! Must have taken you some time. Thankyou very much for sharing Sahir, wish you all the best.

Thank you again ! I'm glad to hear you liked my harmonies/melodies.  I put a lot of thought ( and time) into these.  And yes, the video took me a lot of time to make too. The entire process of composing this piece, learning the harder parts, writing out the score properly and the final video editing.. I'd say took me around 8-9 months..  I guess I work at a painfully slow rate 😄 .