Broccoli No. 2 (Waltz in G Major)

a waltz I composed 

I think it's a great impromptu-like waltz but sometimes it seems like you're just cycling through various harmonies without a specific target/purpose in mind for your harmonic changes (not always though - sometimes your melody does lead the harmonic changes and I like that).  The melodies/themes you use are very nice and often stress the extensions of any given chord which gives them a certain kind of beauty.  The middle section around 1:36 seemed weak in comparison to the other material in the piece.  When you stop all motion and restart slowly it kind of threw me off because there didn't seem to be a good musical reason for doing this (although I guess it does create a much needed rhythmic contrast).  I like the extended ending.  Overall I kind of like this style of piano music - it reminds me of the "build" music from The Sims.  It's got a very catchy and care-free character which makes one able to listen to it for a long time without getting bored.  Thanks for sharing!

On 4/3/2021 at 10:31 PM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

 but sometimes it seems like you're just cycling through various harmonies without a specific target/purpose in mind for your harmonic changes 

 

Where is an example of when it does this, and an example of when the melody leads the harmony? It makes sense now that I . I usually knew the harmonies I was gonna use for a part before I started working on the melody for that part. I knew the first part was gonna only use I and IV chords. When I added the E minor section, I knew the E minor section would lead back to G major through a IV-iv-iii-vi-ii-V-I progression, before I created the melody that goes with the progression. I knew the Eb major section was gonna go through ii-V-I progressions, and then go to an unexpected ii-V-II, before I made the melody. And later I realized that the last note of the first 4 note phrase established at 0:48 was the tonic of the V chord that leads to the keycenter a major third away. I decided to utilize this and cycle between those major third distanced keycenters at 1:00. (Aka, Coltrane Changes).

I think it makes sense that you called this an impromptu-like waltz. The way I usually compose is basically improvisation in stop time. "Underwater" which I posted a couple months ago? I have no idea what I even played now, It was just playing an idea that I had played a few times before recording. In this instance, a lot of these melodies were created from me just playing over melodies. (not in the recording, I already set the melodies in stone before I recorded, this is just how I created them). Anyways, thanks for listening.

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14 minutes ago, jejrekmek said:

Where is an example of when it does this, and an example of when the melody leads the harmony?

A place where it seems like you arrive at a harmony that you struggle to get out of:  0:41 - 0:44.  A somewhat contrived sounding transition:  1:42 - 1:45.  A place where you seem to just cycle through chords:  2:21 - 2:30.  All the other places it seems like you lead the harmonic changes with the melody.  Of course - this is just my opinion.

3 minutes ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

  A place where you seem to just cycle through chords:  2:21 - 2:30.  

 

Yeah, at 2:16 I followed what sounded to me like a logical sequence of chords, but then I got trapped into a modulation to F# major, and I didn't want to go there, so I played some arpeggiated chords that don't make sense logically that lead up to the light high pitched piano plucks, which was actually inspired from the Maple Leaf Rag (see measures 7-12). I actually like how there's this buildup of these loud, jarring chord changes, and then all of a sudden it's followed by these light bouncy notes.

This was fun to listen to. I liked a lot the lightness from 1:10 to around 1:50; and 2:30 to 2:36.

On 4/4/2021 at 1:02 PM, David_DLM said:

This was fun to listen to. I liked a lot the lightness from 1:10 to around 1:50; and 2:30 to 2:36.

 

Thanks