Ballade in E-flat minor, Op. 14

The Ballade in E-flat minor was written in 2021. Though it is written for solo piano, I had intended to write it for piano and orchestra, and may make a version of it for this ensemble in the future. The piece is about 8 minutes long.

I hope you all enjoy it 🙂

Thanks for commenting, @Pierre dbss! I'm glad my piece made an effect on you!

I did not intend for the harmonies to be too strange, but I did want to try to express certain emotions that were different from I usually put in my music. Otherwise, I thought they were pretty standard late-romantic harmonies alla Rachmaninov or Scriabin. Still, I'm glad you enjoyed them all the same!

I'm glad you noticed the picture! No, the music is not related to the picture, but when I saw the picture among my photographs, I thought it went really well with the piece, so I added it to the video.

Thanks! I took lessons before, but I mostly consider myself stylistically self-taught. I've been composing for about 10 years, finally getting a grasp of it about 6 years ago.

The piece is quite beautiful. The romantic/somewhat impressionistic style creates a beautiful atmosphere for you to develop your melodies. I agree with Pierre regarding re: ballad, it sounds like a wonderful fantasy. 

1. The opening is quite striking, in terms of ballad, slow and melancholic. I really enjoy the harmony -- and rhythm -- to this opening. It also lets me know that I'm in for piece of considerable length.

2. The build up around 3 to 4 mins is quite exciting and really leads quite nicely to that cadence at 3:50. Wonderful writing there.

3. Really enjoy the interplay in voices at 5:00 to 5:20ish. It quite clearly takes on a romantic flavor over impressionistic, reminiscent of some of Rachmaninov's brilliant writing. I almost think this could be a really cool first movement to a piano concerto (it's already a great stand alone piece).

4. I almost wish you do a straight repeat or slight variation on the opening to end this piece. The opening is just that strong, nonetheless, bravo, an exceedingly good piano work that I would bet lots of pianist would be interested in playing.

Thank you @Morgri! I'm glad you liked my piece!

2 hours ago, Morgri said:

I almost think this could be a really cool first movement to a piano concerto (it's already a great stand alone piece).

I actually was considering making this a piano-and-orchestra piece, and still may do it some time, but it would probably be a stand alone piece.

Thanks again for taking the time to listen and comment!

You're always the first account I visit when I sign in here, which doesn't happen often these days (not because the site is bad, but because life has taken a different direction for me). Looks like you've been busy! As with all the other works you've posted here, I find this very impressive - both the work and performance. My personal musical leanings lie more with your earlier musical voice, but what I think really doesn't matter. It's clear that you are leaning very much to the Russian late romantic style, and we all must write what speaks to us personally.

For the same reason, I feel there is little sense in criticizing. Anything I say would merely be reflecting my own musical tastes; certainly there isn't anything technical that is in need of correction. You know what you're doing. So instead, I will simply thank you for sharing this with us. This is something I find we, as a musical community, don't do often enough.

5 hours ago, pianist_1981 said:

You're always the first account I visit when I sign in here, which doesn't happen often these days (not because the site is bad, but because life has taken a different direction for me). Looks like you've been busy! As with all the other works you've posted here, I find this very impressive - both the work and performance. My personal musical leanings lie more with your earlier musical voice, but what I think really doesn't matter. It's clear that you are leaning very much to the Russian late romantic style, and we all must write what speaks to us personally.

For the same reason, I feel there is little sense in criticizing. Anything I say would merely be reflecting my own musical tastes; certainly there isn't anything technical that is in need of correction. You know what you're doing. So instead, I will simply thank you for sharing this with us. This is something I find we, as a musical community, don't do often enough.

It's quite an honor for you to say so, @pianist_1981! I'm very glad you like my Ballade, even if it does vary slightly from your tastes (though I try to remain traditional and conservative all the same). And I also thank you for sharing your lovely music with us as well, it really makes my day to hear your music. 🙂

Incredible Servin. As always I love your pieces, you are talented and ingenious. This piece achieves its goal, perfectly composed. Thanks for sharing!

All I've heard about you has been late romantic russian, so I hope someday I can hear something baroque, classical or just different from you. Though if you just feel better sticking to this, that's also perfectly respetable.

Thank you, @J.Santos! I'm glad you liked my piece!

I used to write more Baroque/Classical style pieces when I was much younger. I might like to make something in a neo-Baroque style sometime, perhaps like a sort of modern retelling of it, but still remaining true to the style. I'll probably continue writing in the romantic style for now, but maybe in the near future I'll feel the need to try it out.

Stunning work. I don't really know how to describe it, but your pieces just sound alive. Can you  send me the score on PM?

23 hours ago, jejrekmek said:

Stunning work. I don't really know how to describe it, but your pieces just sound alive. Can you  send me the score on PM?

Many thanks! I'll send you the score over PM. I really should comment on this site more!

Really strong opening passage. I found it very moving, and it immediately hooked me into the piece.

Reminds me of some of Chopin's best openings.

Later it sounded more like Liszt or Rachmaninov. 

I would also like to get the score (It would be cool if you posted it here, just a suggestion :B).

I stumbled upon your ballade in this forum and I'm grateful. A truly beautiful opening followed by several minutes of those magnificent arpeggios and subtle left and right hand melodies that feel like a pulse that keeps accelerating and decelerating up to a calm near min 4 where things start to build up into a final climax around min 6 that in turn diffuses after a few seconds, in a calming void that resembles the very first bars of this piece. I enjoyed it very much, listened to it twice already.

Have you played it yourself? Or is it a "digital interpretation"? Because it sounds so natural yet hella difficult! My kudos in any case.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

Absolutely amazing!. I listened other of your work, and to be honest, it is not easy to find this quality of music, at least what I personally consider good music. Keep the great and expressive work!.

6 hours ago, Alex Weidmann said:

Really strong opening passage. I found it very moving, and it immediately hooked me into the piece.

Reminds me of some of Chopin's best openings.

Later it sounded more like Liszt or Rachmaninov. 

3 hours ago, Donethur said:

Absolutely amazing!. I listened other of your work, and to be honest, it is not easy to find this quality of music, at least what I personally consider good music. Keep the great and expressive work!.

Thank you both very much!

4 hours ago, Omicronrg9 said:

I would also like to get the score (It would be cool if you posted it here, just a suggestion :B).

I stumbled upon your ballade in this forum and I'm grateful. A truly beautiful opening followed by several minutes of those magnificent arpeggios and subtle left and right hand melodies that feel like a pulse that keeps accelerating and decelerating up to a calm near min 4 where things start to build up into a final climax around min 6 that in turn diffuses after a few seconds, in a calming void that resembles the very first bars of this piece. I enjoyed it very much, listened to it twice already.

Have you played it yourself? Or is it a "digital interpretation"? Because it sounds so natural yet hella difficult! My kudos in any case.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment! It is indeed my own performance, not a digital rendition. And I'll send you a PDF privately.

1 hour ago, Theodore Servin said:

Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment! It is indeed my own performance, not a digital rendition. And I'll send you a PDF privately.

You have pretty sick piano skills then! I am an accordionist so I'm most probably nowhere near the level required to play (yet :e) it, hell I cannot even play my own pieces, but I'll enjoy reading it while playing the video that's for sure. 

Thank you for the early reply!

I'd also be interested to see the score; though I don't think I'll be able to master those octave passages near the end!

Theodore,

Wow! This piece is riveting, and I can hear how deeply felt the performance is.

I'm so taken with the impressionistic harmonies. My favorite moment was around 3:18. Your dynamic transitions between "stormy" passages and more subdued moments seem effortless as well as your sense of meter -- speaking as someone who feels constricted by metric 'sameness' lately. 😄

Have you made any moves toward orchestrating this? I have some experience and practice with writing for large, Romantic-style orchestra, and from what I've seen you've mostly written chamber or solo piano works, so if you're still considering this project and would ever like some advice, I would be happy to offer my best help. In any case, it would be lovely to hear another arrangement/rendition of this very strong material.
 

Thank you for sharing!

On 2/9/2023 at 9:07 PM, Gwendolyn Przyjazna said:

Theodore,

Wow! This piece is riveting, and I can hear how deeply felt the performance is.

I'm so taken with the impressionistic harmonies. My favorite moment was around 3:18. Your dynamic transitions between "stormy" passages and more subdued moments seem effortless as well as your sense of meter -- speaking as someone who feels constricted by metric 'sameness' lately. 😄

Have you made any moves toward orchestrating this? I have some experience and practice with writing for large, Romantic-style orchestra, and from what I've seen you've mostly written chamber or solo piano works, so if you're still considering this project and would ever like some advice, I would be happy to offer my best help. In any case, it would be lovely to hear another arrangement/rendition of this very strong material.
 

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for your kind words! I'm glad you liked the piece and the performance!

Regarding the meter(s) of the piece, this piece (along with my Fantasy-Variations Op. 12) was one of my first to use frequently-changing time signatures, as up till then I had also been pretty strict about meteric "sameness".

No, I haven't made any attempts to orchestrate the Ballade yet. I might still try sometime, but it's not something I've been planning on doing just yet. However, I do think it would still work well as a short concerto...

Hope you're doing well! It's been quite a long while since I've commented here!

Hello @Theodore Servin,

It's really the first time I've seen you post here! I always like your late romantic style and live performance of your own pieces. Your style is really flowing and very charming!

I actually notice your music first in youtube, and thanks to your videos I am able to discover this great forum! Thank you for that. 

1 hour ago, Theodore Servin said:

Hope you're doing well! It's been quite a long while since I've commented here!

Will you have some pieces recently completed and share them here?🤔 I will be very excited if you do!

Thanks for sharing!

Henry