Minuet and trio (recorded on Yamaha Arius)

I added a trio to the minuet i composed recently. I found recording myself playing gave me performance anxiety and caused continuous mistakes. It was quite frustrating but I managed to get a somewhat decent recording with only a couple of minor mistakes.

The minuet is Haydnesque but I experimented with the trio. I used doubled thirds to sound like a trumpet fanfare which is answered by the strings. A back and forth ensues which leads to a waltz like dance over a tonic pedal.

I bought a book of minuet and trios recently by Haydn. In the first two minuet and trios of the book Haydn keeps the same key throughout the minuet and trio which i thought was unusual but uses tonicisations to add colour. I did the same and modulated briefly from F major to G minor in the B section of the trio rather than the relative minor to add more tension with the A section trumpet motif. I'm not 100% sure the trio works but I spent hours at the piano trying out many different approaches to create something new. 

In the score, one thing to note that bars 4 and 17 have two accidentals that are overlapping which obscures what they are, a B natural and an A flat. 

It sounds delightful and with a strong structure. It has also catchy motifs, the way Haydn used to write, like what sound in measure 32 - 33....

It sounds very nice! The contrast between the minuet and the trio is maybe a bit much. I enjoyed the minuet more, it seems you have a good technical grasp on the style. The  trio sounds good too tho, and has enough elements that are reminescent of the minuet to not sound "detached" from it.

Very nicely written piece anyway. And your playing sound good to me if it makes you feel better 🙂

I love it! I particularly enjoyed the melodies from this piece a lot. I also liked the contrast created by the modulation to Gmin. As I said when I listened to the variations, you clearly have improved so much and it seems like creating nice melodies (even modulating melodies) has become second nature to you. Really nice! Oh! And I think you play it really nicely!! (I wish I could play piano like that!) 😅 Really nice to see you playing you own pieces!

Really nice! The melodies are catchy, and the voice-leading is very well crafted. Congrats!

Really great job!  I think the modulation to G minor is convincing and it also happens to be a key which is easy to utilize to bring you back to F major.  I think the trio has the proper characteristics and I can imagine trumpets and horns playing in octaves.  Thanks for sharing and looking forward to more!

10 hours ago, Coxi said:

It sounds very nice! The contrast between the minuet and the trio is maybe a bit much. I enjoyed the minuet more, it seems you have a good technical grasp on the style. The  trio sounds good too tho, and has enough elements that are reminescent of the minuet to not sound "detached" from it.

Very nicely written piece anyway. And your playing sound good to me if it makes you feel better 🙂

 

Thank you Coxi. I think you're right, the contrast between the two sections may be a bit too much, there are motifs I brought over from the minuet into the trio but I think it'll take practice to get a good balance of unity and variety. 

8 hours ago, JorgeDavid said:

I love it! I particularly enjoyed the melodies from this piece a lot. I also liked the contrast created by the modulation to Gmin. As I said when I listened to the variations, you clearly have improved so much and it seems like creating nice melodies (even modulating melodies) has become second nature to you. Really nice! Oh! And I think you play it really nicely!! (I wish I could play piano like that!) 😅 Really nice to see you playing you own pieces!

 

Thank you, Jorge. Im still relatively a beginner on the piano, I still can't play mozarts K545 and thats described as facile. Ha ha.

I first wrote the g minor section in d minor which sounded ok but the doubled thirds were either too high or to low depending on how i placed them and g minor is much closer to f major in register not to mention easier to modulate into and out of f major from g minor. 

Im glad you think I'm improving!