1st Sonata - Mvt. 3 (Finale)

3rd and final movement of my first sonata. I wanted to end it heriocally in a victorious tone. Constructive criticism is appreciated. There are some enharmonic issues with the score I will fix when I upload the full sonata.

3 hours ago, ComposedBySam said:

3rd and final movement of my first sonata. I wanted to end it heriocally in a victorious tone. Constructive criticism is appreciated. There are some enharmonic issues with the score I will fix when I upload the full sonata.

 

It certainly is heroic, how it goes from the mystery turning into drama of the minor key to the glorious key of F major. Once again, I am reminded of the Pathetique Sonata, this time because of the octave alternations going on in both hands. It also sort of reminds me of the Appassionata Sonata with just how much is in the bass. I happen to have started a heroic piece about a month ago and this one's a biggie for me, it means my dream as a composer is so close now. It's taken 4 years to go from conception of the idea to the start of the execution of said idea. It's my first symphony and I posted about it a couple days ago here:

My dream as a composer is to write a piano concerto, and if I can compose a symphony, I know I'm very close to achieving said dream. Anyway, I love all the movements of your sonata and I think they go well together as well as working well individually.

2 hours ago, caters said:

It certainly is heroic, how it goes from the mystery turning into drama of the minor key to the glorious key of F major. Once again, I am reminded of the Pathetique Sonata, this time because of the octave alternations going on in both hands. It also sort of reminds me of the Appassionata Sonata with just how much is in the bass. I happen to have started a heroic piece about a month ago and this one's a biggie for me, it means my dream as a composer is so close now. It's taken 4 years to go from conception of the idea to the start of the execution of said idea. It's my first symphony and I posted about it a couple days ago here:

My dream as a composer is to write a piano concerto, and if I can compose a symphony, I know I'm very close to achieving said dream. Anyway, I love all the movements of your sonata and I think they go well together as well as working well individually.

 

I appreciate your wonderful feedback and thank you for taking the time to listen to all 3 movements of my first sonata. 

I listened to the introduction of your first symphony and it is really good! I think the structure works and the canon figure is well written. It certainly feels heroic and reminded me of the introduction of Beethoven's 7th symphony, that is the textures with the starting block chords in fortissimo. The marching theme following it works well and is well structured! Keep writing! I shall listen when you complete the symphony!

10 hours ago, ComposedBySam said:

I appreciate your wonderful feedback and thank you for taking the time to listen to all 3 movements of my first sonata. 

I listened to the introduction of your first symphony and it is really good! I think the structure works and the canon figure is well written. It certainly feels heroic and reminded me of the introduction of Beethoven's 7th symphony, that is the textures with the starting block chords in fortissimo. The marching theme following it works well and is well structured! Keep writing! I shall listen when you complete the symphony!

 

Thanks. There is a Beethoven inspiration behind my symphony, but it’s actually his third symphony, the Eroica that inspired me to compose this symphony.

1 minute ago, caters said:

Thanks. There is a Beethoven inspiration behind my symphony, but it’s actually his third symphony, the Eroica that inspired me to compose this symphony.

 

Ah! I can see now!

The first thing that strikes me as strange in watching this score video isn't really about the music.  I just don't understand why you establish the key signature of F minor to then switch to G# minor.  Ab minor (besides being the butt of a cruel joke about a minor falling down a mine shaft) isn't really that bad.  If it were my piece I would prefer to use flats for as long as possible since they're already part of the key signature and the piece is tonal.  If the piece juxtaposed more distant tonalities next to each other frequent switching between flats and sharps might be excusable.  Having Cb's as part of the piece isn't a pet peeve for me - just be consistent.  Speaking of which - later on in the piece you do use flats more exclusively and the piece looks that much better for it.  What irks me in the beginning is that you could have easily avoided lots of double sharps by just notating the piece using flats.

Now about the music.  I feel like your greatest strength is your treatment of the thematic material in the development section and with all the canonic imitation.  The weakness of the piece is in the lack of an adequate exposition.  Very often in the beginning it feels like the music is just marking time and cycling through chords without an everpresent theme to guide the progression.  That's really what's holding it back from being a very lucid and more involving listening experience.  The exposition sections of sonatas usually have the task of introducing the listener to thematic material which is why they usually err on the side of simplicity.  The development on the other hand, in contrast to the exposition, has more free reign to be complex and explore different keys and variations of the thematic material.  But I feel like your piece has this relationship sort of backwards where the exposition is too complex to really hook the listener and have them commit to the concept of the piece.  The development section on the other hand has thematic material inside of it that is treated in an expository manner rather than using developmental episodes and sequences to create complexity and harmonic interest.

That's just how I see the piece though.  The themes themselves are nonetheless entertaining.  Thanks for sharing!

On 1/12/2022 at 6:22 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

The first thing that strikes me as strange in watching this score video isn't really about the music.  I just don't understand why you establish the key signature of F minor to then switch to G# minor.  Ab minor (besides being the butt of a cruel joke about a minor falling down a mine shaft) isn't really that bad.  If it were my piece I would prefer to use flats for as long as possible since they're already part of the key signature and the piece is tonal.  If the piece juxtaposed more distant tonalities next to each other frequent switching between flats and sharps might be excusable.  Having Cb's as part of the piece isn't a pet peeve for me - just be consistent.  Speaking of which - later on in the piece you do use flats more exclusively and the piece looks that much better for it.  What irks me in the beginning is that you could have easily avoided lots of double sharps by just notating the piece using flats.

Now about the music.  I feel like your greatest strength is your treatment of the thematic material in the development section and with all the canonic imitation.  The weakness of the piece is in the lack of an adequate exposition.  Very often in the beginning it feels like the music is just marking time and cycling through chords without an everpresent theme to guide the progression.  That's really what's holding it back from being a very lucid and more involving listening experience.  The exposition sections of sonatas usually have the task of introducing the listener to thematic material which is why they usually err on the side of simplicity.  The development on the other hand, in contrast to the exposition, has more free reign to be complex and explore different keys and variations of the thematic material.  But I feel like your piece has this relationship sort of backwards where the exposition is too complex to really hook the listener and have them commit to the concept of the piece.  The development section on the other hand has thematic material inside of it that is treated in an expository manner rather than using developmental episodes and sequences to create complexity and harmonic interest.

That's just how I see the piece though.  The themes themselves are nonetheless entertaining.  Thanks for sharing!

 

This is like the perfect description I think. Even I think the exposition was lacking in clarity and coherence and so I tried to tie in together the piece as a whole concept except of concentrating on individual qualities which make up a sonata. It has been a while after I composed this and you're right. Sometimes it feels like the music is just there for the sake of cycling chord progressions like the introductions of the first and third movements without having an everpresent theme. I think it was experimental although I can't remember why I composed it that way. I was obsessed with the idea of the theme just emerging out of nothing just like how a "Phoenix" rises from the ashes just like nothing. So that explains the unconventional exposition. That being said I do acknowledge that this sonata has instances which could have been made more interesting. Thanks for listening!