Two Sententia for Flute Op. 342

These is my "Two Sententia for Flute Op. 342". It is my first set of sententiae for the flute. I have composed 9 soliloques for the flute, but until now no set of sententiae. The sententia is described on the title page. I reproduce my description of it below for your convenience:

"The 'sententia' is a musical form I originated in 2013. The word 'sententia' (plural: 'sententiae') is the Latin for the word 'sentence'. The Oxford dictionary defines 'sententia' as "A pithy or memorable saying, a maxim, an aphorism, an epigram; a thought, a reflection." For me a 'sententia' is a musical utterance of a thought that is complete in itself, like a sentence. It is also an utterance that finds no need for any elaboration or development. Hence my sententiae  are short pieces that come in sets and are often related to each other in some way. Just like between the movements  of a multi-movement piece, I would expect that performers observe a short pause between one sententia and the next. And I would expect that there be no clapping from audiences."

On 3/11/2022 at 1:52 PM, luderart said:

It is also an utterance that finds no need for any elaboration or development.

Are you sure you're not selling yourself short by composing only these short sententiae?  (Which by the way, since you have two of them why did you use the singular version of the word?)  Most composers write in many different venues, genres and ensembles.  Are you sure it's not a cop out or a limitation for you to only write these pieces that don't need any elaboration or development?  Almost as if you're giving yourself an excuse not to develop your ideas further.

As for the music, I felt like the first sententia used the 5/4 time signature in a cool way, namely by alternating between a 6/8 and 2/4 part of the measure.  Then the second part of the first sententia could have been a 2nd contrasting section of the piece leading to maybe a binary (or a ternary if you chose to repeat the A section at the end) form.  But you don't take it anywhere, instead opting to just stop in the middle of a promising idea.

The second sententia ended in a really quirky way.  It felt like you started out akin to a partita for flute and then ended with quite an unusual gesture in a foreign tonality.

Those are my thoughts.  Thanks for sharing!

14 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Are you sure you're not selling yourself short by composing only these short sententiae?  (Which by the way, since you have two of them why did you use the singular version of the word?)  Most composers write in many different venues, genres and ensembles.  Are you sure it's not a cop out or a limitation for you to only write these pieces that don't need any elaboration or development?  Almost as if you're giving yourself an excuse not to develop your ideas further.

As for the music, I felt like the first sententia used the 5/4 time signature in a cool way, namely by alternating between a 6/8 and 2/4 part of the measure.  Then the second part of the first sententia could have been a 2nd contrasting section of the piece leading to maybe a binary (or a ternary if you chose to repeat the A section at the end) form.  But you don't take it anywhere, instead opting to just stop in the middle of a promising idea.

The second sententia ended in a really quirky way.  It felt like you started out akin to a partita for flute and then ended with quite an unusual gesture in a foreign tonality.

Those are my thoughts.  Thanks for sharing!

Thank you Peter for your review and your ideas about my two sententiae. You are right, the title should be "sententiae". It was an oversight on my part. I will try to correct it as soon as possible.

Regarding "selling [myself] short by composing only these short sententiae", let me correct you. I do not only compose sententiae but also longer pieces like soliloquies. In them there is a longer development of the piece and elaboration of the theme(s).

Regarding "giving yourself an excuse not to develop your ideas", I look at sententiae more positively as valuable ideas in themselves. So the non-development of the idea is, in my opinion, a characteristic of the sententia and its theme. Perhaps unconsciously it might also be an excuse (or a characteristic of its composer, to continue the idea in the previous sentence). But I always have the option to compose longer pieces where I develop my ideas further.

I had not mentioned in my opening post that the first sententia is based on a melody I heard a bird singing in my dream!

5 hours ago, luderart said:

I do not only compose sententiae but also longer pieces like soliloquies. In them there is a longer development of the piece and elaboration of the theme(s).

That's why I also mentioned ensembles.  I haven't really looked carefully through all your works, but have you written for ensembles?  It seems like your soliloquies are all for solo instruments and your sententiae are short undeveloped works.  I personally love writing for the string orchestra - it's a very versatile ensemble and just big enough to cover most of the audible range and just small enough to be relatively easy to fill out all the parts.  I highly recommend it!

57 minutes ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

That's why I also mentioned ensembles.  I haven't really looked carefully through all your works, but have you written for ensembles?  It seems like your soliloquies are all for solo instruments and your sententiae are short undeveloped works.  I personally love writing for the string orchestra - it's a very versatile ensemble and just big enough to cover most of the audible range and just small enough to be relatively easy to fill out all the parts.  I highly recommend it!

 

It's true that especially lately I have mostly tended to write for solo instruments. But I have written for ensembles. I have a piano trio. I have written also for string quartet and string trio. I have also pieces for string orchestra, the latest a set of two sententiae and an Elegy. I have even written a concertino for guitar.

Here are some links:

I. Last pieces for smaller ensembles:

Three Sententiae for String Trio Op. 325 (2020):

https://www.youngcomposers.com/t39371/three-sententiae-for-string-trio-op-325/

Two Sententiae for String Quartet, Op. 321 (2019):

https://www.youngcomposers.com/t37957/two-sententiae-for-string-quartet-op-321/

II. Medium-sized ensemble: Three Sententiae for String Octet, Op. 299 (2017):

https://www.youngcomposers.com/t35159/three-sententiae-for-string-octet-op-299/

III. Larger Ensembles: 

a) Last two compositions for string orchestra (2018 & 2020):

https://www.youngcomposers.com/t36499/two-sententiae-for-string-orchestra-op-309/

https://www.youngcomposers.com/t41632/elegy-for-string-orchestra-op-334/

b) Concertino for Guitar and String Orchestra (2016):

https://www.youngcomposers.com/t33864/concertino-for-classical-guitar-and-string-orchestra/