Ordered Colours - for Piano Quartet

Dear all,

It has been a while I post new works here as I am working on my Symphony. That was fun but I am distracted by another competition.

This work, Ordered Colours for Piano Quartet is written for a 5-min call-for-score competition. 

I am not sure why I am that bold to base the work on a twelve-tone series ("Ordered" as in the title), but I later turn it to more tonal materials.

I really wish to get selected by the judges and get it recorded (as a shortlist reward). Good luck lol

What do you think about this piece? Is there a "voice" of mine?

Thank you.

HoYin

I think the aspect that works best here is the juxtaposition of the 12-tone and diatonic ideas, although it feels like the diatonicism takes over pretty early and doesn't look back. There's a Bartok-like character (I'm hearing echoes of the Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta) in the middle parts that's appealing to my ears, but of course I don't know if that's the voice you were going for.

The opening and the ending don't work so well for me, mostly because I'm not hearing the material there reflected elsewhere in the piece. They seem to stand on their own but not say much. The last bar is kind of the harmonic antithesis of the first bar, but it's not clear why.

Hello there,

On first listening to a piece of music I don't approach it analytically, rather: just listen. I'm not really interested in its mechanics any more than I am of how an internal combustion engine works to be able to drive my car. Most listeners probably approach music this way and make a like/indifferent/dislike judgement soon into the work.

I found it pleasant to listen to, echoing Tom's comments above - 'Bartok-like' in some respects. I might even have thought 'Boris Blacher' at various points but that's a longer stretch of the imagination. Those opening chords: wow, I thought, this is just my kind of music, blurry, foggy, full of mood, but then you went into your tone row in a rather more percussive way. The blending/cross-fading into more chromatic tonality was very well handled....(just my opinion, that's how it should be...moving between various techniques as the piece demands.)

But it held my interest throughout and I thought the ending almost mirrored the opening with a more energetic piano, the effect of which was to deliver the close. One notable feature is that you pit the percussive effect of the piano against the more sustained strings very well; and good string writing too, if I might say.

Altogether good rendering too.

Well done.

.

@Tom Statler @Quinn Thank you for both of your comment and listening! Seems that I have been subconsiouly influenced by Bartok since my composition journey starts lol

Fourths and dissonance, layering may be the quality you found familiar. I didn't use his axis theory though.

For the coherence issue you mentioned, Tom, the last part is actually recalling some of the motif from the previous passages.

The materials are disguised and merged into the tonal melody (and hence the familiarity to audience), for instance, 

-Since m.83, the cello has been introducing the Violin motif in m.11-12 (let's say Theme A). Then at m.89 the cello pizz recalls m.16.
-Viola at m.93 recalls the Theme A
-At m.99-100, piano recalls itself at m.12-13, Violin at m.100 is recalling the more tonal form of A which appeared in m.40 (piano)
-And finally, those chords in piano at m.107-109 and the last chord directly echo the first chord. 

Dear @HoYin Cheung,

It's hard to find a guy also from Hong Kong! I have a complete contrasting style with you: mine is tonal and more harmonicwhile your approach is more post-tonal and percussive! I love its passion and power!

On 4/23/2022 at 4:07 PM, HoYin Cheung said:

The materials are disguised and merged into the tonal melody (and hence the familiarity to audience), for instance, 

-Since m.83, the cello has been introducing the Violin motif in m.11-12 (let's say Theme A). Then at m.89 the cello pizz recalls m.16.
-Viola at m.93 recalls the Theme A
-At m.99-100, piano recalls itself at m.12-13, Violin at m.100 is recalling the more tonal form of A which appeared in m.40 (piano)
-And finally, those chords in piano at m.107-109 and the last chord directly echo the first chord. 

Regarding the sturcture, actually can't expect audience to remember the motives you used and developed especially there's huge difference betweem post tonal and tonal version of the motives. We will be more direct and just listen to it, rathet than to analyze it and may not find thr similarities! Even my quintet is saturated with the same motive, people still won't notice it since they really don't have to!

I love how the percussive and post tonal transformed to a more lyrical and tonal melody at the end! It's for sure an enjoyable listening! Great job!

Henry