Nocturne Nº1

Hi again :B.

I was curious about that software some youtubers use for their LED piano recordings blah blah blah, so I found a free software "Piano VFX" that seemed cool. Eventually I decided to publish one nocturne a week on youtube using it. But here we talk about pieces so let me present my first nocturne, composed a while ago this year. I tried to make it easy enough to be played by myself and some friends of mine but I never had time to (not yet at least). I will warn you that I called it a "Nocturne" only because I composed it at night, so It may have little or zero resemblance to other nocturnes you know. That statement has become more and more true as I've kept making them, to the point the Nº20 is a monstrosity but we'll eventually get to that hopefully.

Without further ado, I'll leave the video right here.

You can find the PDF here: Free sheet music : Rodríguez, Daniel-Omicrón - Obra Menor Nº48 - Nocturno Nº1 (Piano solo) (free-scores.com)

As always I'm eager to receive your feedback, views, analysis, greetings, whatever. Enjoy and have a good Sunday.

Kind regards,

Daniel–Ømicrón.

This is a beautiful piece.

Reminds me a little of the Moonlight Sonata.

I like the video effect too. 

Have seen something similar before on this Final Fantasy cover:

Hey there

I get Moonlight mvmt. 3 vibes too, not that that's a bad thing. I really like your stuff, and if you don't mind, I'm gonna use this post to give some feedback on all the music I've heard from you.

So I've listened to this piece, and it seems like you've written a lot more nocturnes as well. I checked out the link in your profile but it seems like you have to be a member of that site to listen to the music. I also listened to your two piano sonatas all the way through. I honestly would be parroting SSC with a lot of the critical advice I have, and he's much smarter than I am with music, so I'd take to heart what he had to say. 

One thing to always watch for is playability. To you play piano yourself? With your sonatas, there were some very wide intervals that would be hard to reach for a lot of performers if you want them played as notated. If you've got some Rachmaninoff hands that's great, but just have it in the back of your mind if your intention is for your music to be played by everyone. 

As SSC said, the sonatas were a bit difficult to capture my attention at times because although you have no shortage of great ideas, keep digging in your compositional toolbox for ways to develop established themes. However, I will say that it is a tremendous achievement and arduous ambition to attempt a full sonata, so kudos to you on that. 

I hear a lot of Beethoven-type ideas in your music. Lots of motifs and toying with them as part of your sound. Beethoven is one of my favorite composers, and he's an excellent source to study from. But I'd also encourage you to keep absorbing all the attributes you enjoy from his music as well as your other inspirations to keep fine tuning your personal unique sound. Not that you don't, just some advice if you don't already.

With this nocturne, it felt like your arpeggio figures were leading me to a melody, but it never came. I think it's fine as is, and the 2:00 section eluded to what I felt the music was building towards, but maybe that's an avenue you could consider for future pieces. You have fine harmonies, and some surprising moments (I really like the part at about 3:10).  

Now, with all that said, I'd like to congratulate you on your uniqueness of voice. I absolutely LOVE your musical voice. Sure they could sometimes be executed better, but that will come with more practice and further studies as you grow as a composer. You have what a lot of others who study all their lives don't have. Your ideas are phenomenal and they for sure captivate me. It's very rare I go drudging through someone's profile to hear other pieces they've written. I like your style, and that's the part that no conservatory can teach. What you've chosen to say with music so far has made me a fan. Like I said before, really keep exploring all the different aspects of music. Years back, I never cared for Chopin. I knew he was a legend, but his music didn't speak to me like Beethoven, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Sibelius, etc. did. But now he's one of my favorite composers.

I was never a great melody writer, and usually stuck to motifs with rhythmic and harmonic development. Even in my rock band, melody and lyrics were just an after thought to all my guitar parts. But after learning a few pieces by Chopin, and really looking at the score to see what he was doing, I became amazed at what I was lacking and missing out on in my music. 

I only tell you this because I hear somethings that I feel like I used to do in your music. Although I haven't heard your full catalog, it's just the gist I get from what I've experienced with your tracks. Like I said, I'm really digging your voice and style, and I'm very excited to hear what you have to offer in the future. It seems like you've been commenting on other people's work as well. I usually tell people I haven't spoken to before to make sure and listen to others' pieces for more chances at feedback, but you seem to have the right idea about that already. 

Welcome to the forums, and stick around! There's loads of talented musicians on here, and simply reaching out to tell someone you enjoyed their music, or offering advice and critique will a lot of times make their day. 

Thanks for sharing man, you've got a great future ahead of you in music!!

Vince

P.S. thanks for mentioning the piano software. I downloaded it and it's tons of fun 

On 6/29/2022 at 3:57 PM, Alex Weidmann said:

This is a beautiful piece.

Reminds me a little of the Moonlight Sonata.

I like the video effect too. 

Have seen something similar before on this Final Fantasy cover:

Oh yeah it's lotta used there on YT, I think the software the guy in the video uses is probably not free and better than what I use hehe, but I'm trying to see what the free software limit is (with my almost none video editing skills I mean). Thank you for the feedback, it also reminds me to Beethoven's S. 14, with all those ascending arpeggios. I wanted to make a piece for my friend Juande which had arpeggios and I felt some similarities when I got it done.

See you in the forum!

8 hours ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

So I've listened to this piece, and it seems like you've written a lot more nocturnes as well. I checked out the link in your profile but it seems like you have to be a member of that site to listen to the music. I also listened to your two piano sonatas all the way through. I honestly would be parroting SSC with a lot of the critical advice I have, and he's much smarter than I am with music, so I'd take to heart what he had to say. 

Oh glad to know you checked out my other posts. I think free-scores didn't need log-in requirement before but I suspect the owner of the site is trying strats to increase the number of users and feedback there. Free-scores is a place with lots of, well, free scores and hidden gems from totally unknown composers so I'd recommend you and everyone reading this to check it out even if it requires a login. I have written 21 nocturnes and I'm currently writing the 22nd. I will stop on the 23rd and move on to next things I wanna do this summer.

8 hours ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

One thing to always watch for is playability. To you play piano yourself? With your sonatas, there were some very wide intervals that would be hard to reach for a lot of performers if you want them played as notated. If you've got some Rachmaninoff hands that's great, but just have it in the back of your mind if your intention is for your music to be played by everyone. 

I play piano, yeah, but I'm nowhere near the level required to play any of my sonatas. Specially the second one which is literally hell, but I wanted it to be. It is playable, yes, but not for everyone (including me). That said, It is not like I only do or like to do hella difficult things. We might agree this one is not particularly difficult, and I have quite a lot of unpublished (or published in free-scores)  pieces that are "difficult" or "intermediate" in my opinion (since I'm not an expert pianist some might be easier or more difficult than I believe). If I have to be honest, it's not really my intention that my music be played by everyone or the contrary, but to keep composing. I'm pretty sure most of my pieces will never be played by anyone other than me or by anyone, but I find that this reason isn't enough for me to stop writing.

8 hours ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

As SSC said, the sonatas were a bit difficult to capture my attention at times because although you have no shortage of great ideas, keep digging in your compositional toolbox for ways to develop established themes. However, I will say that it is a tremendous achievement and arduous ambition to attempt a full sonata, so kudos to you on that. 

Oh yes, specially the Nº1 in my opinion has lots of problems with having many ideas but lack of development. It is what it is, perhaps the Nº10 will be better if I someday reach that one. I find the Nº2 a little better on that, but that's entirely subjective I suppose. When I made the 2nd sonata, I kinda knew where I wanted to go, that's why I called it "The grim one" (not because it's grim but because I made pieces with similar ideas a while ago and put the grim X title on them) instead of the "mediocre" sonata. 

8 hours ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

I hear a lot of Beethoven-type ideas in your music. Lots of motifs and toying with them as part of your sound. Beethoven is one of my favorite composers, and he's an excellent source to study from. But I'd also encourage you to keep absorbing all the attributes you enjoy from his music as well as your other inspirations to keep fine tuning your personal unique sound. Not that you don't, just some advice if you don't already.

With this nocturne, it felt like your arpeggio figures were leading me to a melody, but it never came. I think it's fine as is, and the 2:00 section eluded to what I felt the music was building towards, but maybe that's an avenue you could consider for future pieces. You have fine harmonies, and some surprising moments (I really like the part at about 3:10).  

Advice taken, even if I try to do already, haha. Beethoven is also one of my favourite composers if not my favourite one. I will also think about what you said regarding 2:00 section. I am not sure if I purposefully eluded some idea, but it is something that I sometimes do.

8 hours ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Now, with all that said, I'd like to congratulate you on your uniqueness of voice. I absolutely LOVE your musical voice. Sure they could sometimes be executed better, but that will come with more practice and further studies as you grow as a composer. You have what a lot of others who study all their lives don't have. Your ideas are phenomenal and they for sure captivate me. It's very rare I go drudging through someone's profile to hear other pieces they've written. I like your style, and that's the part that no conservatory can teach. What you've chosen to say with music so far has made me a fan. Like I said before, really keep exploring all the different aspects of music. Years back, I never cared for Chopin. I knew he was a legend, but his music didn't speak to me like Beethoven, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Sibelius, etc. did. But now he's one of my favorite composers.

I really appreciate your words. I must say that I am really considering going to a conservatory to enrich my musical knowledge in some aspects (classical harmony mostly and whatever I can gather), as I couldn't go when I was younger because I didn't have a proper accordion which was too expensive & the conservatory didn't lend me one blah blah blah. I perhaps am too young to know what I'll do but I doubt I'll stop composing till my time end.

8 hours ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

I only tell you this because I hear somethings that I feel like I used to do in your music. Although I haven't heard your full catalog, it's just the gist I get from what I've experienced with your tracks. Like I said, I'm really digging your voice and style, and I'm very excited to hear what you have to offer in the future. It seems like you've been commenting on other people's work as well. I usually tell people I haven't spoken to before to make sure and listen to others' pieces for more chances at feedback, but you seem to have the right idea about that already. 

Welcome to the forums, and stick around! There's loads of talented musicians on here, and simply reaching out to tell someone you enjoyed their music, or offering advice and critique will a lot of times make their day. 

Well what I can tell about my music recently is that it got a little "weirder" from Noc. 9 and on, but I really think listening to other composers, be they famous, totally unknown or anything in the middle is enriching even if you don't directly notice it at first. I indeed comment a lot in this forum, I genuinely like there's a place apart from free-scores which offers a lot of unknown music from people who want some feedback apart from their friends'/teachers'/family's'/whoever comments, and since I think many people come here for that reason I believe that spending 45-60 min whenever I can is enriching for both me and authors.

Regarding the Piano VFX, you may have noticed transitions between different colours (which would be cool for different sections, movements, etc) is not directly possible in falling keys and not possible at all in the led which is on top of the keyboard. In case you didn't notice, you can split your midi in up to 10 voices and the software will let you assign one color (but not one individual kind of texture) per channel. Hope I wasn't too dense lol.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

Finally have time to react on this one.

As many things are commented by @Thatguy v2.0and @Alex Weidmann, I will just keep it short. I love your sound. It's so unique that it's not something easily imitated and commented on it, especially that of mine. In this nocturne, it is dark with the dark e flat minor, but the flow is so fluent, like a dangerous current in a river, not easily recognizable but can be fatal.

I don't find the lack of melody matters at all. Conversely I love how cool it is to have no apparent melody at all. Even the melody is bar 45-52 seems baroque for me, which is chordal progression split or reinforced. I love you do not try to be sentimental or romantic: it keeps as cool and cold as the music has to be.

Beethovanian elements do appear explicitly here, with notable reminiscence with the Moonlight sonata. But I also find this similar to a chaconne: Both in triple meter and minor key, with the harmonic progression quite similar throughout the piece, and texture is continually varied. It creates objective but cool effect.

I only skim through your other nocturnes, but do not listen to them attentively. I will if I have time😄!! Hope you can post more of your works here if you would like to!

Henry

30 minutes ago, Henry Ng said:

Finally have time to react on this one.

Hi Henry! I am glad you did. I still struggle to find time to properly review you quintet in C minor. 

I am glad you liked the piece. We'll see about the rest because they keep getting weirder. This nocturne was just intended to be an exercise for a friend of mine but I kept on making and putting more and more ambition on each following one I made (with some exceptions). Indeed the measures you pointed sound baroque, hehe. It literally sounds like Haendel's famous Sarabande at least to me.

1 hour ago, Henry Ng said:

I only skim through your other nocturnes, but do not listen to them attentively. I will if I have time😄!!

I am glad you do skim through them! It's is true that for almost any piece a careful listen gives you more in-depth understanding of it but I perfectly understand that time is scarce. Mine is too, and as much as I like to review things here I often have to do it during night. I will definitely post another piece soon.

My sincere thanks for your feedback, Henry.

Kind regards ^^!




 

31 minutes ago, Omicronrg9 said:

I still struggle to find time to properly review you quintet in C minor. 

That's a problematic one😂. I am wrong to post my first video here with a 1 hour long piece. I thought then I should post a piece worth this forum, but evidently that's too much. I should just split the movements.

32 minutes ago, Omicronrg9 said:

This nocturne was just intended to be an exercise for a friend of mine

I love that cool sound effect of a prelude-like or exercise-like piece. It serves the best for your piece. A beautiful melody would for sure ruin it.

34 minutes ago, Omicronrg9 said:

I will definitely post another piece soon.

That's definitely great news!

Henry