Arco Ostinato No. 2

Hello again!  This is another old piece I started a long time ago that I just recently finished, this time for Violin and Piano (the 'arco ostinato' pattern in this piece doesn't actually come in until the middle of the piece).  I fussed around with the ending quite a bit this time too and finally settled on a simple accelerando and crescendo to a pretty traditional subdominant, dominant, tonic cadence, although it ends in a different key than it began in.  Let me know what you think!  The piece features some double, triple and quadruple stops and left hand pizzicato technique for the violin.  Any comments, critiques, or suggestions about the ending or about the techniques used in the violin part, or about the piece in general would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks for listening.

If you enjoyed this piece check out my Arco Ostinato for String Quartet:

this has some crazy cool moments.. awesome. I think this is my favorite song of yours.

A fun little piece, with interesting harmonies.  My only critique is that, at least in the audio you provided, in the section at m. 69 where the piano takes over the melody, it seems to be covered up a bit by the violin on the ostinato.  But I imagine in a real performance, the violinist could get a little softer there to get "out of the way" of the melody.

Hi. I think this kind of pieces with ostinato parts are quite challenging. This sounds like a variation based composition. In some way it reminds me to the minimalism. Nice.

Wow ... what a fun piece.  Very creative indeed.  I enjoyed it immensely.  My only comment, and it is a minor one, is maybe a bit of editing in the middle ... the ostinato in the violin continues for my taste a tiny bit too long.  The introduction of the lovely lyrical theme towards the end is most enchanting and welcome.  As Oliver Twist stated, "Please sir may I have some more!"  a "joie de vivre!"

Mark

Interesting piece, parts like M31-32 and the transition in M91 are pleasant to my ears and intriguing to my mind.

The ostinato played in the piano sounds even funny, but not super joyful, something in the middle, which I also like. The pizz. end is probably my favourite part as well as the cresc. coda. Congratulations!

Kind regards,

Daniel–Ømicrón.

You see, THIS is why I always think everyone should write for small ensembles more. Out of the last few pieces I've heard from you, you orchestrated much more colorfully when having restrictions in your instrumentation. It wasn't a constant tutti sound, and you had much more variation in light and heavy textures. You were able to take a fun rhythm and violin motif and craft something wonderful. Awesome job man, one of my favorites from you!

Thanks everyone for all your positive feedback!  When finishing the ending of this piece I went through about 4 different drafts before settling on the one I have.  I thought it might be considered as a bit artificial and like just a big ta-da, but nobody mentioned it so far so I guess there's nothing to complain about!  LoL

Also, I wish I could say that there was an Arco Ostinato No. 3 coming someday but both of these pieces were basically in a semi complete form already from years ago that I just decided to finish.  So - thanks for all your kind comments!  It feels great to be appreciated.