Bagatelle

This short work just sort of came to me. The form is fairly straight forward but follows a modified sonata form complete with recapitulation. 

I probably won't make many changes to it -except maybe expand the ending a tad (not too much though, as I'm quite happy with the overall structure of it).

Hope everyone enjoys!

I can say it is a great chamber work, full of interactions between the instruments, and the motives is really saturated with its prime, inversion and expansion. I personally don't get into it only because of the style of this piece, but this is for sure a great work!

I did enjoy it, but if I had to point out a part that I liked the most, that would be the M(24-41) section and the preceding dynamics shift!

• The whole piece gives me mixed feelings. It's like if every instrument was fleeing away from something horrible and after an exhausting run they found a safe spot at ~3:10, but they get discovered and have to start fleeing again. Anxiety, that'd be it, specially in the calmer passages as you feel something is about to happen!

• In this case, possibly because of my biased and weird view of the bagatelle I more or less presented in the prior bullet, I expected a BOMB after the almost static section near the end (M149-M155) but I got a different passage. It's alright anyway, I guess that was too predictable perhaps? 

It was nice to listen to it a couple of times while writing this brief review. 

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.
 

One of the things I like most is your contermporary counterpoint techniques.

Wow, this is probably my favorite I've heard from you so far. I think what I really like about your style is your strong sense of counterpoint and textures. When your language is hard to grasp (not a bad thing!), I think your excellent use of technique takes the forefront. It's like, instead of melody or rhythm are the main thing my ears listen to, it's the "shape" of the music, or the wonderful and well thought out counterpoint that creates an interesting atmosphere that keeps me engaged the entire time. 

I'm curious on your thoughts of long pieces you might create, as I feel keeping your style of music to relatively short pieces is just the right amount of time to never get bored. 

I loved the moment from bars 27-44, VERY cool texture. Also, I love the static rhythm at 156. That type of rhythm really ties in some of the more daring rhythms in the other instruments. I'm torn whether you should have done more of that, or if it fits as a coda. Either way would work imo

Very well done, I'm excited to hear what you'll post next!

This has a great rhythmic intensity.  I love how you use rhythmic diminution and augmentation to build gradually and then dwindle away the rhythmic intensity.  I feel like this piece really breathes and is very organic because of that.  Also, a very creative choice of ensemble.  Is this one of the ensembles for which you've challenged yourself to write on account of some competition that you maybe mentioned in the chatbox?  Thanks for sharing and good luck!

21 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Also, a very creative choice of ensemble.  Is this one of the ensembles for which you've challenged yourself to write on account of some competition that you maybe mentioned in the chatbox?  Thanks for sharing and good luck!

 

No -even though I may submit this at some point (I'm already working on expanding portions of it and rewriting the ending). I first used this particular ensemble (well, subset of it) when I was studying at CCPA in Chicago. I used it 2 years ago in another piece on the forum here. I love the timbral possibilities within the ensemble (and thought about substituting the oboe in place of clarinet -but I think the range of the clarinet and the various timbres of segments of that range work better.

22 hours ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Wow, this is probably my favorite I've heard from you so far. I think what I really like about your style is your strong sense of counterpoint and textures. When your language is hard to grasp (not a bad thing!), I think your excellent use of technique takes the forefront. It's like, instead of melody or rhythm are the main thing my ears listen to, it's the "shape" of the music, or the wonderful and well thought out counterpoint that creates an interesting atmosphere that keeps me engaged the entire time. 

I'm curious on your thoughts of long pieces you might create, as I feel keeping your style of music to relatively short pieces is just the right amount of time to never get bored. 

I loved the moment from bars 27-44, VERY cool texture. Also, I love the static rhythm at 156. That type of rhythm really ties in some of the more daring rhythms in the other instruments. I'm torn whether you should have done more of that, or if it fits as a coda. Either way would work imo.

Thanks very much! I perceive music as being a microcosmos within a cosmos -that is there is a smaller view one can take and a larger view one can take. As you  mentioned, one can take any facet of the composition (melody, harmony, rhythm, silence, technique) and aim their ears to listen to these facets OR they can look at the interweaving of all components into the overall shape and sound of any given musical moment. It is this representation of musical view (I almost wanted to say musical cosmology, lol) that I strive for in my works. I think when you use a more modern musical language that it becomes more important to build this kind of view within that construct to provide a point of reference for the listener. That is, you have to give the listener something to grab onto. Otherwise, their brains are left looking for patterns. 

In terms of longer pieces, I can definitely see your opinion on that -and that is something that I grapple with. I WANT to write a longer work eventually. I most likely will write one at some point in my career. Whether that longer work will be an interweaving of these smaller moments -or a complete departure from this type of language is up for debate. I suppose it would come down to form and usage of my musical ideas. As mentioned earlier, I am working on rewriting and expanding parts of this piece -which will create a longer work in the end. I've got a few passages here that really scream out for expansion and further development (the ending for instance with the descending flute and clarinet passage... screams for development!) This paragraph really seems like a hodgepodge of thoughts that aren't really well organized -so I'll leave it at that. LOL