Ninlil

Hi all,

I've not posted anything for a while.  I'm in the middle of another large-ish piano and orchestra piece but I've reached a bit of a road block.  

So I was sat at the piano the other day, taking a break from the orchestral stuff and this little thing sort of just came out.  A few days editing and polishing and here she is.

Ninlil is a Mesopotamian Goddess of the winds.  She's the wife of Enlil, father of the Gods.

This is her during one of her more gentle moods.......... mostly!

I have the feeling that this will get expanded or become part of something else at some point but we'll see.  Hope you like it.

Here's the score, just in case.............

Ninlil  - Full Score.pdf

Hello @Mark101,

12 hours ago, Mark101 said:

Ninlil is a Mesopotamian Goddess of the winds.

Is this related to the use of parallel fifths here? That's beautiful!

The beginning is very beautiful with its harp-like playing, like in the fairyland for me! Starting around 0:26 it gets more excited and it's very cool! I like that modulation in 1:29 to E flat major/C minor. Very Japanese anime feel for me. 1:52 is very beautiful with those high register notes! 2:04 suddenly turns to a Bachian cadenza and after that it's very nice with those high register notes continue! A nice ending as well! I love the driving rhythm all over the piece like chasing the Goddess!

Thanks for sharing Mark and hopefully you will present us that large-ish piano and orchestral piece in a near future!

Henry

Thank you so much Henry, I really appreciate it.  I don´t know if I can say that the parallel fiths relates to Ninlil herself but I wanted something that sounded.............not usual shall we say, other worldly.  The 5/8 time signature was also an idea to keep the piece in a sort of unstable state in a sense, or at least not easy to pin down.  I'm so glad you think it worked.

I'm still tidying up the score but I will post it here too once it's done.

Kind regards

Mark

29 minutes ago, Mark101 said:

The 5/8 time signature was also an idea to keep the piece in a sort of unstable state in a sense, or at least not easy to pin down.  I'm so glad you think it worked.

Wow this piece is so fluent that there isn't any awkward moment for that 5/8 time signature! I just get into the music too much that I don't even notice it's in 5/8! And I do think that parallel 5th other eorldly as you named it! It's definitely non-functional as it's like the Goddess herself! Definitely looking forward to your score!

Henry

Just to let you know the score is now here

11 hours ago, Mark101 said:

Just to let you know the score is now here

Wow the score will be really difficult to play especially with that fluency!

Tell me about it, just as well Sibelius doesn't care lol. 

When I write a piece I do actually input it at the piano, going over it many times to ensure it's right, so all the tumbling arpeggios are playable but as you say, the speed and fluency required to produce the right sound is the difficulty, plus there are various off beat accents that take a lot of concentration. 

+Beautiful impressionistic feeling. At first I thought a quieter part would make a good contrast but, after listening to it a second time, I notice there are many textural contrasts.

55 minutes ago, Luis Hernández said:

+Beautiful impressionistic feeling. At first I thought a quieter part would make a good contrast but, after listening to it a second time, I notice there are many textural contrasts.

 

Thanks a lot Luis, I really appreciate it.  I still have in mind to expand or incorporate this into something else in the future, just because personally, I like it too much to leave it at just 3 minutes, but who knows how, were or when lol.

The piece sounds good despite the soundfont used makes the piano a bit dense to my taste in certain parts where I would have expected it to sound quieter, I think it obfuscated the "waves" a little. My favourite part was the ending section that starts with a cadenza, basically the last minute. 

Regarding the score, I would say that some sections in which the majority of notes are above the staff could be enclosed in a 8va. alta. 

Very nice piece, looking forward to check what this work becomes in case you decide to make it part of something bigger.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

Thank you Daniel, I really appreciate you taking time to listen and comment. 

It's actually recorded live on my Yamaha cvp 501 but you're right, there's a bit too much reverb making it a bit muddy. I've actually recorded a better version but I thought it a bit much to keep uploading version after version. 

However, I'm really glad you liked the piece in itself. I'm also looking forward to seeing what I might do with it too 😂 

Kind regards

Mark

Hello all,

Many thanks to those who have taken time to listen and more so to those who have taken time to comment, I really do appreciate it.

Ninlil has had a custody battle recently with La Dama de Murmumendi - La Dama won.

When I wrote 'Ninlil', it was with the idea of it just being a stand alone piece but then later came 'Elurra'.  My idea developed and now I'm in the middle of writting a suite of short (sudo impressionistic) piano pieces with weather as the running theme.

La Dama de Murmumendi is an ancient Basque Godess credited with ruling over the ever changing, sometimes unpredictable and often temperamental weather.  Generally she is quite gentle but can change on the spot depending on her mood.

Ninlil, now called 'Brisa' is the Basque word for The Wind.  It's one of the pieces, along with 'Elurra' the Basque word for The Snow, that will be part of the suite 'La Dama de Murmumendi'.  I am currently working of 2 more short pieces to represent the fog and also one for the rain, or more closely a summer storm.

Brisa is essentially the same piece as Ninlil, but I have revised, refined and remastered it.  I'm reasonable sure that this is it's final incarnation and so here is the link to the new version.

Hope you like it.