Elurra

Hi all,
A few weeks ago I posted a piece called Ninlil. I liked it too much to leave it just as a short piece stuck there all on its own. I always had the idea that it was a musical depiction of Ninlil, the Mesopotamian Goddess of the sky and in this incarnation, representing the wind.
I started thinking of a suite of short pieces to represent various goddesses connected to the weather.
So here is the second piece in the suite, "Elurra" .
It's the Basque word for snow. The goddess in this case is Mari, La Dama de Murumendi. An ancient Basque goddess responsible for wintery weather. Here she is merrily making the world white. 
Hope you like it 😊
Listen to Elurra by Mark McDonald on #SoundCloud
https://on.soundcloud.com/p8syo

Hi @Mark101,

Very funny texture at the beginning with those tremolos in high register. It's like the snowing everywhere isn't it? Really I have nothing to say, except it is very difficult to play but you play it excellently!

Thanks for sharing!

Henry

Hi Henry,

Thanks for taking the time to listen and for your great comments.

I have to confess however.....

I write at the piano and do play all of the notes present and although I am glad to take credit for the composition, I can't take credit for the perfomance of it.

I do take great pains to ensure that the "perfomance" is as natural and human as possible.  For this reason, there are lots of artifacts, as I call them, in the score (accents, tenutos, fermata, small changes in tempo etc.) that are needed to make Sibelius play the piece as I would like it to sound but these artifacts would not necessarily be present in a normal score of the piece, not all of them anyway.

As you say, it is a very difficult piece to play and sadly I do not have the level of proficiency  necessary to pull of a perfomance like this. However, Sibelius plays it without sweating a drop LOL!

I can play most of it, much slower then it is rendered here obviously, and so I know that it is actually playable.  There are no impossible leaps or huge stretches to reach chords but it would take a very skilled professional I think, to give the piece life and bring out all of the nuances in the writing.

Thanks again

Mark

2 hours ago, Mark101 said:

do take great pains to ensure that the "perfomance" is as natural and human as possible.  For this reason, there are lots of artifacts, as I call them, in the score (accents, tenutos, fermata, small changes in tempo etc.) that are needed to make Sibelius play the piece as I would like it to sound but these artifacts would not necessarily be present in a normal score of the piece, not all of them anyway.

Well the sound is very authentic for me, which means you put a lot of effort in the rendition! Also I myself tend to play and record all my piano stuffs and post them here on YC since it will be closer to my intention of it. It takes much time to practice but it definitely worths it! Also I have to make sure the piece can be played at all, rather being an imaginary score unplayable in the real world since it makes all those techniques useless and fake.

Henry

Hello all,

I sometimes, that's a lie, I always find it hard to leave a piece alone once it's "finished". Every time I have a break from it and then go back, I find things I'm not happy with. I do think though that in the end, it makes for a better composition.

Elurra has not escaped this rigor!

She's had many revisions and now I have remastered and rerecorded it, ready to be included in the suite of short (sudo impressionistic) piano pieces - La Dama de Murmumendi.

This is now the final edit, hope you like it.

Man, I'm jealous of the smoothness of your rendering, it's no wonder Henry thought it was a live recording. You use Sibelius for this? You did a crazy good job with the playback, I would never have believed Sibelius recorded this. Sounds like a professional DAW did this playback! It feels really expressive, and the way the dynamics sway and swell is totally convincing.

I've listened to this a few times: the "clippiness and crunchiness" of the staccato, and the textures of the chords are really evocative, and I can totally get a "winter" vibe from it. 

Thanks for sharing, this is a really cool one (no pun intended) 🙂

Hey thanks Sarge,

I do use Sib for all my compositions but I do put quite a bit of effort into getting the playback to sound as natural as possible with lots of micro tempo adjustments and fermata, tied notes held over more than you might expect in a printed score and some other little tricks here and there but I think it works no?

I have a Yamaha CVP 501 and I get sib to play the piano and record direct from the piano, that way it's not a sib or noteperformer sample that plays to audio, but the actual piano, I think that makes a difference too.

As for the piece, thanks a lot.  I'm really glad you liked it.  It's one of my favourites to date along with 'Brisa'  I'm still working on the rest of the suite, but stay tuned, shouldn't be too long now 😀