The Guest Light

A strange piece I just wrote that messes around with various things, like the whole tone row. (I was actually inspired to try my hand at whole tone row shenanigans after listening the Vince's 1st prelude here on the site.)

My inspiration for the piece is somewhat complex. I titled it "The Guest Light" because, for one thing, I wanted to evoke the imagery of a surreal, semi-nightmarish thing. Like, there's an empty guest room in your house, and you know no one's in it, and yet the light is on: how? Why? But naming the piece "The Guest Light" is mainly not because of this made-up scenario, and this piece is not in any way intended to be programmatic. Rather, "The Guest Light" is a play on words for "The Gaslight"; in other words, someone or something trying to make you question your ability to perceive and understand reality the way it is. That's why this piece is full of really odd developmental decisions: false starts, cut off sections, weirdly repeated passages, and other things that are intended to throw the listener off.

Let me know what you think 🤷‍♂️

P.S. My score is currently very messy, because I haven't cleaned up the articulations yet for the playback. Sorry about that, I'll clean it up later sometime.

Update: Score has been cleaned up a lot.

Hi @SergeOfArniVillage,

For me this is a very nice attempt on the whole tone scale. I like it!

For me there are two distinctive elements: The whole tone running and the heavy aeolian chords. Speaking of gaslight effect, those whole tone running are like mesmerizing power of the controlling person and the aeolian chords more the heavy blow from reality; it's difficult to face it that those mesmerizing notes are in fact evil and weakening your power but you have to accept it. It's well fitting to use whole tone chord for the aimless, magical and cunning power, and the major minor chords for reality, aim.

With these imagery you can say this piece is a struggle btw the two powers. The controlled wants to be free of his restraint from the controller, he struggles fiercely, but he fails at the end and once more returns to the clutches willingly.

Those whole tone passages remind me of Debussy, particularly his
Feux d'Artifice. The Aeolian chords remind me of Japanese Anime, but the Picardy D major chords like the one in b.28 reminds of the first mov of Beethoven's Ninth.

4 hours ago, SergeOfArniVillage said:

I was actually inspired to try my hand at whole tone row shenanigans after listening the Vince's 1st prelude here on the site

I always love the idea of inspired by pieces on YC. That's what YC for!

4 hours ago, SergeOfArniVillage said:

That's why this piece is full of really odd developmental decisions: false starts, cut off sections, weirdly repeated passages, and other things that are intended to throw the listener off.

I don't think they are weird at all. Whole tone scales make many passgaes similar by having aimless sound, and that's what gaslight effect means.

Thanks for sharing Zach!

Henry

An interesting and beautiful piece. The contrast between that almost ethereal upper line with the interspersing block chords is very effective.
Although at some points the virtual sound is less pleasing....

@Henry Ng Tsz Kiu Thank you! I think your interpretation is very sensible.

@Luis Hernández Thanks! There are parts of the playback that are a little annoying to me, too. For me, I don't like how the piano action sounds when it gets *too* quiet. Ms.  26's R.H. is probably the worst offender here. Even the quietest PPPP on a real piano has a certain strength (maybe "resonance" is a better word?) to it that my VST just isn't capturing.

Update: Finally cleaned up the score.

Dude I love this

On 6/14/2023 at 1:53 AM, SergeOfArniVillage said:

That's why this piece is full of really odd developmental decisions: false starts, cut off sections, weirdly repeated passages, and other things that are intended to throw the listener off.

Yeah I'll say, that was instantly my first impression. The anticipation for what's next is seat-gripping. 

This piece is very atmospheric, as in I really like how harmony and rhythm are at the forefront without any sort of melody to follow along. The mood is brooding and mysterious, and the syncopations are clever and tact. 

I like the improvised style of the form. To me it's like an ABABA, where the A sections are the suspenseful open textures, and the B parts are more driven with the louder and heavier rhythms. 

You're quite the composer, my friend. This was really cool to listen to (several times 😄). I'm glad you're back man, can't wait to hear what you share next. 

The mysterious vibe created by the high repeating ostinato is rudely interrupted by the sforzando crescendo to fortissimo chords which are very jarring, as I guess you intended.  I also like @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu's interpretation.  The high ostinato is very foreboding and sets the stage for the huge contrast that you accomplish with the sforzando chords.  There is however deep unease in both of the polar opposites presented in the piece.  Great job and thanks for sharing!

@Thatguy v2.0 Thanks Vince! I'm glad you liked it. Also, your signature is hilarious 🤣

@PeterthePapercomPoser Thank you for listening 🙂