Córdoba for solo Piano

Hi! Finally i started summer holydays so I'm able to compose as much as I want to!

I wanted to try I new style, and I've been wondering about spanish classical music, I'm keen on folklore and culture so.. Why not trying it? It won't hurt anyone! (Well, it hurt my fingertips). I called this pieces after my birthplace, Córdoba, an Andalusian city where dance, flamenco, castanets and flower are everywhere...

I would want to give a short explanation about spanish nationalism:

- The usage of Andalusian cadence!!!!!! In a minor key i - bVII - bVIII - V, this cadence whas so popular that it was used among all world (https://youtu.be/cGufy1PAeTU, https://youtu.be/M6GK8HhjQQE this one is tricky, https://youtu.be/SrnWp5O0DEs)

- Sections that are purely rythmical (https://youtu.be/SCKDG7w2S9c, https://youtu.be/fnvVFzV0yE0)

- Circular melodies and motives

- Dance rythms (https://youtu.be/q8rlFjWolvE)

I really aim you all to check Albeniz's, Turina's and Falla's works!

Must I add that i'm not a profesional pianist, I did as good i could, so please, if there are something not idiomatic or 'tecnically weird' please let me know!

Córdoba.pdf

Hey @Samuel_vangogh,

I like the Spanish elements here and hopefully there are more from you! There are many active Spanish members here in my impreesion.

I love that rhythmic section very much. Maybe extend it longer? But it may hurt your fingertips more haha! Just turn the section into an ABA with thr B in different keys like A major will be great!

I love that bare fifths accompaniment, ofc it reminds me the famous Carmen !

I think in b.31-42 you can still maintain the Spanish rhythm there in a slower tempo, or as a sidewalker after each melodic phrase.

That modulation to Naepolitan Eb major is very beautiful and crafty by using German sixth as the pivotal chord, one of my fav. progression too! Maybe add a half cadence before b.55? I don't know.

Nice ending as well!

Thx for sharing!

Henry

I think this is really cool! As for your concerns as to whether your piano writing is "idiomatic" or not, I would have thought looking at the score that you are a pianist, because nothing I see seems awkward to play. In fact, it looks downright easy, and I mean that absolutely as a compliment. (Real talk, though: maybe you're just joking about playing piano hurting your fingertips, but my PSA for the day for anyone reading this is that a person should NEVER feel pain during playing the piano at any point, ever. Not in the fingers, hands, arms, shoulders, back, etc. Tiredness and fatigue are normal, but pain means there is a fatal flaw in the piano playing technique you're using; I believe a lot of times it stems from tensing up during playing.)

The piece is fine as it is: love it. Literally my only critique is that this prelude feels like it could benefit from being extended, or being part of a larger set of preludes. I mean, not everything needs to be developed in 20 different ways, and you've got famous preludes that are all of 30-40 seconds long. I think the reason I feel like this needs to be longer and more involved is because it has a dance-y, rhythmic angle to it, and such pieces typically thrive on being "well-developed". Even a 30-sec to a minute-long Coda section might give it that sense of completeness, for example.

That's just my two cents. This is great, thanks for sharing! 🙂

36 minutes ago, SergeOfArniVillage said:

Real talk, though: maybe you're just joking about playing piano hurting your fingertips, but my PSA for the day for anyone reading this is that a person should NEVER feel pain during playing the piano at any point, ever. Not in the fingers, hands, arms, shoulders, back, etc. Tiredness and fatigue are normal, but pain means there is a fatal flaw in the piano playing technique you're using; I believe a lot of times it stems from tensing up during playing.)

I'm still learning piano, i'm a violist and we need to press strings on left hand strong so there are no noise (also, the movement is kind of different), sometimes i forget that in playing a piano and start doing violist tecniches (i tried to do vibrato several times...)

Im now focusing on fixing my posture and manner of pressing keys!

Also, this is the prelude of a suite for viola and piano, i'm now working on the second movement which will be more sorrowful and slow

I see from your profile that you are Spanish. Well, whether you like it or not, that makes things easier. Because it is normal that anyone from a place, have in their historical memories the roots that correspond. I don't mean that we can write music fantasizing about distant cultural traditions, that's fine.

On the other hand, the Andalusian cadence is something controversial. More than for what it is, which is clear to us, for how to theorize about it. I'm not going to delve into this now...

"Córdoba" is a beautiful little piece of work. The beginning has a totally Andalusian flavor, both the introduction and the part up to measure 30. The part that follows it I think is more of a romantic style, very much in keeping with the time of the composers you mention, and in itself is a very nice mini-ballad that plays an important contrasting role. The final part strongly recovers the local flavor and is very successful.

I congratulate you, because I liked it very much.

------

Y un poquito en español. Creo que adaptas el lenguaje de inspiración flamenco-andaluza al piano muy bien. y en tan poco tiempo creas una obra super interesante y completa. Saludos.......

Luis.

Hi! @Luis Hernández

Thank you for your kind comment, i always liked folk music so i'm always in touch with it, i think i have a great musical intuition and it helps me compose 😅.

But, piano is too hard for me and a i couldnt portray a lot of ideas i had in mind...

Again, thanks a lot for your reply, it encourages me a lot to keep working!

This is great!

I love a lot of the ideas going on here. My only real issue is that it sounds like too many different ideas being mashed together. 

For instance, you start with a cool quartal/quintal opening, move on to your andalusian themes, have a nocturne type middle section, return to the andalusian, then end with the quartal stuff. I like the form (and the accel. transition), but your 3 main ideas are so far away from each other it'd be hard to make all of that fit together nicely.

What if you had quartal harmony in the andalusian section? As in spelling your chords with stacked 4ths or 5ths to give them the flavor of the i - bVII - bVI (you meant to say VI chord, right?) - V. 

Speaking of, maybe I've misunderstood this whole time, but even though that chord progression is correct, I always tried to make the last chord "home". As in, it'd be more like iv - bIII - bII - I. Thoughts? I'm curious on this. (EDIT: we're both right)

Cool music, thanks for sharing! 😄