Metropolitan Fantasy (in three movements) for Solo Piano

Hi! I just finished three movement piano piece inspired from trip to NYC few years ago... 

First movement describes freestyle driving in the morning along the riverside around the city, second movement describes night scape viewed from the observation deck of skyscraper, and and the last third movement describes jazzy feeling (in modernistic style) after jazz concert in downtown park...

Actually I can promise all seemingly technically challenging passages are definitely playable after practice, especially some three staff measures with damper or sostenuto pedals (in slow enough tempos)...

Hope you guys enjoy this piece, and please don't hesitate if you've got any comments or suggestions... Thanks :)

It is a good work, sjuena modern and coherent, I would say even "urban".
Only the second movement I think does not quite "start", the development until there is a change is slow (or extensive) and the flame is lost a little.

Hello @Pele,

1st mov: There's good use of the octatonic scale in the b.10 phrase and similar ones. What I love for this movement is the furious pace that's always moving without time to think just like when we live in a metropolis.

2nd mov: I like the bell like phrase in b.8 with all the harmonious minor 6th but without a goal, just like the opening of Prokofiev's 6th Sonata. Just like in the city everything is affirmed on the surface but nihilism underneath. I agree with @Luis Hernández,maybe you are going for a building up of textures and excitement to the middle section, but the contrast and transformation is quite slow for audience to sustain their attention to the point. You can for sure vary the texture a bit more even though you are depicting the city lights here like changing the chords to flowing quavers to represent the lights moving.

3rd mov: This movement when played in real life will be very different from the rendition here. The thick chords will basically cover much of the upper melody for a long duration, particularly in b.30 and 46. If the piece is played on a Grand that will be better, as the chords can be played with the middle sostenuto pedal without holding the melody.

On 9/11/2023 at 10:03 AM, Pele said:

Actually I can promise all seemingly technically challenging passages are definitely playable after practice, especially some three staff measures with damper or sostenuto pedals (in slow enough tempos)...

You can fulfill your promise by playing the piece yourself 🙂

Thx for sharing.

Henry

On 9/22/2023 at 1:34 PM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hello @Pele,

1st mov: There's good use of the octatonic scale in the b.10 phrase and similar ones. What I love for this movement is the furious pace that's always moving without time to think just like when we live in a metropolis.

2nd mov: I like the bell like phrase in b.8 with all the harmonious minor 6th but without a goal, just like the opening of Prokofiev's 6th Sonata. Just like in the city everything is affirmed on the surface but nihilism underneath. I agree with @Luis Hernández,maybe you are going for a building up of textures and excitement to the middle section, but the contrast and transformation is quite slow for audience to sustain their attention to the point. You can for sure vary the texture a bit more even though you are depicting the city lights here like changing the chords to flowing quavers to represent the lights moving.

3rd mov: This movement when played in real life will be very different from the rendition here. The thick chords will basically cover much of the upper melody for a long duration, particularly in b.30 and 46. If the piece is played on a Grand that will be better, as the chords can be played with the middle sostenuto pedal without holding the melody.

You can fulfill your promise by playing the piece yourself 🙂

Thx for sharing.

Henry

 

Actually I often did feel the music moved on too slow to the climax and thought the audience who listen to this piece for the first time might not feel the direction of music... But I still wanted to keep some static elements like eighth or quarter note chords while gradually building up with wider registers, louder dynamics, extending bass (in the middle section: from D, F, Ab, then to B with note values getting longer), and also chords which get thicker and shorter and become homorhythmic with top staff octaves (and then joined by down-stem chords in the middle staff in mm.33-35) until the very climax...

Of course I tried to also change eighth or quarter octaves and chords more so that the audience can more easily hear direction over 1-2 minute span from the beginning of middle section up to the ff climax by using accelerandos, flowing chords (like you mentioned), or some more melodic/rhythmic variations, but they only made music sound changing too abruptly and also much different from previously intended sound...

Actually I got the idea of using static and dynamic elements together from Louis Andriessen's De Tijd (The Time) learned previously from my composition class which focuses on the contrast between statis (eternity) and progress (time) which gradually develops through 43 minute long whole piece. I also listened to the piece as a background music for space history documentary show in Adler Planetarium (Chicago), and I was really fascinated with the music describing the chronology of the universe as opposed to the fleeting of time. Although this contrast built up lasted for nearly the entirety of 43 minute piece, I could still clearly feel overall direction after trying to approach this slow paced music in longer term... Actually I could find this type of slow transition music from some other minimalistic composers' pieces too...

You can listen to Andriessen's De Tijd here:

Isn't this piece composed by @Pele? Or you are both @nostalgia and @Pele?😛

Actually I accidentally made one more account (Pele) which I will close soon...

@nostalgia

Let me know if you'd like me to merge your accounts, as to not cause confusion. I can merge your Pele account to nostalgia, or nostalgia to pele.

5 minutes ago, chopin said:

@nostalgia

Let me know if you'd like me to merge your accounts, as to not cause confusion. I can merge your Pele account to nostalgia, or nostalgia to pele.

 

Could you merge my account into nostalgia, since this is the one I made previously? Thanks for your help!