Unsent Letter - Cello

A piece I wrote for solo cello and pizzicato ensemble. I'm waiting for your thoughts

A haunting and moody work, filled with a sense of regret.

I especially enjoyed the tonal quality of the cello.

The ostinato in the pizzicato strings is quite relentless, and perhaps could do with more variation; but overall I liked it.

Hello @Albayrak,

The overall texture immediately reminds me the Yumeji's theme in "In the Mood for Love" (a great Hong Kong film!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!):

The piece is quite expressive and introspective that can certainly work well as a movie soundtrack like that of the Yumeji's theme. What I hope more here is more variety in texture, materials and keys if you wanna develop the piece, but if not it still works well as a stylish soundtrack. 

Thx for sharing!

Henry

@Alex Weidmann

Thank you for listening and commenting.I am glad you like it. Yes, there could be some variety, I need to improve myself in accompaniment.

@Henry Ng Tsz Kiu

Hi Henry. I watched this movie, yumeji's theme is really great music. Actually, it came to my mind when I was composing the piece

You are right about variety. The problem is that when I use more materials and variety, I lose the holistic context in my music and it looks like a compostion of inconsistent sentences. I don't know exactly how to overcome this problem, I think I should improve myself more in this regard.

Thanks for listening and your suggestions.

1 hour ago, Albayrak said:

You are right about variety. The problem is that when I use more materials and variety, I lose the holistic context in my music and it looks like a compostion of inconsistent sentences.

I have exactly the same problem. My works are either too repetitive; or too wide ranging, with disunified motifs!

To me the pizzicato accompaniment and the key of the piece in general seem too low.  I think being so low the pizzicato strings sound overly wet although I don't know if lowering the reverb will necessarily address the problem I perceive.  I think the piece also stays in the same range for too long I think it would be a nice respite if there was somewhere a place in the music that ascended to a higher tessitura for all the instruments.  With the whole piece in the same range it cries out for a contrast either by making a different contrasting section or by letting the instruments play in a different key or range at some point in the music.  But that's just my perception of this piece.  Thanks for sharing!

On 10/7/2023 at 3:39 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

To me the pizzicato accompaniment and the key of the piece in general seem too low.  I think being so low the pizzicato strings sound overly wet although I don't know if lowering the reverb will necessarily address the problem I perceive.  I think the piece also stays in the same range for too long I think it would be a nice respite if there was somewhere a place in the music that ascended to a higher tessitura for all the instruments.  With the whole piece in the same range it cries out for a contrast either by making a different contrasting section or by letting the instruments play in a different key or range at some point in the music.  But that's just my perception of this piece.  Thanks for sharing!

 

Hi Peter. Thanks for listening and your thoughts. You are right in what you say. Even though the cello ascend for a short time, I always kept the pizzicato accompaniment low. I have a hard time preventing sounds from mixing when I expand the range, I think this may be related to my inability to go beyond basic harmony knowledge. I need to improve myself in this regard, thanks again