Two dark preludes (composed the old way)

Here you have my last composition. I crafted both preludes without the use of a piano or any other tool. Only pen, paper and my harmony knowledge were used.

I challenged myself to do it this way because they are dedicated to a friend of mine who is a colorblind artist, and that reminded me of Beethoven.

Both preludes use the harmonic minor tetrachord between the V and I degrees. I also make a heavy use of augmented sixths and phrygian inflections.

It is probably my best composition when it comes to quality/length ratio. And it shows where my harmonic tonal limit is without the help of a piano.

I hope all of you enjoy these creepy miniatures. 🙂

I really liked them, my favourite is the second one

4 hours ago, 44W74l4 said:

I really liked them, my favourite is the second one

 

Glad to hear so! The first one is my favourite, but in the second prelude I used harmonies I will use again in the future. 

Good day Ivan,

I really enjoyed both of these preludes, they were very atmospheric and made great use of the piano.  Both these peices reminded me of @luderart's soliquoies and Vince@Thatguy v2.0's Prelude No.11.

Good job.

Kind regards,

Arjuna

On 10/27/2023 at 10:05 PM, expert21 said:

Good day Ivan,

I really enjoyed both of these preludes, they were very atmospheric and made great use of the piano.  Both these peices reminded me of @luderart's soliquoies and Vince@Thatguy v2.0's Prelude No.11.

Good job.

Kind regards,

Arjuna

 

Thank you! I will try to check those if I have some free time. ^^

Hi @Ivan1791,

I love the first one with its chromatic counterpoint and smooth voice leading. For the second prelude, that augmented sixth chord in b.17 is beautiful and even more eerie than a French one. It's interesting that despite the more modern harmonic language, the cadence in b.19 reminds me of a chorale or a motet ends on a picardy third! This one is motivically tight given how you start your phrases with the same intervallic content. And that tritone progression at the end is nastily great. I may just wipe out the arpeggios of the Grave section to make the piece more evilly medieval. Or maybe just end it again in a forceful Picardy that makes it darker.

Thx for sharing! I love these two preludes.

Henry

On 10/30/2023 at 4:28 AM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hi @Ivan1791,

I love the first one with its chromatic counterpoint and smooth voice leading. For the second prelude, that augmented sixth chord in b.17 is beautiful and even more eerie than a French one. It's interesting that despite the more modern harmonic language, the cadence in b.19 reminds me of a chorale or a motet ends on a picardy third! This one is motivically tight given how you start your phrases with the same intervallic content. And that tritone progression at the end is nastily great. I may just wipe out the arpeggios of the Grave section to make the piece more evilly medieval. Or maybe just end it again in a forceful Picardy that makes it darker.

Thx for sharing! I love these two preludes.

Henry

 

Glad to hear you liked it Henry! Yes, I found that lydian appoggiatura to give a pretty eerie vibe in the augmented sixth. I agree the second prelude is close to a chorale, that is the texture pretty much haha.

I also was unsure how to end the second prelude so I opted to use a dramatic arpeggio and use the Eb to D dissonance that appears in the start motif.

Thanks for commenting!