white phosphorus (prelude/vignette)

@Ivan1791's habit of writing "dark preludes" kind of inspired me. also toru takemitsu

Hey @jejrekmek,

I don’t feel the piece in C minor at all, but as really love this! Your motivic usage is great throughout the piece. There are many dissonance in the piece but they are made with smooth voice leading. The high register passage in b.2s is very lovely! As in @Ivan1791’s preludes the thick texture really help create the mysterious mood as in Scriabin’s later music, which I am totally unfamiliar at all. Thx for sharing!

Henry

It sounds like you have a really squeaky piano bench! LoL 🤣 How did you conceive of this harmonically?  Did you think of the harmony in terms of Bartok's axis system or set theory or something?  It'd be great to hear/see you break down how you thought of this piece.  I also don't exactly hear the last chords as a clear tonic, but it does sound very mysterious and teeming and charged.  And I love it!  I'm tempted to think you're conceiving of the harmony through the axis system because you end on a kind of C minor/Gb augmented major 7 which are both considered tonic category chords in the axis system.  Thanks for sharing!

1 hour ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

It sounds like you have a really squeaky piano bench! LoL 🤣 How did you conceive of this harmonically?  Did you think of the harmony in terms of Bartok's axis system or set theory or something?  It'd be great to hear/see you break down how you thought of this piece.  I also don't exactly hear the last chords as a clear tonic, but it does sound very mysterious and teeming and charged.  And I love it!  I'm tempted to think you're conceiving of the harmony through the axis system because you end on a kind of C minor/Gb augmented major 7 which are both considered tonic category chords in the axis system.  Thanks for sharing!

 

all I know about axis theory is that it has to do with transposing chords across minor thirds, which is something I do. tbh I mostly wrote the harmony on intuition. I can give some random thoughts

the opening chords are built on two sets of minor sixths, the left hand moving up a minor third and the right hand moving down a semitone.

I view m. 10 and m. 45-48 as extended V-I's (Db to Gb). the extensions leave us only a glimpse of the dominant-tonic relationship, which gives the sense of a lost innocence or something of that nature

as for the the messiaen-like section at m. 22, it's grounded in pedal points cycling in major thirds (E, C, Ab). The section concludes with the Ab pedal tone, which acts as a iv chord to Eb minor. (and in modulating to Eb minor, the right hand plays  B-D#-A#, and then plays D-F#-C#, so there's more of those minor-third shenanigans). The "bell" chords in the high registers of the piano have a few recurring elements. oftentimes there is a chord in the left hand which is played simultanenously an octave or two up, only moved down a semitone, creating a major-seventh dissonance in every single note.  (example: m. 22, Eb minor over E minor). I often use Minor-major seven chords, augmented major seven chords, minor major sevens with a raised fifth, and minor major sevenths with a flat fifth. so in m.33-34, I constructed the chords as a G# minor-maj7 sharp 5 with an Eb melody on top; G minor-major7 sharp 5 with a Db melody on top; and B minor-maj7 sharp 5 with an F# beneath, respectively.

you may also notice a couple occurrences of chords with a two major thirds separated by a major-seventh interval. (example: m. 54, C E B D#).

another note on m. 53-54. I constructed this as another one of those "uncanny-valley" V-I's, being G to C. The G chord is: G, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, and the C is the aforementioned: C, E, B, D#. However these two chords are interrupted by another chord: Bb, Gb, D, F. so calling it a V-I is an even bigger stretch. however that intercepting chord was constructed as being a Gb augmented major-seventh chord, which is a tritone away from C, so I guess there's more of that axis-theory stuff.

the ending sets up a V-I to Eb minor: Bb, D, Ab, C#. and then B, D, Ab, Bb, which I saw as a Bb dominant chord with a b natural in the base. Then the base jumps down F, and the D, Ab, and Bb are repurposed as the natural sixth, minor third, and fourth of an F minor chord, which "resolves" to the final extended C minor chord.

there's also a few sus shapes in this piece. I'm particularly a fan of this, i guess it's a major-add4 chord in second inversion. for example, in m. 38 on the third beat, the right hand plays a sus 2 shape: Eb, F, Bb, while a D plays in the base, creating this particular chord.

I also realized there's a type in m. 31 on the second beat, the left hand says E and G when it should be C and E.