Bagatelle No.2 in E Minor for Piano

Hello everyone, 

I want to share the second Bagatelle I composed. It is a slow tempo Bagatelle in E minor for the piano. Most of my pieces are in a moderate tempo and in major so I wanted to test myself once by composing a slow piece that stays for the whole time in minor.

As my previous Bagatelle, I composed it and played it myself in a Yamaha P-515 digital piano with the Yamaha CFX piano sound. I might have composed some parts differently but, when things got too hard for me to play, I had to simplify them to my level. I did record it with the phone so it has a lot noise and the quality is not good. Also, I made a couple of mistakes here and there but this was the best I could play it. I plan to practice it and record it with better quality but it might take some time.

The piece is in ternary form with the main theme (A) in Emin and a second theme (B) in Bmin. The B theme is restated in the home key (Eminor) before going back to the repetition of the A theme. Since the tempo is slow and the themes themselves quite long there are no repeats in any section.

Any comment and feedback is more than welcome!

Thank you for listening and hope you enjoy it!

Hello @JorgeDavid, I find this piece really sorrowful and melancholic and I wouldn’t have been able to tell that you are not used to write slow pieces in minor if you hadn’t mentioned it.

I find main theme specially beautiful in its simplicity, with a thin texture, driving harmony and  a powerful message of desperation. I find it a perfect theme (and I emphasise the word perfect) theme to write a theme and variations piece. It has lots of opportunities to be transformed in so many different ways. I can think of: a quasi baroque flowing melody in a single line (something like this) form which could emerge other different lines, a climactic chordal bell-like passage, a complete nocrturne-like transformation to major, an even darker somber version in the deep register with minor chromatic mediants, a driving syncopated dramatic march, a triumphant transformation. And possibly, with such a versatile theme you can do practically everything. 

Maybe if you agree for your music to be taken to create a variations piece and @chopin wants, a competition similar to the Brahms lullaby one could be done by youngcomposers 

I also like the harmonic language that you employed here, chromatic, but still clearly tonal, typical from the romantic period.

You could try experimenting with augmented and half diminished chords to create even more expression (sorry if you have done this and I haven’t seen it)

10 hours ago, Jqh73o said:

Hello @JorgeDavid, I find this piece really sorrowful and melancholic and I wouldn’t have been able to tell that you are not used to write slow pieces in minor if you hadn’t mentioned it.

I find main theme specially beautiful in its simplicity, with a thin texture, driving harmony and  a powerful message of desperation. I find it a perfect theme (and I emphasise the word perfect) theme to write a theme and variations piece.

Thank you so much for your nice words, @Jqh73o! I am really glad you liked the main theme! I also considered composing a theme and variation piece from it. However, I had to give the idea up since my compositional skills were not enough and I was having troubles coming up with nice variations (also, many times variations get more virtuosic as the piece evolves, and I am trying to write only things that I can play). That is why I turned it into a ternary piece.

10 hours ago, Jqh73o said:

Maybe if you agree for your music to be taken to create a variations piece and @chopin wants, a competition similar to the Brahms lullaby one could be done by youngcomposers 

I would be okay with that, since it would be helpful for me to learn how different composers that know more than me would deal with the theme. I am not sure that this theme is as good as to deserve such a treatment, though. But I appreciate you suggesting it and considering the theme to be so good for variations!

10 hours ago, Jqh73o said:

I also like the harmonic language that you employed here, chromatic, but still clearly tonal, typical from the romantic period.

You could try experimenting with augmented and half diminished chords to create even more expression (sorry if you have done this and I haven’t seen it)

Thank you! I always had troubles composing in Romantic style so I am slowly trying to analyze romantic pieces and I am glad it is slowly working! I still have troubles, particularly for using diminished harmonies without breaking the flow of the music. I tried adding more expressive augmented and diminished harmonies but I failed making them sound good, so I had to use simpler harmonies more often that I would have liked. 

Thank you so much for listening to the piece and commenting!!

Some lovely thematic and harmonic ideas/material here.  I hear it also as a possible orchestra movement.  There's lots of opportunity to create a rich texture.

Mark

1 hour ago, MJFOBOE said:

Some lovely thematic and harmonic ideas/material here.  I hear it also as a possible orchestra movement.  There's lots of opportunity to create a rich texture.

Mark

 

I was just getting ready to say that...it may even work as a concerto. I can hear the melody being played on a flute, clarinet, or even alto or tenor sax.

This piece is incredibly beautiful. I enjoyed the main theme's thin texture, as it allowed the harmony to shine. You said the A and B sections were both a little long, but I didn't mind the length at all.  You create a very somber mood 1)through your key choice...Em and your harmonic rhythm is very fluid it feels natural - you adjust it in some spots for emphasis, but overall it feels nice. As a pianist, I want to play this piece lol

14 hours ago, MJFOBOE said:

Some lovely thematic and harmonic ideas/material here.  I hear it also as a possible orchestra movement.  There's lots of opportunity to create a rich texture.

Mark

 

Thanks for listening and I am glad you liked it, @MJFOBOE!

I am planning to use my piano pieces as models for learning how to orchestrate in the future, so probably I will try some day to orchestrate this.

Thanks for the comment!

12 hours ago, GospelPiano12 said:

I was just getting ready to say that...it may even work as a concerto. I can hear the melody being played on a flute, clarinet, or even alto or tenor sax.

This piece is incredibly beautiful. I enjoyed the main theme's thin texture, as it allowed the harmony to shine. You said the A and B sections were both a little long, but I didn't mind the length at all.  You create a very somber mood 1)through your key choice...Em and your harmonic rhythm is very fluid it feels natural - you adjust it in some spots for emphasis, but overall it feels nice. As a pianist, I want to play this piece lol

Thanks for the nice words, @GospelPiano12! I am really glad you enjoyed it! 

I am planning to orchestrate it some day in the future so I have been thinking about possible instrumentation too but I never though about the sax! I think the tenor sax would sound really nice during the main melody of the beginning! 

Thanks for listening and commenting!

On 7/18/2024 at 12:51 PM, JorgeDavid said:

Thanks for the nice words, @GospelPiano12! I am really glad you enjoyed it! 

I am planning to orchestrate it some day in the future so I have been thinking about possible instrumentation too but I never though about the sax! I think the tenor sax would sound really nice during the main melody of the beginning! 

Thanks for listening and commenting!

 

Of course - no problem. Sorry my feedback wasn't too in depth, usually I'm a little earlier to the threads, so there's more I can say. 

And yes, the tenor sax, or even a bass clarinet would be 🔥 on the main melody. You have a beautiful piece here already, but I think orchestrating it, and possibly developing it into a concerto would be well worth the time and effort. Good luck 👍🏾

Hi @JorgeDavid,

really a nice piece, very coherent, and well constructed. The melody is really beautiful. Some elements somehow reminded me of Schubert's style. Bars mid-28 to mid-30 seemed a bit out of character. The end is very subtle, nice job!

thanks for sharing!

Julien

18 hours ago, mazeth said:

Hi @JorgeDavid,

really a nice piece, very coherent, and well constructed. The melody is really beautiful. Some elements somehow reminded me of Schubert's style. Bars mid-28 to mid-30 seemed a bit out of character. The end is very subtle, nice job!

thanks for sharing!

Julien

Thank you so much for listening and I am really glad you liked it, @mazeth!

Yes, you are right. I did not realize at first but with continuous listening I became aware that bars 28-29 change a little bit the style. It is like if from a classical style the piece momentarily gets into a more anime/videogame filmy style for two bars (or that is how it sounds to my ears now).  I am considering ways for fixing those bars for make it blend better.

Thank you so much for the comment!