"Sunshine", one of my most original miniatures.

What better way to announce my new YC account than with my latest composition? 

This little piece took me around 10 hours of work and I consider it has the most luminous climax I ever composed and one of the most intoxicating endings I have seen for violin and piano duo. I make use of a completely new vocabulary that I never used before or not in such a structured way.

Let me know your thoughts. I personally thing the fragment between measures 20-25 could be improved, but I'm not sure how.

Hey @Ivan1791,

Congrats on your first piece in your new account!

I like the piece. You make use of a lot of quartal and quintal chords, both as melodically and harmonically. They really give breath to the music just like sunshine. I love your “modulation” in b.12. Those high violin double stoppings, and especially those with artificial harmonics, sound like breeze to me. The ending p just sounds like water drops to me.

On 12/30/2024 at 9:33 PM, Ivan1791 said:

I personally thing the fragment between measures 20-25 could be improved, but I'm not sure how.

Personally I think the section could be extended to be a contrasting passage given the different dissonance level there and how different it is with the remaining passages. Also I think maybe it can reach forte or even louder, instead of just mf. 

Thx for sharing and welcome back!

Henry

It is a beautiful piece.
It sounds totally Debussy. I think the treatment of the piano all the time in quasi-percussive mode, except at some points like at the end, detract a bit. It reminds me a lot of Cathédrale Engloutie.
A different matter is the violin. I guess you have mastered its possibilities... Those glissandos with harmonics and glissandos in opposite directions...., are possible. I imagine they are.

Regards.

On 1/3/2025 at 2:17 PM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hey @Ivan1791,

Congrats on your first piece in your new account!

I like the piece. You make use of a lot of quartal and quintal chords, both as melodically and harmonically. They really give breath to the music just like sunshine. I love your “modulation” in b.12. Those high violin double stoppings, and especially those with artificial harmonics, sound like breeze to me. The ending p just sounds like water drops to me.

Personally I think the section could be extended to be a contrasting passage given the different dissonance level there and how different it is with the remaining passages. Also I think maybe it can reach forte or even louder, instead of just mf. 

Thx for sharing and welcome back!

Henry

 

Thank you very much! Yes, it is a nice way to start this new account.

I feel the same way! The noise tone of the harmonics gives it a chill windy feeling.

I agree, I will extend that dark section a bit so the return to A' feels more luminous.

Thank you for the feedback man! I'll try to be more active next month and hopefully help revive this community.

On 1/3/2025 at 8:11 PM, Luis Hernández said:

It is a beautiful piece.
It sounds totally Debussy. I think the treatment of the piano all the time in quasi-percussive mode, except at some points like at the end, detract a bit. It reminds me a lot of Cathédrale Engloutie.
A different matter is the violin. I guess you have mastered its possibilities... Those glissandos with harmonics and glissandos in opposite directions...., are possible. I imagine they are.

Regards.

 

 

Yes, that piece by debussy inspired some of the sonorities of this piece. 🙂

The double glissandos with harmonics should be possible, although the bowing might be very challenging. However the glissando in direct motion that leads to a perfect 5th should be impossible and the violinist should try to simply fake it as better as they can. It's a very difficult piece for the violin anyways, so I don't know if it will be performed anytime soon. Also the piano part is very weird and many pianists would find it annoying I believe.

Hi @Ivan1791 and welcome back to the forum!

From what I can tell you made this piece with Musescore 4.  I think you did a good job overall with the rendition.  One thing that I noticed that could be improved is the realism of your quadruple stops on the Violin.  You can use the arpeggiation symbol usually reserved for keyboard instruments to make the quadruple stops sound more like they would actually sound in an actual performance (since they can't be played all at once the effect is essentially like an arpeggiation).  Then you can just select the arpeggiation symbol and hide it in the properties tab, so it doesn't appear in the score (since the player would understand that that's how the stop should be performed anyway and the arpeggiation symbol is redundant in that sense).  I'm really glad that all those glissandi and harmonics sound so good!  I do like the piece overall but I miss more prominent themes in your music which you always used to include (as far as I remember).  Thanks for sharing!

7 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Hi @Ivan1791 and welcome back to the forum!

From what I can tell you made this piece with Musescore 4.  I think you did a good job overall with the rendition.  One thing that I noticed that could be improved is the realism of your quadruple stops on the Violin.  You can use the arpeggiation symbol usually reserved for keyboard instruments to make the quadruple stops sound more like they would actually sound in an actual performance (since they can't be played all at once the effect is essentially like an arpeggiation).  Then you can just select the arpeggiation symbol and hide it in the properties tab, so it doesn't appear in the score (since the player would understand that that's how the stop should be performed anyway and the arpeggiation symbol is redundant in that sense).  I'm really glad that all those glissandi and harmonics sound so good!  I do like the piece overall but I miss more prominent themes in your music which you always used to include (as far as I remember).  Thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you! I'm glad you liked the piece.

Yes, I think I did that, but I can't control how fast the arpeggios are played I think. So maybe that's why it doesn't sound as natural or realistis. But I hope I can get the piece performed.

With themes you mean melodies that are recognizeable? Yes, this piece lacks a memorable melody. I wanted to give texture and micro motifs a bigger role and build the whole piece with that alone. That's one of the reasons why it sounds quite different from my previous compositions.

I will probably write a few more pieces like this one and create a small set. Of violin and piano miniatures.