Intermezzo in A

This Intermezzo is intended to be the first of four little piano pieces I intend to finish. I write this as relaxation piece after finishing the very heavy String Sextet which would be published in the near future. For me this piece contains some beauty and I hope to maintain simplicity in all four pieces. 

Here is the score and YouTube video:

(Final) Intermezzo in A.pdf

The recording is played by myself and recorded in a rush since it’s completely unplanned to record this one this quick haha. Feel free to comment on this one! Hope you enjoy!

Henry

Kia ora Henry,

Lovely little light piece. Brilliant performance as always.

Ngā mihi,

Arjuna

Hello Henry,

A lovely intermezzo based on a theme from your second sonata, was there a particular motive for quoting yourself?

you've incorporated many compositional techniques organically such as phrase elision and counterpoint, and as with many of your compositions, you never sacrifice emotional expression. I don't really have anything to comment on, just enjoying the piece for it's optimism. 

good stuff 👌

Hello

A very nice and effective piece. The motif is simple but it sticks in your memory.
I like how the half phrases are linked in a kind of elision.
Very interesting harmonic journey and some surprising moments like in measure 16, this makes it more attractive.
Also the contrasting part is very balanced and the final repetition with its ornaments the same.

Thank you. Best regards.

Hey Arjuna,

8 hours ago, expert21 said:

Lovely little light piece. Brilliant performance as always.

Thx! Just wanna write something light after finishing the very heavy Sextet. The performance has some mistakes as the decision to make a recording is completely fortuitous and I never practice the at all until the recording day haha.

Henry

Hi @Mooravioli,

6 hours ago, Mooravioli said:

A lovely intermezzo based on a theme from your second sonata, was there a particular motive for quoting yourself?

you've incorporated many compositional techniques organically such as phrase elision and counterpoint, and as with many of your compositions, you never sacrifice emotional expression. I don't really have anything to comment on, just enjoying the piece for it's optimism. 

good stuff 👌

Thx! There isn’t any particular motive for quoting myself, maybe the only reasonable explanation is laziness. I will have another one in the next piece, that one would be quoting the 1st Sonata’s theme with the key and texture of the 2nd Sonata, a kind of reverse with this Intermezzo.

For me all techniques are only means to serve emotional expression. I would rather express myself without (consciously) using any technique. I do use a lot of motivic coherence and counterpoint here since they seem to be the easiest way to write now, apart from writing fugues which would be quite easy for me now. They can all be written with laziness and idleness since the same material play over and over again haha!

Henry

Hi @Luis Hernández,

2 hours ago, Luis Hernández said:

A very nice and effective piece. The motif is simple but it sticks in your memory.
I like how the half phrases are linked in a kind of elision.
Very interesting harmonic journey and some surprising moments like in measure 16, this makes it more attractive.
Also the contrasting part is very balanced and the final repetition with its ornaments the same.

Yeah I don’t know why I go for that 3+3 1/2 bar structure 10 years ago lol, so I kinda develop that idea 10 years later which is now. The bar 16 modulation to Eb is really surprising in an A major setting, but at do that because I need to coherently modulate to A flat major, which is where I stop 10 years ago. I don’t know how to smoothly to A flat major nor how to move away from it 10 years ago but now I can!

For me I really love the ornamented ending! The contrasting part is just built from the materials from the first section but giving it some harmonic change make it sound contrasting.

Henry

Very Schumanesque ..... Lovely.

Mark

Hi @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu!

This reminds me of the Brahms Intermezzi!  After having listened to it a few times it doesn't bother me as much anymore but the modulation into Ab at bar 20 kinda seemed forced or too sudden for me.  In general whenever you go into the minor version of a previous dominant sonority it was uncomfortable for me.  But I'm used to it now and love the harmonic adventurousness!  Ewww!  What's with the random pause at bar 37?!  And at measure 46 you have a cross-relation between the D in the right hand and the D# in the left in beat 6.  Although I don't think it's a mistake LoL.  I guess I would have done the same thing in the same situation.  The rule I would cite that negates the cross-relation is that you're using the melodic minor scale and since the left hand is ascending and the right is descending it's okay for there to be a difference in chromatic notes in the 6th and 7th degrees of the scale.  It's cool that in measure 72 you make a roulade/fioratura figuration variation of the main theme.  Your main theme is very easily transformed by inserting a whole bunch of 16th notes in between the melodic notes to make it more virtuosic!  Thanks for sharing this fun piece!

Hi Mark @MJFOBOE,

On 3/20/2025 at 9:56 AM, MJFOBOE said:

Very Schumanesque ..... Lovely.

Thank you! Though I do not like early Schumann too much I absolutely love his late period piano works like The Ghost Variation and Waldsznen, simple and calm when he’s in a tumultuous mental state!

Henry

Yo Peter!

On 3/20/2025 at 10:28 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

This reminds me of the Brahms Intermezzi!  After having listened to it a few times it doesn't bother me as much anymore but the modulation into Ab at bar 20 kinda seemed forced or too sudden for me.  In general whenever you go into the minor version of a previous dominant sonority it was uncomfortable for me.  But I'm used to it now and love the harmonic adventurousness!  Ewww!  What's with the random pause at bar 37?!  And at measure 46 you have a cross-relation between the D in the right hand and the D# in the left in beat 6.  Although I don't think it's a mistake LoL.  I guess I would have done the same thing in the same situation.  The rule I would cite that negates the cross-relation is that you're using the melodic minor scale and since the left hand is ascending and the right is descending it's okay for there to be a difference in chromatic notes in the 6th and 7th degrees of the scale.  It's cool that in measure 72 you make a roulade/fioratura figuration variation of the main theme.  Your main theme is very easily transformed by inserting a whole bunch of 16th notes in between the melodic notes to make it more virtuosic!  Thanks for sharing this fun piece!

Yeah god knows why I wanted to modulate to Ab 10 years ago but gosh a past Henry is still a Henry so I retain it and yeah random pause is my characteristic isn’t it and the cross relation is lovely for me haha and the ending is probably my favourite passage and the more virtuosic variation makes the piece less boring haha!

(Trying a Joycian Stream of Consciousness here …)

Henry

Schumann and Brahms were mentioned, but to me this piece brings to mind Schubert. The melody of the theme is simple and elegant and sings like springtime in your ears, the harmony joins so nicely that - I hear this in Schubert a lot - it's not immediately clear if the melody guides the vertical writing or vice versa. That said, I'm not a fan of the sudden chords in b. 24 and 63-4 (esp 63-4). And maybe at b. 46-7 I would have liked to hear the cute descending inciso with the repeated note from b 42-3 and 44-5, but what do I know! But I love love love the c# minor section especially 50-57 with the sixths in b. 54 just very beautiful. Thank you Henry!