The Pasture

This is a setting of Robert Frost's beautiful poem that I wrote around Easter 2018. Included is an annotated copy with things i'm unsure about. Any feedback is appreciated

Hi @user011235!

I was about to go back to your Overture in G and move it to the Incomplete Works forum but decided against it because it doesn't seem like an incomplete work.  It's just a juvenile piano work.  This piece too I feel like actually sounds complete and should go in the vocal music forum - I can move it there if you want!  This piece is quite wonderful btw.  Once again, I feel like most of your annotations are trivialities.  I think whether you put accents in the beginning is a matter of how you want your rendition to sound and how your program handles them.  A person performing this on piano would know to bring out those notes slightly because they introduce a new chromatic note.  Even just the fact that it's a chromatic note naturally brings it out and it's on a strong beat so yeah.  At this tempo, the 16th notes in measures 11 and 31 are fine I think and real performers would probably take those phrases at a slight rubato tempo or slightly slower at least.  I think the beam of the top voice in the left hand in measure 18 could be split between beats 3 and 4 to make it look nicer but other than that it's not really problematic either.  At measure 19, I'm not sure what you mean by double stops.  Double stops are chords that are usually played on two different strings on string instruments.  That term is not usually used in piano music since you're not stopping the strings to produce the sound with a different length of string.  Do you mean chords harmonized in 6th and 5ths?  I didn't really notice that that passage lacked harmonic definition so unless you plan on beefing up the harmony throughout the rest of the piece to continue its consistency then I'd advise against it.  In measure 26 I vote for it to be a grace note, but you're the composer - if you made it like two 16th notes, to me the 16th note motion might imply that the rest of the piece (at least the left hand) should be in 16th notes as well as a kind of variation of the beginning.  I think measure 34 is a wonderful chromatic moment!  Not too dramatic at all - or rather it's a very much welcome drama.  Measures 44 - 46 I think your idea of using the phrasing marks as you have annotated isn't confusing at all and would quite natural for the pianist to interpret.  What you could also add is phrasing marks for the voice which I think is way more important as it would let the singer know when you expect them to breathe and how long you expect them to sing without interruption.  Thanks for sharing this wonderful pastoral song!

@PeterthePapercomPoser Thank you for another review! Many of the annotated issues may be trivial but they're things that bug me whenever i've looked back at this piece

The notes you gave on the annotations and the couple of other things really help me

43 minutes ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

At measure 19, I'm not sure what you mean by double stops.  Double stops are chords that are usually played on two different strings on string instruments.  That term is not usually used in piano music since you're not stopping the strings to produce the sound with a different length of string.  Do you mean chords harmonized in 6th and 5ths?  I didn't really notice that that passage lacked harmonic definition so unless you plan on beefing up the harmony throughout the rest of the piece to continue its consistency then I'd advise against it.

 

Yes, excuse me, I meant adding thirds and fourths or fifths and sixths, just to make the piano's solo bit sound richer

43 minutes ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

This piece too I feel like actually sounds complete and should go in the vocal music forum - I can move it there if you want!

 

Sure, if you would! Thank you again for the kind words and feedback. I think i'll post a revised pdf here in the replies with phrase markings in the voice as you suggested

Updated score now with phrase markings in the voices denoting when to breathe. Though in m. 9-13 i left them out, because the singer could either breathe between 13 and 14 or after "way" in 11