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Thank you Tim, for sharing your thoughts on the Pieces. I am quite glad that you noticed the Bill Evans influence in some of the pieces, most notably the Sonata. To be honest with you, I spent a lot of time listening to his live performance of My Foolish Heart, which gave me a lot of insight to writing the Third Movement of the Sonata. Speaking of the Third Movement of the Piece, when considering what sort of title goes to a piece, I don't usually have any convictions that lead to relating a piece to a name. What I do is relate the structure of a piece to a title. In this case. there are four movements. the first seems to follow a Modified form of Sonata Allegro form. the second movement is Slow. and the Third Movement (if you listen carfully)is actually a Minuet and Trio which leads into a Finale Rhapsody/Rondo Movement. However, if I understand you correctly, It isn't common to attach such a classical term as "Sonata" to a more modern sounding piece I have also though about this. In that regard I have considered some other approaches such as maybe writing a Jazz style Singing sort of (lady in the red dress sits on the piano with the spot light on her)piece. If not, I'll probably just do a Fantasy, or even a medium length Tone Poem based on these themes.
I think I agree with you on the level of virtuosity required for these pieces. It is just too much work. I remember being able to play most of these pieces when I first wrote them. But since it has been some years now (especially since I haven't played seriously in quite some time), when I go back to play them, I can hardly get past the first few measures. So I think that with the current evolution of my musical style, when I start up writing again, there will be a vast difference, and the Music will probably be technically simple-intermediate.
I'm a great fan of your work, you should get these published if they aren't already, you are a wonderful composer. I greatly enjoyed your comical impromptu, very animated piece, energetic and amusing to play and listen to. Your Grande Valse is brilliant, you have used some wonderful techniques in the composition, as well the variations throughout, very brilliant indeed. Where did you study composition and/or piano? (If you're not self taught?) I hope you keep up the inspiring work, looking forward to more...maybe a concerto. All best
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Currently working on~ Piano .Beethoven appassionata sonata .Chopin opus 25 and opus 10 (24 etudes) Violin .Saint Saens- Introduction and Rondo capriccioso .Bruch- violin concerto no 1
Thanks for the Comments, I'll be working on getting the music published. Most of My music study came from the various music teachers and the Royal Conservatory. I have a lot of time now, so there might be a concerto in the works at some point.
The sound comes from the computer. I can't afford an orchestra performance at this point, Although one would be nice. There is a four or five min cadenza in there. So it really something like 14 minutes.
With the way this First Movement is set up You could Probably listen to it in five-six Minute Intervals. On YouTube I try to leave comments time links for those who don't want to listen from the beginning, yet have an idea of what is going on in the piece.
1st movement is 19 minutes?!?!?! yikes! (Promise to listen and comment later on, but...).
The first Movement is quite Long. I was planning on making this a four movement concerto With a second movement being a Menuet, Third as a Largo/Andante Movement, and then the Finale, but with almost 20 min taken up, I might have to either Cut out a movement, make a movement optional, or Shorten the lengths of some of the movements. I could possibly even shorten this movement, I just don't know where I would make the cuts. That's where maybe others thoughts might be helpful. In any regard, I am glad to receive any comments, criticisms, advise etc.....
I think that it's very very nice. It's in a highly romantic idiom, with some quite Rachmaninov-y lush movements on the strings... The orchestration is quite there already, and the piano writing is pleasantly solo-istic!
I've heard 1/3rd of the work so far, but I'll say that one thing that's missing for me is a faster part of the movement, something that picks up. I'm assuming that there will be something going faster later on in the movement, but right now it's already starting to be missing in my head...
Yup... highly romantic! Very romantic! There is a little movement going on, but it's in general a tad slow for my taste.
The following is personal: It somehow feels that you had so much romantic feelings inside that you couldn't hold them and you let it all out to 'choke' the audience with your 19 minutes of romantic music (or 14 without the cadenza)...
Still this is quite an achievement and I congratulate you fully for that! Very well done!
Yup... highly romantic! Very romantic! There is a little movement going on, but it's in general a tad slow for my taste. Still this is quite an achievement and I congratulate you fully for that! Very well done!
I found myself asking the same questions as I was writing this piece. Basically, "when does the allegro section come in"? I tried adding a semi-Allegro section at around 7 minutes,(Which also repeats right before the Cadenza) but before I knew it, I had written 19 min of music. I think What I might do is change my plans for this concerto a bit, and write a fast movement/scherzo instead of a traditional Slow movement as a 3rd movement, and I'll save those Ideas for another work.