Hi Steve,
I saw your post where you stated that one should critique three, was it? pieces before submitting any of their own. You also seemed to complain that this submission wasn't paid enough attention to regarding comments I assume.
I've found throughout my own decades in the vast wasteland, a colloqialism of mine for the big trash heap which is the internet too often, that there exists a generalized apathy I think from the effects of social networks being really more unsocial in nature, desensitization and all. But I digress.
Congratulations on getting a performance of your piece!
I listened, not to fulfill your submission requirement as I do orchestral pieces (virtual) and this of course being a piano forum, so not for me, both by context and choice as I would have to have an academia based respect for said reviewers to receive criticisms, myself.
Most composers who receive wide praise in their little places on the internet have a clique in said little places to applaud them. I always found these little cliques to be detestable as I realized most never pursued beginning or advanced degrees in Composition, and this being the age of gratification or whatever, the me the Godhead movement and God save me, Millennials...
The harmonies in your main rhythm motif evade me. They seem to want to be whole tone, or quartel, but they aren't. Then at times you approach a pseudo diatonic, so I didn't quite get it. That's just me and I certainly don't intend to disvalue your piece.
I also found often what I think is an over-emphasis on simple scale passages that exist unto themselves. The block dotted rhythm motif which varies somewhat harmonically but does not develop much in my opinion, then scales over and over again.
I understand how you may be exploiting the tritone since it is the symmetric dividing point but I am not aware of any pitch center so I tend to think it more a free chromaticism. In Grad School, back in the dark ages, we were using invertible polar matrixes buiit of course around the tritone. I loved it because I could do it on the subway and my Professor was happy with what I felt deep down to be drivel. My love for said technique of pitch hierarchy ended after I graduated and was free to discard it!
You had a section where a left hand bass line combined with more of the above created much more interest, to me. I liked that part and would have liked more of it.
I look for layers, both in orchestration and piano music. I did not find layers here.
I also noted your advice to beginning composers in another thread. Myself, the only advice I ever gave to beginning composers was do not try to do the famous page every Composition student looks at in "The Rite Of Spring".
Congrats again on the upcoming performance and best wishes in your composing!
