# My Toccata (Sort of)



## Manok

This is what I came up with after a few tries at it. I'm still not totally satisfied, I would really appreciate some opinions.

View attachment Toccata in C Minor.mp3


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

:clap: Well done! A great effort! It sounded quite good, but could you post the sheet music somewhere so I can give it a more in-depth report?


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## Manok

I will as soon as it is written.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Oh. Hehe. Write it on manuscript paper.


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## Manok

No more opinions?


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## Kopachris

Ooh. Do you have a clearer recording? Because I really like this. Very powerful, and I like the structure.


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## Manok

I suppose I could clean this one up, but no I don't.


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## PetrB

My first thought only a few seconds in, was, exactly, "This is not written down." and I can hear that -- a set improvisation, with a few piano player's mistaken hesitations.

You need it notated, or it is An Improvisation, and sorry to be pedantic, not a 'composition.' More to the benefit of having it written down, you can Look At It and see first for yourself where areas might be weak or lacking something.

Since you've recorded it, you can then look at it while listening as well.

The more lyric section seems a real stumble, uncertain, and more adrift than to a point, and really comes all too late in the overall 'picture.' To me, in proportion to the overall piece, it is also too brief: the traditional lyric section of a toccata is often where there is a bit of 'development' before the piece returns to its ostinato and ultimate close.

Write it down!


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## hreichgott

I agree with PetrB sort of. I think you need to map out the structure more fully than you have. A lot more fully. Whether or not you write down all the notes. There are a lot of places where it sounds like you're "vamping" waiting for the next idea to come to you. The ideas that are here are good. What you need to do next is sort out what to keep, what to toss, what to put in what order and how all the parts relate to each other.
If you want to move it to the level of a composition instead of a pretty good improvisation, that is.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

^ You guys are too harsh- its a composition


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## PetrB

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> ^ You guys are too harsh- its a composition


You can thank Stockhausen and all the others of the Darmstadt crowd, ca late 1950's - 60's for changing that!

Until the late sixties, to gain a copyright, _any music had to be written in standard notation_. There was in that period a brisk business for those good at taking dictation, hired by the record companies to write down some basic sheet music for all the pop, jazz and other musics which had been recorded by their recording musicians who did not know notation.

The Darmstadt crowd lobbied to change that copyright law. They were classical composers who well knew how to notate, but who were making electronic music (often non-pitched) for which there was no prior notational convention.

To get those works copyrighted, they had to get inventive:they produced graphs, with notations about which equipment was on what settings, and what sounds were processed, in order to make some sort of 'map' of the piece already done in a medium ready to play. (Some of those 'scores' have an art-worthy aesthetic all of their own.) But, since those pieces were never intended to ever be played from score, were set in a medium for playback (tape, or recorded to disc) the time involved to literally invent a score from thin air was resented.

That lobbying was successful. From about the late 1960's the copyright law was changed: now, anything recorded, or considered -- according to Wiki, "a single acoustic event (a live performance or recorded track)" is now called a 'composition.'

It is still best, if this composer wants to render a score others can play (I would think he would want that) to learn how to notate. There are advantages, too, of having the work as it is in progress, on paper, to look at, think about, sketch upon, etc.

New word usage or not, if you want to be taken seriously as 'a composer,' and you are composing for others to perform those works, notation is a must.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Good to hear, so all my stuff on my blog is safe then.................. Don't think there is too much risk of anyone pirating Eddie thou. Maybe I could creat my our pirates - by pirating my own work, bit like beat the boots by Zappa lol.


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## PetrB

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Good to hear, so all my stuff on my blog is safe then.................. Don't think there is too much risk of anyone pirating Eddie thou. Maybe I could creat my our pirates - by pirating my own work, bit like beat the boots by Zappa lol.


Yes, currently, recorded, on-line meets the legal definition of "published."

As for pirating your own stuff, and making a public to do of it, well, in this sort of "Woe, what a world!" bumping yourself up, under cover, is quite common 

Here is another way to readily get tons of hits and comments.... deliberately misspell a number of the more prominent or key words in your squib -- oceans of people will immediately descend upon the site, LOL.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

PetrB said:


> Yes, currently, recorded, on-line meets the legal definition of "published."
> 
> As for pirating your own stuff, and making a public to do of it, well, in this sort of "Woe, what a world!" bumping yourself up, under cover, is quite common
> 
> Here is another way to readily get tons of hits and comments.... deliberately misspell a number of the more prominent or key words in your squib -- oceans of people will immediately descend upon the site, LOL.


Damn - you know abooout the spiiileeling thing!


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## PetrB

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Damn - you know abooout the spiiileeling thing!


Like finding out that some people actually think how many friends you have on facebook is something cool or important (or, similarly,number of likes on TC  I was informed of the misspell / bad grammar schtick by much younger and hipper non-geezers: as a geezer, that sort of data always surprises, then makes me laugh.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

PetrB said:


> Like finding out that some people actually think how many friends you have on facebook is something cool or important (or, similarly,number of likes on TC  I was informed of the misspell / bad grammar schtick by much younger and hipper non-geezers: as a geezer, that sort of data always surprises, then makes me laugh.


See you got a like............


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