# A prelude for solo piano



## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

View attachment Prelude No. 1 atta 8.mid

View attachment Prelude No. 1 attach.pdf


I composed this a minute ago. What do you think?


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

What are you going for here? 

Are you aiming for a modern style piano work, or one that is more informed by the older styles?


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Novelette said:


> What are you going for here?
> 
> Are you aiming for a modern style piano work, or one that is more informed by the older styles?


Not sure :lol:....


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

You IMPROVISED this a minute ago, and it sounds just that, a very closed-loop idea briefly made out at the keyboard -- though I will say there are a few harmonic changes which sound more thought about, here, there 

There is a good reason for writing down the very first few bars only and then proceeding... you can then look at it and consider what may come next which is not so generated by your hands as much or more as your ears. Right now, it sounds so much like it was primarily and predominantly your fingers which did the talking, and not your inner ear dictating what the music wanted to be.

What you have is a piece made up of several ideas, configurations. The left hand is quite transparently limited by your mechanical reflexes at the keyboard, which is so technically limited it almost seems like afterthought. Your left-hand role there, through the entire piece, is anything but interesting, or working well enough to be of any real interest to the whole.

There is nothing wrong with many a sort of cliche configuration -- they exist because they work very well on the instrument. But, "penny of the realm" which has passed through so many hands they are, you have to know better how and where to spend them in order that they do not sound horribly cliche.

*Not knowing what sort of piece, or the basic nature of the type of piece you are writing, or performing for that matter, is near criminal,* and most to the point completely useless to you as the composer. _*One must have a point of view, or what comes out is not clear.*_ Even with music such as Debussy, which is highly ambiguous to the listener, that ambiguity is highly calculated and intelligent. ERGO: *soon after you have an idea, any initial idea, try and determine what the individual characteristics of that idea are, and try and let that be a guide to whatever follows.* (Knowing the character helps you recognize parts which are part of the piece, and those which should be set aside.)

It sounds "contemporary" as in contemporary popular piano music, a bit "new-age" -- while being a little bit like a piece meant as a performable exercise for beginning piano students, maybe mid-way in the beginner phase.

I would look at it clinically, like a surgeon, which means having no love or pride for it (difficult with anything you are making or have just completed) and take apart what are clearly various sections, examine them under a microscope, and see which of those are really worth keeping Then, *with manuscript paper and pencil in hand,* at the keyboard, start reworking them, _*note by note and measure by measure*_ and see how far you can take it.

Yes, that is real work, and time-consuming. There is nothing wrong with taking little time and having worthwhile music come out: here though, the little time is sounding like you spent only a little time on it. For most, composition is real work, and not the flow from the pen or keyboard as it was for only a few of the more legendary classical and jazz musicians. So, back to the drafting table, and work.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

I think my problem is I can't write for piano. I can play it but can't compose for it. 

Here are 2 compositions for orchestra. Any better? 
http://musescore.com/user/81525/scores/100412 - Very much inspired by Brahms's 4th.
http://musescore.com/user/81525/scores/99047


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

The midi mush is severe and detracting. That said, the doublings again tell me that you've generated a few things into the computer, via midi keyboard or writing them in, and then you copied and pasted, doubling nearly everything throughout the instrumental sections. This ends up, better midi or actual players, an indistinct mush without a clear timbrel color -- it also does not at all "direct the ear" of the listener -- we get a wall of the notes, nothing pulling our ear more specifically this way or that.

A word to you and all those working without mentors / teachers: for now, give up the idea of the symphony, the concerto, or other large forms. Old style or contemporary, you have none of the understanding, or more accurately, experience, to make a "formal" larger scale piece with any possible hopes of it hanging together. That learning, practice bringing experience, is just not under your belt yet.

_I am a nagging tape loop or old LP with a repeat skip in it as to the following:_*
Manuscript paper and pencil / pen first, then put it into the computer. The reason is simple, and has to do with how our brain works. Write it down, you have the "luxury" of looking at it. The time it takes is also time you get to contemplate what you are writing, its nature, and what, really, you wish to do with it, and what it requires to be "of itself." The computer, the typewriter, allows for getting things down quickly, is invaluable for catching an improvisation, which can later then be revised, developed, etc. Buuuut...

Far too many use the computer directly, and simply cave in to what the program most obviously does most readily. Copy, Paste. Copy and Paste has little or nothing to do with how one decides which is and is not any part of any piece.*

Not being at all strong on form myself, this advice should be that much more resonant: Stick to ideas suitable for shorter pieces, perhaps a rondo, or some simpler form other than Sonata - allegro -- i.e. that first movement of a symphony, or that double exposition Sonata Allegro of a concerto.

Some I know, more formalist than I, conceive of a piece first by what form it is to be in, and the ideas for the musical material follows or comes simultaneously. Those of us less gifted or able must work that much more to find how to make a kind of overall sense of what we compose.

Your thematic sketch is very old school romantic -- not wrong, but even if brilliantly executed, there is no real market for such a piece since so many masterpieces within the vocabulary and genre already exist. As an exercise, fine, as a new piece to presented to the world, not.

But, what you have there, if you wish to pursue it, could easily be executed with a chamber ensemble, a select handful of instruments, sextet, octet, strings and winds -- and that limitation will force you to more directly consider the instruments, instrumental writing, and not only be of much greater benefit to you but have a greater chance of ending up as a successful movement or piece. In your blocked out all-doublings rendering, I get a notion you have no idea of writing for, say, Clarinet, or a wind quartet as a section, even.

So, where those weaknesses are, that lack of experience, is exactly where you should start insofar as setting up a project for yourself. The other reward past what is learned is that you then also have a truly viable chance of making and completing a successful movement or piece, rather than a brief start and then having no idea what to do or where to go with it.

Completion, and even a bit of a successful one, is a great and encouraging learning experience. Setting out to write symphonies and concerti where one is lost and or overwhelmed after an initial statement is not only frustrating, but it teaches you nothing.

The pith of it all is that you do not yet have much command, do have some real ability, and orchestral or piano, it all needs the same kind of applied thought and work if you hope to take it further.

ADD: Composing is writing, until you practice writing, all the computer does is tempt you to not write, but block out, cut and paste, and edit a bit. Right now, you are patently playing into what the software does most readily, and that is not a help. After more "real writing" experiences, you will more reflexively use the computer to make it do what you want it to do!


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

PetrB said:


> _I am a nagging tape loop or old LP with a repeat skip in it as to the following:_*
> Manuscript paper and pencil / pen first, then put it into the computer. The reason is simple, and has to do with how our brain works. Write it down, you have the "luxury" of looking at it. The time it takes is also time you get to contemplate what you are writing, its nature, and what, really, you wish to do with it, and what it requires to be "of itself." The computer, the typewriter, allows for getting things down quickly, is invaluable for catching an improvisation, which can later then be revised, developed, etc. Buuuut...
> 
> Far too many use the computer directly, and simply cave in to what the program most obviously does most readily. Copy, Paste. Copy and Paste has little or nothing to do with how one decides which is and is not any part of any piece.*


I could not agree more emphatically. I've often found that the music that I put to paper first has more of a natural [that is, unforced] sound to it. When I input music directly onto the computer, first, I'm much too self-conscious about immediate progressions, without much attention upon what is to follow.


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## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)

Very Bright and nice, would be nice to see it further developed...

Saul


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I want to add, publicly, this addendum, directed at Young Mr. Burroughs -- or young composer Burroughs, at least.

All the blunt / brusque advice does not mean I think you should give it up. You have an obvious bit of ability and facility. I only urge you to be in less haste, be less in love with even the best you make, and take more care and time, consciously thinking about what you are doing. Many a non-success or near-success is likely to come from that, but no less than this improvised prelude, and your progress toward a more 'solid' bit of music writing will be that much greater.

In other words, do keep at it.

Best regards.


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