# Miniature for Jazz Ensemble



## aleazk

I have not decided yet if I want to expand it to a longer piece, but that would be a long term project.


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https://soundcloud.com/aleazk%2Fminiatures-for-jazz-ensemble


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## Rhythm

I’m loving your compositions! The list began the concerto after the miniature, and that makes three times listening to it. 

I’ve been curious about the instrumentation. Is your music composed by your input via a keyboard with a midi? You see I don’t have the language to ask my question properly. Even so, the compositions give my ears quite something new for listening. 
Thanks


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## PetrB

Hate the samples, as usual. I wish the least of beginners had the best instrumental samples at their disposal. What you make, though, hugely lessens that complaint, though I'm sure both composer and listeners wish for the best samples, and / or a decent recording of live players.... ["It is just a matter of money," ha haaa.]

I wouldn't have minded a bit more of the instrumental, with a breathing space in the piano's role, and / or some more variant of the density in the piano part.

_Whatever you have shown us, you never fail to engage the listener._ The verve, some innate sense of musical humor, seem to be ever present. What that amounts to is the music itself has a distinct personality -- yours.

Congratulations.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Certainly sounds like the beginning, or perhaps a fast section, of a longer work. The end is very abrupt and I keep feeling like I want more! Yes please do expand.


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## Piwikiwi

What kind of woodwind do you intend to use?


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## Crudblud

I don't really have anything to say that hasn't already been said. It's a fun, engaging miniature.

If you're interested, I'd be happy to do a rendering with better samples.


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## PetrB

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Certainly sounds like the beginning, or perhaps a fast section, of a longer work. The end is very abrupt and I keep feeling like I want more! Yes please do expand.


Leaving the listener with a feeling they want more can be infinitely more desirable than....


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## PetrB

aleazk said:


> I have not decided yet if I want to expand it to a longer piece, but that would be a long term project.
> 
> 
> __
> https://soundcloud.com/aleazk%2Fminiatures-for-jazz-ensemble


A number of models to ponder.

Elliott Carter ~ Eight Etudes and a Fantasy. The Etudes are studies on one interval bandied about for only several minutes, i.e. they are very brief. Those eight elements are all put into play in the fantasia.

A multi-movement piece, all short movements, still overall relatively brief, say five to seven sections.

A fusion of some of the two formats named above.

Increasing returns: start out with a trio, expand and add the instruments until the final movement, which is for the full ensemble.

Diminishing returns: the reverse of the above -- trickier, in that the listener can feel more and more shortchanged, or if you avoid that pitfall, the opposite is possible, i.e. the full instrumental palette first, and then less and less instruments for each of the following movements can become that much more increasingly incisive, taut, and intense.

Keep this movement, if it can be extended, I cannot imagine there is that much more it can bear, it is a brief idea, I think pretty near complete as it is, at least unless you really undo a lot of it and then 'something else.' I would suggest reworked just a bit, and have it be one of a handful of short movements en suite.

It is still quite fun as it now is


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## tdc

Really, really enjoyed this - well done.


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## aleazk

Rhythm said:


> I'm loving your compositions! The list began the concerto after the miniature, and that makes three times listening to it.
> 
> I've been curious about the instrumentation. Is your music composed by your input via a keyboard with a midi? You see I don't have the language to ask my question properly. Even so, the compositions give my ears quite something new for listening.
> Thanks


Hi, thanks for listen. No, I compose everything "on paper". My methods are somewhat "system based": I start with some material, and then I have a couple of techniques for making transformations of that material, all this is done on the score. I try always to be constructive, i.e., derive the rest of the piece from this initial material and the transformations (in this piece, all is done with the material presented in the first bars). I worked in the same way in the piano concerto (in that piece I feel all this methods can be heard more clearly, this miniature is really too short for that).


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## aleazk

PetrB said:


> Hate the samples, as usual. I wish the least of beginners had the best instrumental samples at their disposal. What you make, though, hugely lessens that complaint, though I'm sure both composer and listeners wish for the best samples, and / or a decent recording of live players.... ["It is just a matter of money," ha haaa.]
> 
> I wouldn't have minded a bit more of the instrumental, with a breathing space in the piano's role, and / or some more variant of the density in the piano part.
> 
> _Whatever you have shown us, you never fail to engage the listener._ The verve, some innate sense of musical humor, seem to be ever present. What that amounts to is the music itself has a distinct personality -- yours.
> 
> Congratulations.


Thanks, Petr. Yes, you are right about the other instruments, I could have used them a little bit more. Also, I don't like the fact that I only used them for long lines. For the next piece I will try something more motif-based and also I will break the lines (Klangfarbenmelodie). I didn't use a double bass, that's one of the reasons I had to rely on the piano for some bass parts. I would say I made a couple of odd decisions in this piece, just for "trying" I guess.


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## aleazk

Piwikiwi said:


> What kind of woodwind do you intend to use?


Bass clarinet and tenor & baritone saxs. Do you think there's something unplayable perhaps?


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## aleazk

PetrB said:


> I would suggest reworked just a bit, and have it be one of a handful of short movements en suite.
> 
> It is still quite fun as it now is


Yes, that would be the most practical solution. But I think I will wait until I have more free time, so I can think what to do with this.


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## aleazk

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Certainly sounds like the beginning, or perhaps a fast section, of a longer work. The end is very abrupt and I keep feeling like I want more! Yes please do expand.


Yes, it's a possibility. Right now I like more PetrB's suite idea, but I have to think.


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## Piwikiwi

aleazk said:


> Bass clarinet and tenor & baritone saxs. Do you think there's something unplayable perhaps?


No I just couldn't hear it because of the midi, I played tenor myself and the saxophone is very flexible so it probably won't be a problem


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