# Please Review my Sonata



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Stream Pino | Listen to Arra Sonata playlist online for free on SoundCloud 

My Masterwork.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Mods, pls move to composers section.


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## prlj (10 mo ago)

If you drown it in reverb, and maybe even add a little bit of delay, it fits right in with the countless other solo piano offerings out there in the Ludovio Einaudi style. Tonal, pleasant, warm, clam. 

I like it. 

When the piece ended, it automatically moved on to The Five Song, which I am also enjoying as I type this post.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

I'm always disheartened when a songwriter or composer puts their heart and soul on the line, and asks strangers to "*Please Review my ____"*

Usually the composer has a high opinion of their own work, but are seeking validation disguised as a request for an honest evaluation. As with ANY work, criticisms are easy, and praise can be faked. 

*Criticisms* are also *subjective*. If you were to ask for an evaluation for some Rap song you've created, I'd probably find fault with it, even if it's a great Rap song.

So . . . I'll listen, and I'll be honest, but you also call it your "*Masterwork*", with places the bar even _higher_. You also have us all at a disadvantage here as well; It's unclear if the four songs are a suite making up the Sonata, or whether the one stand-alone track is your 'Sonata'. We're unclear as to the intent and style and genre (or subgenre), if it's your first or 100th composition, whether you're 11 years old or 44 years old or 88 years old. There's just the catchall tag of "Sonata", and the titles of the tracks.

But I'll assume that your've promoting it as a four movement *Sonata. *And that comes with a higher bar of assessment. 

_I. Arra_
_II. The Five Song
III. Spun_
_IV. Starry Night_

Right off the starting gate, *Arra* seems more like a *Prelude*. I instantly hear the *Starry Night* motif. So, it's pretty.

Into the *2nd mvt*.: I'm hearing a distinctive compositional "style": Chords change on downbeats, and last for one or two measures. Always.

Rhythms are repetitive; for instance, in the *2nd mvt*. you're in 5/4 for 2/3 of the track (hence the title *"The Five Song"*) and the rhythm does not vary from the dotted quarter, dotted quarter, quarter, quarter. It changes to a nice faux polyphony for the end - a 6/8 against a nuanced 3/4 meter.

The *3rd movement* has some _interesting_ and more complex harmonizations (dissonances). It's also in 6/8 with a mild 3/4 accenting. It has some shape (it slowly builds to a minor climax).

*4th mvt*. has some development. I like the mixolydian chord clusters in the opening and closing arpeggiated figures. 

All of the tracks are distinctly tonal, which places them firmly in a genre that most of us love, but is decidedly 19th Century. 

And I don't think this technically qualifies as a *"Sonata"*. When you use a particular musical term like '*Sonata*', with a rich and lengthy history centuries old, you are _misusing_ the term. The *Sonata* '*form*' has dogma attached to it, including a format that often typically includes movements with more sophisticated development, and an alternating fast-slow-fast formatting of the movements***. To be honest, even after the Romantic era, Sonatas continued to be composed in sonata form, with traditional sonata structures. Your tracks are all ballad-y, and composed in fairly simple A-B-A-B-A patterns with repetitive left hand patterns. 

This is more of a *New Age piano suite*, and that's okay. These are Preludes, Impromptus, petite fantasias, or improvisations, or even instrumental songs. Nothing wrong with _that_. 

So _that's_ a kurt and objective music theory analysis.

*But the pieces are lovely. I like them. *_We have these discussions all the time, and complexity doesn't make a piece better, nor a simple song worse._

** *That would be the model Mozart and Haydn used. Beethoven and his contemporaries started breaking down the dogma and rigid formatting. For instance, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata started, instead, with a slow movement, then a moderate movement, and finally an aggressive allegro to finish it all up. I imagine that nowadays one could conceivably do whatever you want (if you're an established composer, or, at the least, an scholarly one), but modern composers actually stick to the FORMAT, more or less.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Both above are honest and wonderful reviews. I know it's not a strict use of the term Sonata, it is more of a new age ballad. I"m being very liberal with using the term Sonata, and I'm aware.

Thanks for listening and reviewing to both of you.


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## prlj (10 mo ago)

Captainnumber36 said:


> a new age ballad


I'm glad you used this phrase...because I almost said the same thing in my original post...but I realize some equate "new age" with something of a lesser quality, and I did not want to inadvertently cause a stir.

I, for one, enjoy this modern take on New Age that many, including yourself, are embracing. Carry on!


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

prlj said:


> I'm glad you used this phrase...because I almost said the same thing in my original post...but I realize some equate "new age" with something of a lesser quality, and I did not want to inadvertently cause a stir.
> 
> I, for one, enjoy this modern take on New Age that many, including yourself, are embracing. Carry on!


Thanks!  I think I'll change the genre label to New Age, and call it Arra Suite rather than Arra Sonata.

I feel like the repetition in the pieces is meditative, even though it wasn't intentional.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Also, The Five Song took inspiration from the film Halloween's main theme music by John Carpenter, except I put it in a major key.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

The fellow community member Pianozach has analyzed your work VERY well, my dear Captain. What I can say (are already written but I must put down a couple of line) is:

1. Be not so repetitive. Your themes are GOOD, but play them again and again reduces something from their beauty. Try to keep your best (melodies / ideas) preferably for the end. The beginning MUST be strong but NOT stronger than the Finale. 
2. I like the long Pause at the end of every movement. Music you can't hear remains music and sometimes produces (this happened with you) a nice felling. 
3. Variety of Tempi can make ONLY good to your works. The combination (the traditional one) Allegro, Moderato / Andante, Allegretto/ Presto or something like this remains exiting to (at least) my ears. 
4. Listen to Carmen Suite ( better the whole Ballet) from Rodion Shchedrin. The Russian is master with the usage of the melodies. It is pure magic how effectively subtracts the tension to the RIGHT moment and eases the audience senses with a beautiful melody. Rodion is a modern composer from whom someone can learn a lot.

GOOD WORK and KEEP GOING, my CAPTAIN.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Dimace said:


> The fellow community member Pianozach has analyzed your work VERY well, my dear Captain. What I can say (are already written but I must put down a couple of line) is:
> 
> 1. Be not so repetitive. Your themes are GOOD, but play them again and again reduces something from their beauty. Try to keep your best (melodies / ideas) preferably for the end. The beginning MUST be strong but NOT stronger than the Finale.
> 2. I like the long Pause at the end of every movement. Music you can't hear remains music and sometimes produces (this happened with you) a nice felling.
> ...


Thanks for your response. If I compose another work, I prob WILL stick to the repetition only because it is part of my expression of meditation. I think of a sustained single note and how powerful that can be, like the ohm chant in Indian culture.

I feel this is my best suite/work because the melodies are strong imo, and I don't tire of the musical ideas throughout the pieces.

I think something I could continue to work on is adding more dynamics, I'd also LOVE to include more of that in my work.

Thanks again.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Consistent tempi within a suite is something I also strive for, to give that meditative feel.

I'll listen to the work.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Stream Nakulan Bala music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud

Please tell me what genre this is closest too. It's rather original, but I think it could pass for a new type of Classical music. It's reminiscent of van Gogh's brush strokes in his post-impressionist years.

However, I see it closer to Romanticism than Impressionism. Perhaps a nice mix of the two; romantic-impressionism.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

It's too interesting to be New Age I think, and perhaps it's interesting enough to be considered a new type of Classical music, like I said above, Romantic-Impressionism.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Stream Nakulan Bala music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud


*404 Not Found*


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Try this link:


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https://soundcloud.com/pino-398700642%2Fsunflower-petals


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

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https://soundcloud.com/pino-398700642%2Fapril-showers


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

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https://soundcloud.com/pino-398700642%2Fouter-limits


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I see them having all the romance of Chopin's Nocturnes, with the space and oddities of Debussy.


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