# Etude Sonata in 3 Movements



## SergeOfArniVillage (Feb 12, 2014)

Clearly, this is the kind of community that likes to get something they can sink their teeth into  I wasn't planning on sharing this piece so soon, but I don't see why not.

https://app.box.com/s/t7gknajco5tug529rmcy -- Etude Sonata, Mvt 1 Mp3

https://app.box.com/s/76lp84h9308oqlhsxnnf -- Etude Sonata, Mvts. 2 & 3 Mp3

https://app.box.com/s/mxhvhgcz99p9nwk8puay -- Pdf File of 1st Mvt.

https://app.box.com/s/e4hwbm0vf9ywxzb7yuv0 -- Pdf File of 2nd Mvt.

https://app.box.com/s/a7dl7dr7n6096cgmtyz0 -- Pdf File of 3rd Mvt.

This sonata is a "study" on the relationships between keys, and trying to reconcile what is seemingly irreconcilable. This culminates in an explosive confrontation between C Major and Gb Major in the final movement.

There are a few inconsistencies in the playback and the score, just so you know, but they are pretty minor.

Thoughts/comments/criticisms appreciated ^_^


----------



## Jfong (Feb 9, 2014)

I only finished listening the first movement, but i cant wait to comment on this!
Sorry if my interpretation is different from your intention ._. people see music differently >_>
Also I believe you have chosen every single note carefully before posting this, so please ignore my opinion if you do not agree with it. 

Very interesting tonal language indeed.
The pentatonic sound in measure 40 kind of surprised me a bit(positively), could you briefly explain your intention? 
Also the section starting from measure 42....I am guessing that is the "2nd theme/subordinate theme", according to my small amount of knowledge in sonata form. Please forgive me if I got that wrong. Anyways, I absolutely loved that section. It sort of gives this bright/relieved/sweet feeling to the piece, such a fascinating contrast from the first theme. 
However, theres a tiny thing I dont quite like(again, personal opinion). Its in measure 45(also in 98&168), the lower voice of the right hand plays something I recognize as jazz melody, which I dont think it fits in well. It kind of bugged me when I was continuing listening to the piece... :/ 
In measure 183, the coda I believe, sounds a bit off to me....I personally think there is not enough transition between measure 182-183. In measure 182 it still sounds quite unstable, but all out of sudden the F#minor chords are played strongly to emphasize the tonic key. I believe there is transition in the last few notes of measure 182, but really not enough to my taste. 
Overall, I think this is quite a brilliant piece! Just few places doesnt fit my taste buds(ears) but thats definitely my own personal taste. I really enjoyed listening to this, thankyou! 

sorry if my words sound messy/all over the place. I am not an experienced in giving comments on music compositions. (im always the one who receives comments LOL)


----------



## SergeOfArniVillage (Feb 12, 2014)

Thank you for your comment, J, I really appreciate it 

About the pentatonic scale at measure 40: it is foreshadowing some confrontational black-key glissandos that are present in the third movement. I was actually working on a version on my piece that would explore the pentatonic scale much further in a 4th movement, but I realized I didn't have the know-how to keep it structurally sound.

The odd transition at 182 is my own fault; I wanted to return to the quiet B theme before the end of the piece. I never could figure out how to transition smoothly. 

The jazz-licks ... I was listening to Gershwin at the time I wrote this piece, haha!

This is one of those pieces that I wrote sometime ago to challenge myself as a composer. Though have a few regrets here and there as to how it turned out, it was a very important piece for making musical growth. I think the pieces I've written after the Etude Sonata have been of higher quality than the ones before.

Again, thank you for your thoughts, most appreciated


----------



## Chordalrock (Jan 21, 2014)

I listened to the first movement. It has nice moments all over the place but not perhaps original enough sounding to justify the sort of rhapsodic style that you seem to be doing. Maybe there's some unifying underlying motivic development that keeps the piece coherent and that I didn't notice, but if my impression is correct, the best way for you to improve would be to pay more attention to low-level structure, how you derive your themes and how you justify the inclusion of a given note structurally. Have you written variation series or fugues? That might be useful exercise for you.


----------



## SergeOfArniVillage (Feb 12, 2014)

Chordalrock said:


> ... the best way for you to improve would be to pay more attention to low-level structure, how you derive your themes and how you justify the inclusion of a given note structurally. Have you written variation series or fugues? That might be useful exercise for you.


Actually, that's a great idea; I haven't written a fugue before, that probably would help me to tighten my writing. I'll have to try that sometime soon and see what I can learn from it.


----------



## Chordalrock (Jan 21, 2014)

The reason I mentioned variation sets, although you seem to be using the method in this piece in places, is that writing a substantial variation set basically forces you to write economically and to start thinking more in terms of motives than themes. You obviously have some motivic development in this piece so the idea is either not new to you or comes naturally in places. Or maybe I'm way off here and you're just doing what you prefer. 

Anyway, I like your language, so to speak, I like the moods you express through your music. You seem to have a nice amount of potential and I'd love to hear some pieces from you that give a greater sense of structural unity. I wouldn't say this if you were composing Webern style pieces or something I don't at all care for.


----------



## Matsps (Jan 13, 2014)

You definitely have potential. However, this piece, in spite of some nice harmony and melody in places, sounds messy and seems to be lacking in any coherence.


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Matsps said:


> You definitely have potential. However, this piece, in spite of some nice harmony and melody in places, sounds messy and seems to be lacking in any coherence.


I agree, it is like the bits and pieces of an airplane that has crashed on land -- chunks of this 'n' that strewn all over the place.

It is an Etude, in this case more an essay (try) by the composer than a pianist's technical etude: I would recommend a lot less thinking of theory and in theoretical terms while making a piece and instead relying more upon ones ear. _"Theory" never wrote one good note of music._


----------



## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

If the "study" implied by the title is one into (in addition to "key") the interrelation and interdependency of diverse materials and microstructures in the forming of a coherent macrostructure, then I feel it is an incomplete study. As realised here, the music is a series of episodes, very "dramatic" episodes, which are not related to each other by way of what I refer to as "atmospheric continuity;" the listener is sent journeying through a wide array of musical environments in a way that is akin to stepping out of a room in one's house and ending up in a room in someone else's — a stranger's, no less. I'm obviously not a minimalist composer by any stretch, and I am not criticising you for using the diverse palette you use here, but I feel like the piece is, as others have suggested, so much flotsam and jetsam only tied together by the fact that they have fallen within the same temporal framework. 

I appreciate the ambition of what you have attempted, I think you have made a very good effort of it, but as I said before, it just seems incomplete to me.


----------

