# Piano Concerto in progress



## caters (Aug 2, 2018)

It is going slow but I am working on a piano concerto. There are 4 composers I know wrote piano concertos. Out of those 4 composers here are my personal rankings as to how difficult it would be to write a concerto in their style:


Mozart(simple themes and rhythm)
Beethoven(really emotional, lots of sudden dynamic changes)
Chopin(polyrhythms and also really emotional but less sudden dynamic changes)
Bach(Complex counterpoint)

I haven't listened to many piano concertos(just 2 piano concertos I have listened to(those being Piano Concerto no. 21 in C major by Mozart and Piano Concerto no. 3 in C minor by Beethoven)), but I have listened to quite a few symphonies(also mostly by Mozart and Beethoven, especially Beethoven's 5th symphony(That is like my favorite symphony to listen to and the only one I have a significant amount of memorized)) and a concerto is basically a symphony + 1 or more solo instruments.

In either case, the strings are most prominent of the instruments outside of those sections where the piano is played.

I plan to make the woodwinds more prominent in my piano concerto. So I am basically assigning strings to countermelody and harmony in my concerto. The woodwinds and brass both play the melody but in different parts, brass plays the melody in loud parts and harmony in quiet parts and woodwinds do the opposite. The pianist would have all these roles. The tympani is only there for emphasis.

Here is the list of instruments I plan to have in my concerto:


Piccolo
Flutes
Alto Flute
Oboes
English horn
Bb Clarinets
Bass clarinet
Bassoons
Contrabassoon
Piano
4 horns
Trumpets
Bass trumpet
Alto, Tenor, and Bass Trombones
Tuba
Tympani
Violins
Violas
Cellos
Double basses

And yes that is in staff order. I only have a few measures of a starting melody for the flute group so far so I am not ready to post the work as of yet, not even a single movement. It might be several years before I get to that point because I am in college so I only really have the summer free to do all the composing I want(though I certainly will still at least think about it and write down my ideas when I am not actually composing).

Also I am working on a piano sonata which I will inevitably finish first because there are fewer notes to think about in a sonata. But I do sort of think of symphonies and concertos as "Orchestral Sonatas". But for some reason, the term Sonata when used for a piece, is only used when there are 1 or 2 instruments(usually solo piano or some other instrument + piano). So other pieces written for more instruments in sonata form are not referred to as sonatas though I certainly think of them as sonatas.

But if I am going with 1 composer's style, who should that composer be? My concerto is going to be in Bb major(not sure if I can get all that much emotion out of Bb major. But of course my experience is only with the timbre of the piano(where a major key basically has 3 emotions: happy, peaceful, and mysterious), other instruments might make the major key sound more emotional because of their timbre.


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## MarkMcD (Mar 31, 2014)

Hi Caters,

Can I suggest that you go with none of the above?

The thing to do is to listen to as many different composers as possible and take inspiration from them but don't try to sound like or emulate anyone. You should use your own voice, even if you want to write in the style of a certain composer or period, it should always be your take on that subject.

If you've only listened to a couple of piano concertos, then you really can't get a feel for what it is that you want to create, with such a limited knowledge base. Even if you don't want to venture into the more modern compositions, you should at least listen to more than one concerto of Mozart or Beethoven or Chopin or Bach, to list only the ones you mention. Mozart 20 in D minor has to be one of my personal favourites along with Beethoven 1st in C major, but there are many, many more, even by just those two to take into consideration. They each have there distinctive styles, but within those styles there is a huge difference from concerto to concerto. 

Your choice of instrumentation is fine if that's what you want, but you don't need to set that in stone until you come to write it and find you need more or less instruments to get your intentions across, it certainly seems to be quite wind heavy, but that's a personal choice and there really are no rules when it comes to choosing your orchestra.

Just have fun and see where it leads you.

Mark


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

take whichever techniques or concepts you find interesting and just wing it.


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## Guest (Aug 21, 2018)

Yeah I agree. Wing it and see what happens. It'll be more like a 'diamond in the rough' I guess, but that's just where it all starts


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## derin684 (Feb 14, 2018)

Let's add a fifth, write like Prokofiev!


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## E Cristobal Poveda (Jul 12, 2017)

derin684 said:


> Let's add a fifth, write like Prokofiev!


I think you're missing the point...


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