# My neoclassical sonatina for piano



## TalkingPie (May 15, 2020)

I've been working on fairly expansive projects lately, so here's a little exercise on restraint where the maximum duration was predetermined as 10 minutes or less.

This neoclassical sonatina is a tribute to several compositions with the same title and proportions, composed mainly in the 20ᵗʰ century. The most obvious reference is, of course, Ravel's sonatina, but I also had in mind less famous pieces by various Soviet and French composers.

MOVEMENTS:

00:04 I. Allegretto con moto 
03:48 II. Intermezzo - Andantino grazioso ed innocente 
06:46 III. Toccata - Presto [the fun one IMO]


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## Torkelburger (Jan 14, 2014)

This is really good. You were right about the influences. They are definitely apparent. Which Soviet composers, though, and in what way? I see the French composers there. Even Poulenc, inasmuch as the pianism. He would be a bit more modal with less extended harmonies, I think. Closer to Milhaud than he was to Ravel, IMO. I also see some Hindemith here in the pianism as well, not the whole thing, but certain parts remind me of it. Probably the neo-classicism. If the pitches were more in line with him, it would sound like parts of his sonatas at times.

My only critique would be the harmonic vocabulary isn't really modern, and sounds a little dated at times. And the middle part of the Toccata with the jazziness doesn't seem to fit with a "toccata" style/title.

But, yeah, really good.


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## TalkingPie (May 15, 2020)

Torkelburger said:


> This is really good. You were right about the influences. They are definitely apparent. Which Soviet composers, though, and in what way? I see the French composers there. Even Poulenc, inasmuch as the pianism. He would be a bit more modal with less extended harmonies, I think. Closer to Milhaud than he was to Ravel, IMO. I also see some Hindemith here in the pianism as well, not the whole thing, but certain parts remind me of it. Probably the neo-classicism. If the pitches were more in line with him, it would sound like parts of his sonatas at times.
> 
> My only critique would be the harmonic vocabulary isn't really modern, and sounds a little dated at times. And the middle part of the Toccata with the jazziness doesn't seem to fit with a "toccata" style/title.
> 
> But, yeah, really good.


Thanks!

You're very right with Poulenc! Hidemith is somene I also look up to, but playing his stuff in order to assimilate the style is still in my todo list.

As for soviet composers, I've been under Kapustin's spell for a bit, to a point that some of my pieces were borderline imitations. In this piece I tried to tone down his influence, but in some spots it's still somewhat apparent. The 'dated' harmony you mention is mostly because of this, it's an aspect I must work on a bit more, it's funny how I used to be a bit bolder back in 2016. Other Soviet composers I had in mind were Prokofiev, Kazhlayev and all that really obscure stuff from Fyrexianoff's Youtube channel.


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