# Sketch for a Cello Concerto



## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Wrote this when I was an angsty teenager. Didn't really know where to take it developmentally (still don't) so it kinda ends abruptly for now. I was big into Russian Romantics at the time (Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff) and just getting into Wagner, so you can probably hear those influences. Anyways I feel the melody and harmony is quite solid considering I didn't have much of an idea of what I was doing, so perhaps it's worthy of sharing. Feedback welcome. Enjoy!


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

I also hear influences of C.P.E. Bach; you must have studied his 3 cello concertos as well.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

hammeredklavier said:


> I also hear influences of C.P.E. Bach; you must have studied his 3 cello concertos as well.


I didn't, but I do like most of what CPE I have heard so maybe we draw nectar from the same flowers. Next to Bach himself he is my favorite from that time period.


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## Torkelburger (Jan 14, 2014)

Couchie said:


> Wrote this when I was an angsty teenager. Didn't really know where to take it developmentally (still don't) so it kinda ends abruptly for now. I was big into Russian Romantics at the time (Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff) and just getting into Wagner, so you can probably hear those influences. Anyways I feel the melody and harmony is quite solid considering I didn't have much of an idea of what I was doing, so perhaps it's worthy of sharing. Feedback welcome. Enjoy!


Hi Couchie,
This is good stuff for not having studied composition (I’m assuming that since you were so young).

If you want to continue pursuing this, my advice would be to start over with something completely new and then come back to this later if you are still interested.

The problem with this is that it is cliché pastiche and in a technique that overstays its welcome. What it seems to boil down to is that you have written chords as “pads” (a term from commercial arranging/film scoring/pop music I often use as shorthand to represent a sustained texture usually of whole or tied notes (often in strings) as backgrounds for melodies. It’s very mundane and unoriginal and is boring for players. It’s okay in small doses.

But another real problem is that the harmonies are mostly the cliché chromatic mediant relationship tertiary chords. These are also okay in small doses. They are colorful and flavorful, but they overstay their welcome after so long. They begin to lose their “novelty” and become tiresome and predictable once the ear has become accustomed to them in the piece.

If you carry the melody on like you have, which I call “connecting the dots” (reason for that below), then the same exact thing that happened in the harmony will happen with the melody.

I have a question for you. Did you write the melody or the harmony first when you wrote this? I may be wrong, but I would predict that you wrote the harmony first. That’s what composers usually do when they do this. That’s one of the reasons why I call this “connecting the dots”. You come up with colorful chords, then you just connect the chords with notes, using the chords as safe landing spaces (sometimes using non-chord tones on them like suspensions, appoggiaturas, accented passing tones, etc.). That’s the wrong idea, the wrong approach.

When composers like Elfman, or Shore, or whoever you see trying to emulate the Wagnerian style in this “cheap” way, they are biting off more than they can chew. It’s really too hard for their capabilities. Oftentimes, there is very little internal logic with what they are doing, like poor voice-leading (you may scoff at that remark but recall how much the Romantics like Schumann and Chopin idolized Bach and actually incorporated his logic into their music, you’ll see why I made it). You want to start simpler and work your way up. Don’t give up trying to write Romantic music. Keep going. But don’t start with a Cello Concerto in a difficult style that you can’t do.

How about a simple binary or ternary short piece for piano like Schumann or (don’t laugh) Grieg? Then maybe progress to a short and simple chamber piece a bit more Brahmsian (but really study what he does, as that’s not easy either).

Why not start with this as your guide?






You may have heard this piece a thousand times, but please listen again with the score (in the video). Maybe you’ve even performed it. Take 15 minutes to do an analysis (Roman Numeral or whatever you prefer) if you have the hard copy of the score, and then see what you can come up with yourself? See how simple and wonderful his idea is? See how wonderful he develops it in the second part? See how everything is logical and he doesn’t have to feel like he is re-inventing the wheel? See how the colorful chords serve the purpose of adding color only when necessary and with a purpose (such as reharmonizations toward the end)? They do not overstay their welcome. See how he reserved different chords in the second part as a development? See how he develops the piece by tonicizing other areas (briefly and subtly)? And notice how simple the melody is? And don't you think he wrote that melody FIRST?

One last one for you.






Notice how he gets every last ounce of beauty out of such simplicity. Especially that melody those incredibly short phrases that are almost a child’s lullaby. But it’s deceptively simple. Look that harmony. Hardly conventional. Look at that voice-leading to that incredible second chord(!) He also develops by tonicizing another key. There is a deceptive cadence here in the piece, but what of mm. 11-12 cadence? Most unusual.

Also, learn as much as you can about Romantic harmony, not just the cliché stuff. Look at Chopin, Grieg, Liszt, not just the obvious composers. And mode mixture, Neapolitan chords, augmented sixth chords, dominants with substituted sixths or raised 5ths, and extended harmonies. Broaden your knowledge beyond connecting the dots of chromatic mediants.


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## Denerah Bathory (6 mo ago)

Torkelburger said:


> Hi Couchie,
> This is good stuff for not having studied composition (I’m assuming that since you were so young).
> 
> If you want to continue pursuing this, my advice would be to start over with something completely new and then come back to this later if you are still interested.
> ...


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Torkelburger said:


> The problem with this is that it is cliché pastiche and in a technique that overstays its welcome. What it seems to boil down to is that you have written chords as “pads” (a term from commercial arranging/film scoring/pop music I often use as shorthand to represent a sustained texture usually of whole or tied notes (often in strings) as backgrounds for melodies. It’s very mundane and unoriginal and is boring for players. It’s okay in small doses.
> 
> But another real problem is that the harmonies are mostly the cliché chromatic mediant relationship tertiary chords. These are also okay in small doses. They are colorful and flavorful, but they overstay their welcome after so long. They begin to lose their “novelty” and become tiresome and predictable once the ear has become accustomed to them in the piece.
> 
> ...


Thanks for your thoughtful criticism. You really hit the nail on the head as to why I abandoned this piece, the strings part is horrendously dull and layering melodies over top of the chord progressions is exactly how this piece was written. Despite some attempts to spruce up the accompaniment, I just couldn't make it work. I remain fairly proud of some of the melody work and tensions built up however. I like your idea of composing some other works and then returning to this one. This piece is more 19th century Romantic, but my other pieces are more early 20th century in style. I am particularly inspired by Prokofiev and Leo Ornstein. I've downloaded Musescore and getting back into writing music after a 10 year hiatus.


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

Couchie said:


> Wrote this when I was an angsty teenager. Didn't really know where to take it developmentally (still don't) so it kinda ends abruptly for now. I was big into Russian Romantics at the time (Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff) and just getting into Wagner, so you can probably hear those influences. Anyways I feel the melody and harmony is quite solid considering I didn't have much of an idea of what I was doing, so perhaps it's worthy of sharing. Feedback welcome. Enjoy!


I liked it! 

It is a sketch but there are elements that you could build on — therein lies the value of sketches. You don’t need to prove anything. With a sketch one should feel totally free. And then take from it what is worth taking.

Should you want to elaborate on it and take it further, my suggestion would be to ”take the feeling” of this sketch and start composing again without having a look at the original. Now that you are more experienced, the results will surprise you and the actual work on the music as the composer you are today will help you forward.

You are no longer the same angsty teenager, you know! The river has flown.  I have no doubt you will find a way forward.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Couchie, I have zero credentials for critiquing your short composition but I like the sound of it. It's an attractive romantic melody that has some depth and honest feeling to it. I hope you can develop it further if you so desire. Good luck!


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