http://www.chopinrecital.org/andrea8.mp3

Sincere thanks to any who would take time to listen!

Critical feedback welcomed!

Delightful

Agreed. Very nice harmonic and rhythmic devices to my ears. I was kept actively interested throughout the song and that's not easy with a MIDI rendition! It's a shame, though, that I can't read into your interpretation.

May I ask for the score?

Wow, thank you Tar. I'm humbled by your compliment: "I was kept actively interested throughout." You and I both are hard to please on that front.

The "notes" are now close to my satisfaction, but there are no dynamics and the score needs cleaning. There is a score, though!

Next step, as you say, is to sit down and try to play Andrea's story on a real keyboard.

Andrea tells a story about a beautiful little girl with a happy and innocent childhood, her adolescent quest for glamor and fame which she does find, her reflection on the mess that has become her life, her pining for home, and her ultimate joyous reunion with her family as she returns to her roots. Sailboats and sunshine in the latter. It incorporates a whimsical 1920s-like theme, a foray into 1940s swing w/ragtime elements, and then assumes a highly modern attitude toward the end.

Naturally, as with all music the listener and performer are free to read their own interpretations: the piece could as easily be about a teddy bear or anything.

Nice! It reminded me of my alarm clock going crazy when I heard this.

Nicely done, gerg!

What impresses me the most is how you are able to transition from the early whimsical theme, to the sultry middle section, to the happy conclusion. I also like how you incorporated the early theme towards the end. Great character!

Do you intend for it to be a solo piano arrangement?

Well, thank you! You are the first person who noticed that closing parenthetical reference at the end. Thank you so much for taking an interest in this work which consumed so much of my time and effort! Obscure avocational composers very often feel like they are facing a brick wall when sharing the fruits of their hard-fought labor.

How very kind of you to ask about the future of Andrea. Well, it shall appear in a solo piano variant, certainly, but I hope to expand it to a swing band production with piano as lead.

This piece is of a larger scope than anything I'd undertaken prior, and maintaining (or attempting to maintain) some semblance of motific integrity throughout five very distinct sections unfolding as a ballad proved rather challenging.