http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0t3a_oN-ds




Hello, my name is Kenneth. I'm 23, have been playing guitar for about 10 years, piano about 2 and a half so far, and have been making music since as far back as I can remember. I started going to college this fall to study piano performance and composition. This is from a composition lesson project I've had from this fall semester. "Of Devonian Rivers and Skies." Written in Finale 2011. And when I say first complete composition, I mean I've written pieces and parts of other things, some longer than this, but nothing I would call "finished" besides this, even though there will likely be revisions here and there.

Any comments, critiques, questions or criticisms would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

If you guys noticed, at 7:40-ish it ends on an unresolved chord on the piano, but resolves with D on the flute at the same time. I like the tension ;]

Thoughts?

63 views and no comments?

Sometimes things are a bit slow around here, Ken. Don't give up hope yet.

Do you have a score we can look at? It's hard for some of us to make any suggestions or comments without something to look at. :P

The updated and "final" version before its premier on December 2nd.



"Of Devonian Rivers and Skies" is a chamber piece I wrote for piano and flute during this Fall 2011 semester.

In reference to the title: The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period. It was a period in the history of Earth that was home to primarily ocean life, amphibians, and other water dwelling creatures.

This is not a "concept piece" based on events in that time. It's more or less what I could consider a tone/sound painting, sounds which brought to mind a watery primordial image in my head, simple and ascetic, thus the title. It is both for its aesthetic qualities and a direct reference. It's a portrait of Devonian rivers and skies.

Kenneth ,
I enjoyed listening to your first 'finished' composition. Congratulations.
I like the clarity and mood of your piece.
It seems you're off to a great start in your studies and composing.
Best wishes.

Thank you very much Dara!I appreciate your kind words.

Ken,

I liked the piece overall, there was one thing that started to grate on me though it was the big block chord on the down beat all the time.

The flute part was nice and the piano part was good too.

Im pretty novice at this stuff so dont take my "one thing I would change" opinion too seriously.

Dave, I know what you mean, and agree. Honestly a lot of it gets monotonous to me during the first half, but I was trying to have this done by a certain recital date, so that's what I ended up with, this is as "symmetrical" as I could get it to sound given that time crunch, if that makes sense. If I could change it I would definitely vary up those d minor chords a bit, and sadly the whole thing doesn't change time signature at all, which might have helped the constant block chord on the down beat not sound so repetitive, I definitely know what you're referring to. I'm glad you enjoyed it over all though.

I just checked out some of the compositions in your signature and enjoyed them very much, what software do you use?

Ken, I use Finale 2011.

Ken,

I really like the piece. The Devonian period is really evoked for me. I'm feeling lots of fish swimming together in whirling filigrees. In terms of "monotony" and "block chords," that have already been discussed, I wonder what you'd think about introducing some more, conversational counter-melody in the piano accompaniment as the piece progresses? I know you've done some of this, but I'm wondering about more of a canon sort of texture in some places? To me, that seems that it would fit along with the sense of these Devonian creatures' lives and movements intertwining and endlessly moving along together.

I'm learning to realize that revision is an fundamental part of the compositional process and that we shouldn't be afraid of it--we didn't do anything wrong by not getting it "right" the first time.

I would love to play your composition with a good friend of mine (a flautist) if you ever publish the piece.

Thanks for sharing.

Cristofori, first of all, I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to respond, I've been slammed with finals the past few weeks.

Thank you so much for the kind words! I can tell you really put thought into it and analyzing the piece and that means a lot, as this piece is something I put a lot into as well. I really liked what you said about the revision process, and not being afraid to revise things. I’m learning more and more how the writing process is a completely organic and continuing process.

Regarding your thoughts about adding more "conversational" melodic element, I agree that would be great. To me this is a very harmonic piece, it’s strengths are in the harmonic progressions (for most of the first half), and I didn’t take as much time to focus on melodic development as I would have liked. And conversationally, it could use some interplay between the right and left hand as I would have liked, since as it stands now the left are the chords, and the right is the melody. I like your suggestions and I will see how I could implement them to bring a little more texture to the parts that reoccur frequently.


Again, thanks so much for taking the time to listen and critique! very helpful.
I’d be honored to have you and your friend play this whenever it is published. By then it may even go through some more dramatic revision, but the essence of the piece is there.

Thanks again!

Wow! What influences do you have? What artist, bands, groups compose similar music? I'd really love to hear more pieces like this one.
Thanks.

Thank you Daniel! I listen to everything from black metal to jazz fusion to composers from all the period down to Bach.

For this piece specifically, at the time of writing it, I was listening to and studying scores by Maurice Ravel, Franz Liszt, Alexander Scriabin, Beethoven's Ninth (Molto vivace), and Sergei Lyapunov.

While this piece doesn't really sound like anything by one of those people, it's a mix of influences here and there, and most impressionist I'd say. It simple and not entirely virtuosic, but there is a lot of large seventh chord usage , and lush walls of sound and phrasing that was inspired (but doesn't sound like in my opinion) Liszt, Ravel and Scriabin. Speaking completely aesthetically it reminds me of Debussy chamber works.

Hope that helps.

*all the periods down to Bach