Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Composer's Lounge The - JANUARY - depository of compositions from PianoWorld

Checking in late, as usual. RUNE: That is a very (VERY) nice jazz waltz, with the most engaging progressions! It has a definite West Coast flavor, and I can understand how this took some time to complete. The control of those harmonies does not happen overnight.

The score itself (the written page) needs help, but I believe the changes will be fairly easy –
[1] Change every single A# to a Bb. (That should make ‘Becca happy.)
[2] Change all G#s to Abs, EXCEPT in measures 12 & 13.
[3] Change all D#s to Ebs, EXCEPT in measure 5.
[4] Change ALL those ridiculous E#s (measures 21 & 22, and anywhere else they might occur) to F-naturals.

That should make it much more readable. There are certain other “interpretative liberties” taken between the score and the recording, but since it is jazz, all is forgiven!

Very enjoyable piece! I (and I am sure others here) look forward to hearing more of your stuff.
Ed

Nikolas,

Etude is brilliant! It is like a Master Class in the development of accompanying figures. I love the rhythmic drive, and how the left hand evolves almost “organically”, and then somehow returns to its original state.
However, as a true “Etude” – a learning piece for students - I believe this should come with a WARNING . “A guy could hurt himself attempting this piece. Use only under the supervision of a Doctor. DO NOT try this at home!”

Makes me want to learn to play the piano . . .
Ed

Yup, Steve,

"The Teddy Bears' Picnic" -- "If you go out in the woods today, you're in for a big surprise . . ."
Compound meter, and the first chord change is up a minor third. And, as you mention, that is where the similarity ends.

Ed,

million thanks for your great comments!

First of all I do agree with everything you mention about rune's score. And I just hope that he will be interested in bettering himself and bringing us the scores of his lovely music! I know that my students would care for such scores!

now, on my little etude.

Yes I'd dare to say that there are a few elements in there that sound familiar, the very first being that small pattern itself. It's very "Duka" like, but of course the harmony takes it to different places. But I'd like if I was to say that the other patterns developing are my own exactly. Exactly like the first pattern they seem to emerge from other composers works (notably Mussorgsky's night on the bald (?) mountain and Williams Star War scores... *ahem*).

Still I think it's catchy enough to make a student study hard to pull it off. And it can be tricky. Of course for my own hands it's rather easy to perform (octaves and chords come natural to me), but I very much see the point in such an etude!

Ed and Nikolas,
Thanks a lot for the encouraging comments. Guess it shines through that I have listened a lot to west coast fusion jazz over the years
Ed, I want to sincerely thank you for the time and effort you put into the score. I will make the changes as you suggested. Hopefully I will be able to produce readable scores of my own in a near future.

Although my trial period with Sibelius has expired (which means that no changes can be saved), I think it should work to make screen dumps and then save the score as a jpeg file.
Not sure yet whether i will keep the Sibelius program. The access to 32GB of sound files are tempting but I will take a close look at the MuseScore program before making any decisions
I´ll be back with an edited score. Thanks again for your kind support!

Rune

Hope I got it right:
Jazz Waltz, edited

RunE#

Your new signature is most appreciated among a few of us!!

I feel that my focusing on technicalities in the score is taking something away from a very nicely done piece here, and I would not want that to happen at all! The new version is much more readable, with still a couple of A#s and G#s lingering in the bass clef. (the G#s in measures 12 & 13 are fine just the way they are.) It appears that a B# has found its way into measure 22, or I may have missed it the first time through. Either way, that should be changed to a C natural.

I would welcome Steve, Nikolas’ and others’ thoughts on the following: It seems to me that the software that is constructing the printed page from your sound file is working against you here. These programs have a certain amount of intelligence built into them that deals with key signatures and chords. However, once a composer ventures outside the realm of fairly standard harmonic progressions, the software’s limited “brain” cannot reconcile the clusters, or the voice leading, and therefore takes a guess. If I have it wrong, Gentlemen, please say so.

Ed

Well I'm late. I spent all last night trying to figure out the software. This is a piece I wrote for my son. He can do Ana Magdalena Bach so I figure this is approximately slightly more challenging? Maybe, who knows.

http://musescore.com/user/66276

prenex: You certainly are not late. Welcome in fact!

Which one of the two works are for your son?

In any case both are quite nice. The waltz starts of as... not a valse and then the valse movement is quite loose. And those triplets are not needed, since they are in the same tempo and beat as the 3/4, so it's fine without the number 3.

The other work is simple very nice. And should work well with someone going in the Anna Magdalena book.

Thanks for sharing.

_________________

LoPresti: I hope you got my email.

Thanks Nikolas. The works go together. Gallop, then Interlude-Crazy Waltz.

As for the triplets I have yet to figure out how to write the hemiola to stretch out the rhythm.

The hemiola is fine as it is written, without the numbers. The number 3 indicates that you need to play 3 8ths in the time of 2. So you're actually requesting the triplets to be played faster, and your right hand doesn't fit the whole bar, but only 2 beats out of three. If you just delete the numbers it's fine as it is.

Oh, btw, I just love the composer "Garret's dad"! Honestly!

Hi Nikolas,

I DID receive your eMails, and wish to publicly thank you for the effort in getting this old stuff into digital formats that can be displayed and decoded here.

NOT Piano - sorry. This is the first Movement of a string quartet I wrote 30 years ago. I shall refrain from comment, except to mention that if the listener is not accustomed to somewhat modern string works, s/he will enjoy this more on the second, third, and subsequent listenings, as the melodies come more into focus.

Score:
http://www.nikolas-sideris.com/EMF/Ed_LoPresti_Quartet.pdf

Sound:
http://www.nikolas-sideris.com/EMF/Ed_LoPresti_Quartet.mp3

Thanks for the opportunity to post.
Ed

It's my turn now to thank Ed publicly. He's done so much for me (just considering the scores that are going from the US to Greece... ).

Despite some of his difficulties with technology he's managed to do everything, even if it involved sending me a physical CD! I can only say thank you for going in all this trouble, Ed! Listening to your quartet (and checking out your hand written score) makes it all worthy. At least for me and I'm guessing for the rest of us.

______________________

Now, onto your work.

First of all, performance wise, I get a feeling that they kinda lost it around 2:10 or so... But very quickly found it.

The rest of the performance works very well, and they seem well sync together (although I get a tiny feeling that they must've been connected a little while. It doesn't sound like a quartet with members who've been together for decades... Let me know...). And, btw, what quartet is it?

_______________________

The score has some interesting parts (for example the mention of tutti around the middle, or the lack of general bowing directions (which is in your favour, actually...). But if I was to correct anything, that'd just be to connect the inner barlines, cause it makes it confusing.

_______________________

But the music... oh the music is SO interesting!

For me, who am accustomed to some dissonance and more 'modern' works I'd say that this is a wonderful example sitting right in the middle: It's modal, but yet not treated this way fully. It's got its share of dissonance, but doesn't carry a load doing that. It's got movement, action, drama.

I say that this is a fine quartet!

I'd be very curious to see what the other movements were like. I'm guessing that there would be a strong contradiction in the second movement, but I can't be sure...

_______________________

In any case,thank you for offering your score and for keeping alive this thread.

And, as is show, there's no limit in instrumentation (piano only), date composed (30 years ago), or anything else. Anything will go and we're enjoying and celebrating creativity in monthly doses!

YAY!

Wow! I am so glad I visited the Composer's Lounge. I really enjoyed all the pieces. I look forward to listening and trying (and possibly sharing) more pieces in the months ahead. Being new to piano, I really appreciated BeccaBb work. It is an inspiration for me to think about music differently, and to come up with my own permutation of notes.

Thank you, Nikolas. for your most generous compliments!

I believe it is never good form to justify shortcomings in one’s work, but I would like to comment upon the players who tackled this. Obviously it was not the Manhattan String Quartet, nor the Julliard, nor the Emerson, nor the Kronos, and not even the Ying. While it was a “standing quartet” that played frequently, not one of the members was a full-time string player. As their “real” jobs, one was the conductor of a pops orchestra, one a college professor, one a string instrument MAKER, and the fourth was a PIANO tuner and technician working with a regional Symphony.

Sadly for me ( but very fortunate for the concert-going community! ), my Quartet was never “performed”, lacking the third and final Movement. But I hired this quartet to rehearse and record only Movement I -- long story! The players took their parts and worked on them individually (which Nikolas, Steve, Exhaulted, and several others here can attest is only a small portion of putting things together.)

Recording studio time was VERY EXPENSIVE (and still is!), so we cut a few corners there. As I recall, we rehearsed for slightly longer that 5 hours, breaking only for pizza and soda, and then did a couple of tapings.
Make no mistake - these players were REAL MUSICIANS! Instead of a measure number, I could say, “ Let’s take it from where the ‘cello enters tuppa-tuppa-tup--tuppa-ti-pi. One-and-two-and . . . ” - everyone would be “right there”! This was the best recording that came out of the session. Minor timing, rhythmic, and intonation issues aside, I felt, and still feel, that the recording represents my original vision of the music.

As you guessed, Nikolas, Movement II is much more homophonic, with long, flowing lines, and a strong contrast to the first Movement.

I recorded my live performance of Black Hills at Songmakers (a Southern California music group). It has a jazzy feel to it. I only had the first phrase in mind before starting, so some would characterize it as an improvisation.
It is all on the five black keys.

https://www.box.com/s/jtobbtvil1jdf5fbkhn1

Instrument is an old Roland keyboard. My friend Vic brushing the drums.

I can not believe that no one is taking this opportunity to "get even" with me. Now's your chance, Guys.

Ed

I think you scared them away Ed! This is how nice your quartet was!

You are making me want to write something new, but I can not find my composing pencil . . .

This is such a lame excuse ed! Come on! I bet you can find a pencil you can use in NYC! Otherwise allow me to send you one! It might take a while but still;)

but I somehow feel rather connected with this work (being the one who took care of it, etc), so perhaps I'm a bit biased in my feedback... What do the rest feel?