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Tempo?

Hey, this is going really well! We've already got 11 compositions to share, and more are still be offered. This is post #81, on page 4!

LovesChopinTooMuch had a great idea to make a little index in her big Chopin thread over in the Adult Beginner's Forum. So here's one for ours -- I'm also going to put it up in the first page, and keep updating it as we go along.

General discussion of the original idea
Computer programs/websites for writing and posting sheet music
Ted\'s compositions posted
PianoJerome\'s composition posted
Mahlzeit\'s composition posted, with discussion and recordings
Playing from lead-sheets
Daniel\'s composition posted
Saul\'s composition posted
More discussion of mahlzeit\'s piece
jwjazz\'s composition posted
How to record music
Discussion of Daniel\'s piece
More on recording music
kcoul058 introduces/discusses his own composition
Comments on Saul\'s and Daniel\'s compositions
Creating PDF files
Cultor\'s composition posted, with discussion
Rach.3Freak105\'s compositions posted, with discussion and recordings
Kreisler\'s composition posted, with discussion

I like giving a great deal of latitude to the performer. "Plaintive" is enough. I've been over the score many times and am satisfied with the editing. If I don't say something, it's the performer's job to fill in the blanks.

This is a great thread! I really like some of the pieces on here. I'm a little late, hope that's okay... here's a quasi-18th century piece that I wrote, if anyone would care to play it: http://www.savefile.com/files/876114
I wrote it for a music theory class assignment, and you can easily tell what the requirements were (the "quasi" was my addition) Hope you guys have as much fun playing it as I had writing it, which was a lot! And any critique is welcome!

I got a bit carried away today and decided to record a few more compositions, hope this thread doesn't lose it's momentum...

Sorry if my electric piano sounds a bit tinny.

Hope you like my interpretation cultor, added a repeat with some jazzy flourishes (just for fun)

Lonely Clown Waltz: http://www.box.net/shared/6v1mjsxi2s

I loved this subject jwjazz, I found myself writing a more bachy fugue with your idea (posted below). Hope you like my interpretation and don't mind the rit at bar 25. Fugue a 5 voci: http://www.box.net/shared/yqrq3nu57h

Hope you like my interpretation Kreisler - I hear echos of Phillip Glass. prelude in c minor: http://www.box.net/shared/21fei9ii6d

So I was playing around with this subject and found that it had a complimentary descending chromatic countersubject. The motif of 2 rising quavers followed by 3 repeated notes (the third being the appogiatura, resolving downwards) became so prominent that it turned into a double fugue. I love fugues!
Double Fugue (on jwjazz fugue theme) for 4 voices: http://www.box.net/shared/t8kvhepsjd

Spectacular my friend. You did a real improvement on my little piece. Great harmonies and variations in that second part without losing the theme. Thanks a lot.

and here's another -

Kind of strayed with this one. Lovely theme though

Looking at Each Other:
http://www.box.net/shared/0atm2e53et

and another...

Blackcurrent Blues (Ted2)
http://www.box.net/shared/3nem24rxfm

another...

The Shepherd's Nigun: S.Zerin

http://www.box.net/shared/njjzanuq6a


Sam, in the 2nd half of the 4th Variation, I put the last 3 notes of each alberti figuration an octave up so I could play it with my right hand instead of jumping around with my left so that it wouldn't lose energy. My favourite is variation 1.

Thanks Will ! I seldom hear anybody other than myself play my pieces and I enjoyed that. I think I might like the different chord you played second time through the A strain better than the original one ! I really enjoy it when people take liberties with my music.

Listening to your playing, I realise that the B strain lends itself quite well to contrast through free variation of tempo. Also, I think perhaps the more conventional arrangement of ABAB might be better than AABB. I don't know why I wrote it that way around.

I did write words to it at one stage but I have lost them and forgotten them.

Thanks again,
Ted.

Wow, it makes me so happy to hear someone else play my music. Thanks, Will!

Even if you play it completely differently than I do myself. :p

I tend to play it a little more dance-like, with a faster tempo and less pedal, and I also play the 2nd variation a bit slower than the others (though you play it a bit faster).

But I like how you give it more of a pastoral feeling, especially in the theme. I'd never thought to play the 2nd variation faster, as you do, but it's nice -- kind of like running along. Like Ted, I don't mind your little changes to the notes in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th variations; gives it a little more uniqueness, which I like.

Thanks again!

Hi Will335,

Thanks a lot for playing my little tune (Looking At Each Other). You make it sound awesome!

I really enjoyed your playing of the other pieces too.

And heres another one -

Portrait of Ellen Lauderdale
http://www.box.net/shared/s87h9aa90t

Well I hope you're sure that it's ok to take liberties with your pieces because I took a few with this one!

The left hand part in this piece is undoubtedly improvisatory in each particular harmony, so I hope you don't mind that my reading was a bit aproximate. Also, all the chromatic flourishes are actually very hard for me so that's all ... a bit aproximate aswell. Some other things might have changed aswell... Good fun to play!

If you ever find the words to Blackcurrent Blues, I want you to post a recording of you playing and singing them!

Still on this recording spree Sam...

Scherzo in C# Minor (Saul)
http://www.box.net/shared/duxggknc8z

This reminds me of the Khachaturian's Toccata which is a piece I completely forgot about. The first 2 rising diminshed arpeggios contain a discrepency in it's pattern which seems a bit illogical so I altered it for the recording - hope you dont mind the accelerando at the end

And those acciaccaturas are really difficult

Now I'm not quite good enough to be commenting on the music, but here are some practical comments about the thoughts I had from reading/playing through some of the pieces and listening to the existing recordings:

Saul: have you thought about respelling your C naturals as B sharps, and the C# diminished sevenths as Fx diminished 7ths? IMO it makes a little more sense that way. I like your piece! I'm tempted to make a recording but unfortunately I'm not home right now. When I get a chance.

jwjazz: I tried playing through your fugue and I got very confused before I got to the middle! Do you think not using key signatures would be a viable alternative? (Obviously I don't read as fast as Will335 - good recordings!)

Thank you for another insightful interpretation, Will!

I like your improvisational changes to the melody, as I did the less obvious ones in the blues. In your hands Ellen has become less blustering and declamatory, less racy of the soil but more intimate and tender; more reminiscent of memories around the drawing room fireside than of an impassioned walk in the wild weather outside. Played your way, it evokes an entirely different set of associations for me. It is not a question of which is better but more a case of my realising that others exist at all, which I had not until now.

It doesn't sound to me as though my little chromatic flourishes presented much of a problem for you !

You have made my day. Until now neither piece had ever seen light of day beyond my piano and neither has been played for twenty years until I found the scores in an old cardboard box.

For the sake of interest, "Ellen" was not a real person but a character (anima ?)I met in one of those visionary dreams back in 1979. The dedicatee on the score was my mother.

And a big thank you to Sam for starting this exercise. Well worth repeating it in the not too distant future, I suggest.

I guess this is where my spree ends -

A Piece in G major etc.
http://www.box.net/shared/ahryrm9i81

I realised after I recorded it that I probably took it a lot faster than you wanted calpiano because I only just noticed the duration note at the bottom of the piece (mine was about 30 seconds quicker) so sorry about that.
The difficult thing in reading this piece was all the crossovers - as soon as I crossed over hands, I completely lost where I was on the score (So I had to learn it a little bit).

Impromptu
http://www.box.net/shared/3qh6vi3fzk

Listening to my own recording afterwards, I realised I took this to quickly aswell - I'm just enjoying myself too much! Hope you don't mind the alterations Dan.

Was a pleasure Ted - Glad you enjoyed it! Post any more as soon as possible if you can!

I was looking back at previous pages in this thread and even though it's an old one, I want to make a few comments on jwjazz's suggestions post -

I disagree with your suggestions for the scherzo - The pattern in the left hand from measure 10 should remain as it is because this keeps the melodic figuration outlined from the start. The succession of notes doesn't sound clumsy to me - they sound apropriate for the rise in tension.
And playing any section in this piece just with the right hand would be incredibly difficult.