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I have composed a new piano piece using the style and the technique of Rachmaninoff. You can click the link below and head to the listening page. The mp3 player is online, no downloads are needed. Please leave your comments after the listening.
D-Day of A Greenhouse Botanist

Very interesting - did you record this live? It sounds like a lot of hands at some points which is definitely in the spirit of Rac.

I am a huge Rac fan - I love the big stomping chords. You really nailed that aspect. I plan on listening to it a few more times.

I recorded this piano piece using Finale 2005 on my own personal computer, so it's a digital audio. I tried to make the crescendoes and decrescendoes as smooth as possible, so it sounds alive in many ways.

tucker,

Just did listen thru a few times and liked it very much.

Your introductory theme immediately grabs the listener's attention. The melody which follows is lovely, vivid, and very hummable, which is a feature of every memorable piece. (Even memorable symphonic works seem to have at least one movement with this feature.) I particularly adimired the way that you were able to maintain the melody thru the chords.

Your concluding with that quiet section made me think of Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme by Corelli, which I love.

Two suggestions:

The first couple of measures of the concluding section are, to my ears, a little too quiet. The pace of that section, combined with its volume level, is sufficient to create a dramatic contrast, and I hope that you'll consider raising the level of the first measures, to match that of the remaining ones.

Please consider either pausing before sounding the concluding note---as Rachmaninoff occasionally does---or ending with just a touch of a flourish. At the moment the piece just sort of ends, and I think that that is a pity, because it's a very fine piece of work.

DavidH

PS, please check your PM's.

it sounds really good! i like the drama you created through the music, with balanced tension and relief.

i haven't been around here for a while, and it seems that we got a lot of good composers coming here now!

Thanks for the suggestions and reviews, FogVilleLad, the audio you heard was actually recorded digitally on my desktop computer. It's quiet hard to adjust the volumes on my composing software, but it's good to know, so when this piece being played on a real piano, the expressions you mentioned will be truly considered as a way to improve the overall quality.