piano sonata movement 1

[imbetter]

other 3 movements are comming soon

[Mozartian]

I got quite a kick out of that. Enjoyed the vocals, especially. Your dog has a nice bass.

[imbetter]

lol i know


i almost didnt put it up coz of my dog

did you enjoy the sonata though?

[Mozartian]

oh, I enjoyed it alright. Perhaps more than you intended.

But I'm guessing that you were improvising, not playing something you had actually written out.

[imbetter]

i wasnt improvising im still writing the score on sibelius

[danny elfboy]

Very remarkable piece of music!
As you already know I thought that wasn't your piece but from a 20th century composer and that kind of show better than anything else by opinion about it

There's something dissonantly modern yet powerfully romantic at the same time minimalist about the first tempo of your sonata which is very fascinanting.
I like how the main motif is repeated in many progressive and interesting variations ... it's what I call "not wasting ideas" starting from simple idea and developing it in dozen of interesting and fascinating ways. As I said this is what I think the problem with much accademical music is: the lack of repetition. I considere repetition vital to music

I saw a study which showed that music that involve repetition is perceived by the brain as "spoken language" because like a sentence certain words/sounds are more likely to appear more times in the same sentence and other are more likely to appear less often
Language-like creaton of musical contexts
Tonal vs Atonal Contexts

So I can't say nothing but kudos to a young composer who has found a middle ground between breaking apart the limit of consonances without losing the kind of instinctive scheme of music and IMO emotional scheme of consonant-resolutions

It's really music I like to listen and would like to buy (do tell the people in your house to remain silent or just go away as you record yourself at the piano)

Worth mentioning (as I'm an anatomy freak) if your technique at the piano
Your octave runs are very natural, the wrist is loose and the forearm is bouncing like
Your finger joint are aligned and you never bend the wrist sidewite
Last you have a good maintenance of the playing mechanism (wrist, forearm aligned forming an arch)

[imbetter]

thanks danny! ill post the next 3 movements sometime soon

[pianowolfi]

Hi Imbetter I watched your video and I am convinced that you are a very talented young pianist! Your playing is very creative and original. Keep it up! Admittedly there are some things that I want to point out: If you want to call a piece "Sonata" there is certainly required more than just an improvisational approach (which btw I appreciate very much, as you surely know!) But a sonata needs to have a certain form. And I just miss that in your composition. There is this main theme, which reminds me btw distinctly of the so called "winterwind" Etude by Chopin (also this is not in the slightest sense an argument against your composition, I just noticed it it's obvious to me). You certainly have the potential to build a real sonata around your main theme. Even if you plan to cross the established form of "The Sonata" (an approach which has a very strong tradition as well, Chopin comes to mind, especially of course with his Second and Third Sonata as I think. Also Beethoven with his gigantic approach of the "Hammerklavier" Sonata op. 106. You need to have a certain knowledge of at least the fundamental building blocks of a Sonata. The sonata is a very special musical form because it allows you to combine your deepest musical thoughts  and feelings with one of the most determined forms that exist in music history. The form of the fugue has a similar potential btw. So if you compose a sonata you are challenged by some of the most meaningful and important compositions ever. But this fact should NOT discourage you, just point out that there is MORE that you would have to learn about Sonata form and tradition before you call something a Sonata.

[imbetter]

i WAS NOT improvising

what did you think of my uber fast octaves

[pianowolfi]

i WAS NOT improvising

Yeah I KNOW.

what did you think of my uber fast octaves

Well yeah they are played with a lot of fire which is very good but they might get a bit more precise in the future ( I am working on that too btw).  Anyway, have fun

[imbetter]

so now do you believe me?

[pianowolfi]

so now do you believe me?

Is it really about believing?

[imbetter]

yes it is

[phil13]

To be honest, I really didn't like it all that much. As has been said before, you DO have the potential to develop this into a real piece. Actually, it reminds me of the compositional style of one of my friends- he can't complete any single piece effectively because of dead-ends and momentary whims. Although there is a single theme running through this piece, it still seems VERY fragmentary and not as well-connected as it has the potential to be.

As for the repetitions...well, like Danny said, it's vey important to have them, but I got a little tired of it coming back EVERY SINGLE time in the same key, and never seeming to develop properly, or build any tension. Although, it is worth mentioning that at 4:45 you started to go somewhere with it in the major, repeating the theme a few times in different harmonies, but then it succumbed back into tedious repetition in F minor.

Although you may not have improvised it, this most certainly has more of the feeling of a gigantic Impromptu than a Sonata, per se. I strongly advise re-thinking the process in which the piece develops.

Phil

[imbetter]

*opinion noted*

keep in mind i AM 11 years old and a novice composer. This is also my first 'big' composition.

[phil13]

I know, Ibty. I'm sorry if my criticism seemed a little more destructive than constructive. It really isn't that bad for a first 'big' composition either- when I began composing (at around the same age you are now), my pieces were a helluva lot worse. 

Study more pieces in sonata form, not just piano sonatas but concerti of all kinds, string quartets, etc. and from all the different eras {Classical, various places along the Romantic era, 20th century (both early and late)} You'll learn quickly what makes sonata form so unique and what makes it effective.

Phil

[counterpoint]

Is it all about believing? 

yes it is

Seconded 

But it's not that others believe in you, but that you yourself believe in you.
If you believe in what you do, it will express more and more of the things, you want to express. And it will be something special and personal, that only you can express.

If you look too much on what others say about your work, you will weaken your message, you will become dependent from the applause of others and your music will be "designed" not by yourself but by the taste of others.

So don't try to please others with your compositions.

[imbetter]

I know, Ibty. I'm sorry if my criticism seemed a little more destructive than constructive. It really isn't that bad for a first 'big' composition either- when I began composing (at around the same age you are now), my pieces were a helluva lot worse. 

Study more pieces in sonata form, not just piano sonatas but concerti of all kinds, string quartets, etc. and from all the different eras {Classical, various places along the Romantic era, 20th century (both early and late)} You'll learn quickly what makes sonata form so unique and what makes it effective.

Phil

thank you im going to try and make a more mature and sophisticated composition.

[phil13]

thank you im going to try and make a more mature and sophisticated composition.

Unless you're Felix Mendelssohn, you'll find it takes quite a while to create something which feels mature in its own right. I still don't feel like my works are mature, and probably won't for another 10-20 years, for all I know. Just have fun with composing, and slowly develop your style. 

Phil

[elevateme_returns]

imbetter, wheres this ballade 1 that you promised would be on youtube, like, last year?

[danny elfboy]

Seconded 

But it's not that others believe in you, but that you yourself believe in you.
If you believe in what you do, it will express more and more of the things, you want to express. And it will be something special and personal, that only you can express.

If you look too much on what others say about your work, you will weaken your message, you will become dependent from the applause of others and your music will be "designed" not by yourself but by the taste of others.

I agree totally !!
Composition is all about "honesty" ... towards yourself, believing in what you're communicating.

That's why I don't buy nonsense concepts like "finding your voice" or "finding your maturity" ... if there's honesty there's both maturity and originality ... because as unique individuals we can't help but being original when we're honest and are honestly communicating.

That's why the "anxiety of influence" is such an illusory paranoia.
If we were shut in a basement all our life there would be no concept of music in our head, we wouldn't be able to even realize something like that could exist and we would never certainly be able to create any music. So music is unavoidably the product of our past music experiences, all of the music that we listened to and were exposed to.
Nothing can be really created out of nothing and the real originality (i.e. ex-novo) certain composers talk about is just a naive utopia. But originality does exist even if music is nothing but the product of derived sounds and it's the fact that no matter if we have listened to the same sounds, compositions, music ... we as individuals process the music we've been exposed to in unique individual ways. And that's where originality lies and it's the kind of originality that always shows up when you're honest.

Even language is the product of something outside of us we've been exposed to.
Originality in language is not creating new letters out of nothing but using the mean of language to honestly communicate something which is within each individual.

I find the first composition attempts of 6-7 years old students already very mature and fascinating in their unprocessed honesty.

[piano121]

The file has been expired. Would you post it again?

[imbetter]

[phil13]

your Youtube name is Imawesome?

*cough* *cough* modesty *cough*

And BTW I can't believe I missed it the first time- the main theme DOES sound very, very close to Winter Wind, especially at the very beginning.

Phil

[imbetter]

I can't believe you missed it either 

Yes my user names for everything are condeded