Eremitage---Improv

[pianowolfi]

Yeah I know again me I want to post this too because to me it seems much better than many of my other improvs. It's from yesterday and I called it Eremitage because I had gone for a walk in a nature park with that name in the afternoon. Usually I don't play when I drink and don't drink when I play, this one is an exception . Anyway. The first part is very lively, towards the end it clears up, "towards the light." I might have dwelled a bit on the B^b and B^b7 I still am very much fascinated by my main themes of the past six months so you will find a bit of Dies Irae and e-a-b-a in it. I don't even do that on purpose, they just appear at a certain point, often.
 I like this one really much more than many of my others and I hope you will like it too

[Derek]

  cool stuff. *listening*   will edit this in a few minutes

parts of this piece remind me of a late scriabin sonata. very very cool

I like how active it is. That's just my personal preference of course,
I like being awash with arpeggios and other sorts of figurations. I would
do well to take your example in the minimalist pieces and try something less
active, in fact! Maybe I'll try that next...

here's my ear catcher list as I like to do when listening to others' improv:
1:41 - like the entrance of the arpeggio figure there
2:24 - awesome chord changes
3:18 - love the rising figures. this part sounds fierce...definitely another evil grin moment >D
3:38 - evil laughter as well as an evil grin'
5:21 - cool simple fifth figures
5:45 - this left hand melody stuff is very cool
6:34 - lovely and simple
7:18 - love those harmonies
7:31 - cool rhythm in the left hand there
8:34 - neat dip in the left hand melody there
9:46 - cool harmony change. I like how its fading out now

that really took me on an adventure. great work

[furtwaengler]

This is phenomenal, Wolfi. It is one of those special, special moments that I'm so glad was caught on tape. The change to major is breathless, in a Bruckner 9 sort of way.

I'll fly in the face of Pianostreet's red letter 500+ days warning and post this response, so it can be brought to the attention of more who will appreciate it. 

[pianowolfi]

This is phenomenal, Wolfi. It is one of those special, special moments that I'm so glad was caught on tape. The change to major is breathless, in a Bruckner 9 sort of way.

I'll fly in the face of Pianostreet's red letter 500+ days warning and post this response, so it can be brought to the attention of more who will appreciate it.  

Hi Dave, thank you so much, this means a lot to me!

I tied my goat....wait, we're not alone here....

[chopinatic]

Fantastic Improv backed up very a nice clear recording.
I loved all the ideas here and themes, and though they were brought together well.
As always good job wolfi

[pianowolfi]

Hi Chopinatic, thank you very much

[lostinidlewonder]

Quite logical to listen to which is hard to do when you improvise. I didn't feel lost at any time which is alway a sign of a good improv run!

... It's from yesterday and I called it Eremitage because I had gone for a walk in a nature park with that name in the afternoon

In that nature park do you have wild animals coming after your blood when you walk!?! lol. Some Parts of this would be fitting music for a murder in a nature park. 2:57-4:57. Have you got something you need to tell us?

... I still am very much fascinated by my main themes of the past six months so you will find a bit of Dies Irae and e-a-b-a in it. I don't even do that on purpose, they just appear at a certain point, often.

That is the thing when you improvise, you are always effected by what you have been learning somehow, or at least by your musical experiences. Improv is like a window into someones musical soul.

[pianowolfi]

Quite logical to listen to which is hard to do when you improvise. I didn't feel lost at any time which is alway a sign of a good improv run!
In that nature park do you have wild animals coming after your blood when you walk!?! lol. Some Parts of this would be fitting music for a murder in a nature park. 2:57-4:57. Have you got something you need to tell us?

Sorta yes, you are absolutely right. Actually that walk in the park was not a walk in the park  
I think there have been battles going on there, in the middle age or so.... Plus I had a battle in my heart that day before I went there. I'll go back there and take a picture and post it here. Love this sort of stuff  


Hey thanks for the cool comment!  

[littletune]

Wolfi, when are you going to post a picture?  
This is really sooo cool! (Like always  ) Cause there's sooo many things happening!   

[pianowolfi]

Wolfi, when are you going to post a picture?  
This is really sooo cool! (Like always  ) Cause there's sooo many things happening!   

Hi Littletune, thank you very much

I am writing on this atm, it's quite a beast... 

[littletune]

Wow that looks cool Wolfi!   Good luck with your "beast" !     

[m1469]

hmmm ... I love this .  Definitely I hear a sense of you feeling the differences between "sections" of your piece; very different aspects of the same individual, yet somehow making perfect sense together as one.  Thanks, Wolfi .

[pianowolfi]

Thank you m1469! Your encouraging words meet me just in the middle of a struggle with the proportions of this piece. I have cut the part between 8:00 and 9:00 (and a few other little parts) as I found it doesn't add anything substantial. But now the transition between these parts is too abrupt. Things like that can take weeks...
Actually improvising has turned out to be my way of composing as I am not the type of guy who takes a pencil, starts chewing it and thinks "What will I write now"..

[rachfan]

Hi wolfi,

I enjoyed listening to your latest improv. There is often complexity present, but it always resolves into flashes of beauty, clarity and sometimes the unknowable too.   

[m1469]

... I am not the type of guy who takes a pencil, starts chewing it and thinks "What will I write now"..

hee hee ... *pictures in mind*

[furtwaengler]

Actually improvising has turned out to be my way of composing as I am not the type of guy who takes a pencil, starts chewing it and thinks "What will I write now"..

But have you ever picked up a pencil and started improvising? This is another method with results that may surprise you. I've done such in the past, which I shan't call composition. It's just free writing. 

[m1469]

But have you ever picked up a pencil and started improvising? This is another method with results that may surprise you. I've done such in the past, which I shan't call composition. It's just free writing.  

Don't mean to hijack the thread, Wolfi, sorry, but Dave's comment got me thinking.  "free writing" ... I've done that as a word writer, and that's one thing.  But, patterns and trains of thought do develop, actually.  And, your comment, Dave, made me realize that I could not picture you sitting down and writing completely random notes ... do you?  And, just see what it turns into?  Actually ... hmmmm ... haha ...

[furtwaengler]

Don't mean to hijack the thread, Wolfi, sorry, but Dave's comment got me thinking.  "free writing" ... I've done that as a word writer, and that's one thing.  But, patterns and trains of thought do develop, actually.  And, your comment, Dave, made me realize that I could not picture you sitting down and writing completely random notes ... do you?  And, just see what it turns into?  Actually ... hmmmm ... haha ...

Well, m1469, my intent in improvisation has never been a pursuit of random notes without developing patterns and trains of thought. Things do have a natural progression based on decisions in a moment, depending on what's going on in the mind. I guess free writing is a slower procession of the same growths. You start with an idea and see where it takes you in forward motion...and all of this away from the instrument, adding an extra element of surprise if you finally do play it. When things free up I may try to post a couple short examples.

You know, I had wanted to compose in the past, and I even did complete a few compositions which were performed, but I never took off as a composer, and don't see that I ever will. It's been a failed endeavor...but I've achieved much more in sitting down and improvising as a means of expression then I ever did in a drawn out process of composition. This has often troubled me, but I take great interest when I see someone like Wolfi using his recorded improvisations as seeds to fruitful compositions, and even presenting full recitals of his music, grown out of that first impulse, that seed. He is doing this now before our eyes. I think I could not do that. I have a difficult time transferring moments, going back to play and improvisation. I have a bit of a block here.

(Now I am sort of improvising with words, and should get to bed...)

[pianowolfi]

I used to write a lot when I was younger, I always had a pile of music paper with me and I was even composing in the tram or train. I have a whole suitcase full of these sheets in my cellarbox, but I didn't look in there since ages. I have no clue if there is any worthy material in it. I think there is a draft for a cello sonata, whose theme I still remember, perhaps one day I will dig it out. But what I actually learned that way was writing, and writing fast, trying to catch up with my inner hearing, and writing crisscross through all the tonalities. I remember that once in the tram I came across d#major and had to deal with the double sharps

All this wasn't really "free" or random, I was trying to follow my inner ear and my inspiration. Which was perhaps not yet that clear back then though.