My Nocturnes. Should I continue or give up writing?

[markspianomusic]

I'm often told my music moves people, but I have a sort-of-like/think-it's-prosaic-sh*t kind of relationship with my work. I invite your considered criticisms, and when I'm feeling brave will come back to see what you all think. Thanks.

https://soundcloud.com/marks-piano-music/song-for-the-second-sleep
https://soundcloud.com/marks-piano-music/prelude-for-f-sharp
https://soundcloud.com/marks-piano-music/the-great-indoors-1

[pianoman53]

Without even listening, I can tell you that people are stupid. There are countless of cases, where musicians have first been praised by people, just to realize that they're actually not very good.

And how long are you working on your stuff? Too many people give up too easily.


If you don't like your things, either change it or stop doing it. You can't trust people on the internet.

[maestroanth]

'

[awesom_o]

My other comment, and I make this to a looooooot of people, is about the form.  In this case, it felt kind of stationary (as far as intensity) and it is a sound I believe if finely tuned can work up to a passionate climax.

I agree with this comment! Music must develop in terms of its emotional intensity!

Your ideas are very promising, and I think it would be a shame for you to stop composing.

In order to develop your form:

Greater variety of harmonic vocabulary and less repetitiveness of structure would make your works more charismatic.


I can hear that you are influenced by popular music, which in and of itself is a good thing. I would suggest, however, that you take another page from the book of popular music, in regards to song-length. It takes a LOT of musical material to meaningfully fill out just four, five, or six minutes. Two or three minutes is plenty of time for a short piece! You Nocturne in C minor was over six minutes long, yet I felt that it could have been abridged to less than half of that time, without sacrificing anything other than repetitiousness.

Have you taken any examinations in advanced harmony and counterpoint?

[maestroanth]

'

[quantum]

Plus, mark, what I'm noticing with these types of sites and forums, is that a whole lot of people here and on the internet aren't qualified to judge.  The main reason is, because those that are qualified to judge will be out their making some art vs wasting all their time trolling forums. Some of these people on here with 1000 + posts don't really have that much talent so being critics is the only way they can feel worthy.

Be careful with the internet and know what to take as a grain of salt.  Be better than these people, and be stronger too. Whoever replies and whatever they reply with is a gamble.  You have a good aesthetic taste and talent going and don't let these hackneyed 'fuddy-duddys' bring you down.

I disagree with looking at pop forms because their isn't a whole lot to look at when there are much better inspirations. (Liszt, B-minor sonata, and his use of thematic transformations, is an awesome example to study)

That is a rather bold statement to make for someone who has only been registered on PS for two days.  Read around here a bit more.

[maestroanth]

'

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I listened to the first two. Definitely keep writing, there is promise there. I more or less agree with everything awesom says, and would like to add the related point of adding more variety to the accompanimental figurations. The larger the scale you seek to work on the more this will become an issue. The risk is that, whilst you may as a composer view repetition of similar figuration or passages as a device which adds consistency and cohesion, a listener may perceive as "he's saying the same thing again". This is a difficult thing to pull off the balance of, but I would suggest the more you write and the more you study works by established masters, the more your aesthetic sense will develop and form. A deleted post mentions the Liszt sonata: this is a very good point in that Liszt was an absolute genius at re-expressing material in a form which appears totally different in character/emotional effect from the original, but which is in reality generated from the same cells. I would encourage you to write a theme and variations type piece as an exercise in expressing the same thing differently.

[maestroanth]

I was thinking with the ostinato'ish figure that would be perfect in his strange sound nocturne was making rhythmic changes small, but noticeable, and see how far you want to go with that.  I mean, I'm just imagining the figure as eighth note's, but tweak a 2/4 set of eighths into a 5/8 set, and then maybe add/subtract another eighth and so forth which in my mind would be an elegant touch to add just the right amount of variety to a repetition based nocturne that one can still fall asleep to.  I actually feel rhythm is the best thing to start with rather than pitch when some variation is needed.  In general, the sound and presentation felt professional which is always a good start and I like the aesthetic quality it envelopes.

With art and music, the first and foremost thing is to at least "look like you know what you're doing even if you don't" ;p  It's really hard to attract people the other way around....for example, "if you really do know what you're doing, but you don't look like you do." I had to learn this through some empirical wisdom

[hmrichter]

Don't ever give up on a piece. If there's one thing I've learned of in composing, it's that sometimes projects should be set aside, but never abandoned.
Yes, you have a long way to go, but remember, Beethoven didn't start off by writing a symphonic masterpiece. And Bach didn't start out writing a 5 voice fugue. Probably the BIGGEST piece of advice I can give is keep your pieces short. Ever listened to a pop song that repeats the chorus so many times you're counting them down until the song's over? I'm not saying that your pieces are like that, but keep things fresh. Come back to the original thought every once in a while, but do keep going.

[awesom_o]

Don't ever give up on a piece. If there's one thing I've learned of in composing, it's that sometimes projects should be set aside, but never abandoned.
Yes, you have a long way to go, but remember, Beethoven didn't start off by writing a symphonic masterpiece. And Bach didn't start out writing a 5 voice fugue. Probably the BIGGEST piece of advice I can give is keep your pieces short.

Excellent advice!