VIDEO: Nocturne

[lateromantic]

It's been a while since I posted here, with most of my recent efforts involving chamber music not very appropriate for this forum.  But I did recently create this video of a piano Nocturne I wrote in 1983 and recorded in 1985. I also used a new edition of the piece I produced in the last few months.  Although it was one of my very earliest compositions, showing a lot of Chopin's influence, I think it is rather attractive, with a lot of varying textures and a strongly constrasting B section (which, however, develops out of the main theme of the A section).  I hope you enjoy it, and I look forward to your comments!

[mjames]

Remarkable piece. Original too. Congrats.

[ted]

That is indeed a very attractive piece of music. I wouldn't worry about the odd resemblance to this or that composer of the past. We all have those we like to emulate, especially when we are young, but the overall conception is not imitative. The underlying sentiment, as opposed to sporadic detail, strikes me as closer to that of Gerald Finzi or John Ireland. It is not simply nostalgia, but a desire to create some sort of lasting haven in the psyche unfettered by ubiquitous brashness and neurosis; a world which ought to be but is not, or at least is no longer.

The approximation of notation demands, for the sake of transmission to other players, that we group notes in all sorts of ways, fours, threes and so on, which actually have no bearing at all on intended effect; music, particularly romantic music, is much bigger than notation. Therefore perhaps you could afford to be a little freer in your actual playing of your own music, perhaps even allowing spontaneous notes and accents on the fly which are not notated. Have you heard the five romantic improvisations Elgar recorded in the twenties ? That is the sort of playing I mean, wherein notation seems not to exist.

In any case, I shall certainly add this one to my USB stick of forum pieces for regular future listening.  

[lateromantic]

That is indeed a very attractive piece of music. I wouldn't worry about the odd resemblance to this or that composer of the past. We all have those we like to emulate, especially when we are young, but the overall conception is not imitative. The underlying sentiment, as opposed to sporadic detail, strikes me as closer to that of Gerald Finzi or John Ireland. It is not simply nostalgia, but a desire to create some sort of lasting haven in the psyche unfettered by ubiquitous, brashness and neurosis; a world which ought to be but is not, or at least is no longer.

The approximation of notation demands, for the sake of transmission to other players, that we group notes in all sorts of ways, fours, threes and so on, which actually have no bearing at all on intended effect; music, particularly romantic music, is much bigger than notation. Therefore perhaps you could afford to be a little freer in your actual playing of your own music, perhaps even allowing spontaneous notes and accents on the fly which are not notated. Have you heard the five romantic improvisations Elgar recorded in the twenties ? That is the sort of playing I mean, wherein notation seems not to exist.

In any case, I shall certainly add this one to my USB stick of forum pieces for regular future listening.   

Thanks, Ted, I'm glad you found it worthwhile, and I appreciate your comments.  You're right that notation in Romantic music is only an approximation.  Remember that this video was based on my recording from years ago, and if I were to revive the work today, I might indeed interpret it a little differently - something that I find myself doing with several of my other works that I have revived in the last couple of years.