"The Mirror of Tears"- melancholy piece on constanty repeated motive

[robertus]

It's an extremely simple composition- hopefully not too simple or too sentimental?

[anacrusis]

Too simple or too sentimental for what? You're the composer, you decide how you want it to go. Nice piece, I enjoyed listening

[robertus]

Too simple or too sentimental for what? You're the composer, you decide how you want it to go. Nice piece, I enjoyed listening

Thanks! That's very kind of you.

I did a lot of training as a kind of academic composer/pianist/musicologist some decades ago, but have left that world behind (more or less). These days, I try to write as a feel, but sometimes worry that 'serious musicians' will see my music as being cliched/simplistic...

[lettersquash]

This is great, and you perform it with great sensitivity, probably not brought out in the recording environment. I think the sudden releases of the sustain pedal, staccato and modified tempo keep the simple structure alive, as well as the way you build the emotional power with the melodic line. You seem to keep finding new voices in the chords to emphasize, but it comes over as direct from intuition rather than too studied.

[anacrusis]

Thanks! That's very kind of you.

I did a lot of training as a kind of academic composer/pianist/musicologist some decades ago, but have left that world behind (more or less). These days, I try to write as a feel, but sometimes worry that 'serious musicians' will see my music as being cliched/simplistic...

The question is who you are writing for then. Are you writing to please serious musicians? Or are you writing to please your own ears? (you saying that you try to write as you feel suggests the latter) Some serious musicians do enjoy minimalistic, simplistic music, others want big and complex works only. You can't please everyone, it's just not possible.

I have some background writing compositions myself and if I were writing today I would focus on writing whatever music I enjoy writing and hearing, and only worry about what other people are looking for if I was doing a comission, scoring a video/film or something like that.

[robertus]

The question is who you are writing for then. Are you writing to please serious musicians? Or are you writing to please your own ears? (you saying that you try to write as you feel suggests the latter) Some serious musicians do enjoy minimalistic, simplistic music, others want big and complex works only. You can't please everyone, it's just not possible.

I have some background writing compositions myself and if I were writing today I would focus on writing whatever music I enjoy writing and hearing, and only worry about what other people are looking for if I was doing a comission, scoring a video/film or something like that.

I am really writing to express myself, but also (maybe unconsciously) to please my listeners. I am a priest and liturgical musician, so my I try to write in a way which will touch or please at least some of the congregation (without becoming too simplistic or 'cheesy'). But I always groan inwardly when people say, "I love your music; it sounds just like Einaudi."

[ted]

Somehow or other I missed listening to this. I have now listened to all your playing on Youtube. You employ a very simple harmonic and rhythmic palette yet say more with it than most players of complex means. I found my initial lugubrious impression of intrinsic melancholy transitioned with listening into an odd sort of comfort, but I am hard put to explain why this is so. "Nunc et semper" and "Reverie" I found particularly striking but again analysis fails me, might be just my perception, which is often eccentric at the best of times. I would like to hear this music recorded with less reverberation but that is in no way a criticism of the music itself, which exudes a deep creative personality.