Winter

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Notated improvisation, written out from a few years back.

My commentary on the piece:

A mood piece, evoking the solitude of Nature amidst the bleakness and cold of a snowy winter. The watermarked images are taken from Caspar Friedrich David's paintings.

This piece is very much in a Lisztian and/or Wagnerian vein; absolutely central to it are harmonic relationships based upon the third (for the most part, the minor third). Right from the start, there is a very deliberate tonal ambiguity between the F# of the bass tremolando and the nominal A minor of the treble motif. The slow introduction leads into a melancholy F# minor section, with the melody accompanied by the slow tread of repeated quaver chords. The alert listener will spot the reoccurrence of the F#/A minor dichotomy.

A recitative passage leads into a dolorous aftermath, a moment of almost religious ecstacy dispels the previous storm (the F# major perhaps suggests the parallel moment in Liszt's Dante sonata?) The agitated groans of the blowing snow return in F# minor, as we approach conclusion. The minor third connection is recapitulated in full, passing briefly through F#, A, C and Eb minors in succession before returning to F# minor, leading to a moment of reflection in augmented harmonies, as it ends with another reference to the F#/A minor tonal ambivalence.

[ted]

The section from bar 184 to bar 220 is very beautiful Andrew. The underlying sentiment there seems close to that of Harmonies du Soir but there is much about the whole piece that is your own, which is how it should be. Beats me how you have the patience to attempt visual representation of improvisation although I suppose the task is rendered much easier if you acquire the habit of thinking and playing in notated rhythms at the outset.  Shallow, contemplative hedonist that I am, nothing I play ever comes close to doom and gloom but music is big enough to embrace all our temperaments.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Thanks Ted. The section from bar 184 I can see what you mean, though my association (key-wise if nothing else) is somewhat the 'heaven' section of Liszt's Dante sonata. I think the relative metrical regularity of it is partly due to me thinking in cells and motifs and this gives a certain grammatical consistency to the notation. If I write out an improvisation of this length it is for sure that I am very partial to it and possibly I might want to play it as a composition at a later date. The character and also the thematic motifs to an extent are defined very early on by the F#/A/C/E grouping and the tonal ambiguity created - is it the F# minor tonic with a flattened fifth or the A minor tonic with a sharpened sixth? This colours so much of the thinking and mood within.