Elegie melancolique (original composition with sheet music)

[ronde_des_sylphes]

This is a further part of a project to re-record some of my favourite improvisations under what amount to "professional" circumstances, ie a good grand piano in a church venue and with the option for re-takes, as opposed to at home on a not-so-good piano and with the poor acoustics of a small room.

Probably the hardest part of the project was notating the pieces by ear. I've allowed myself a small amount of grammatical rephrasing and correction between the original, fully-improvised, one-take piece and transitioning the material into what I consider to be a finished composition.

This is quite a dark, gloomy piece, a contemplation of finality arrived at, though with a strongly romantic central reminiscence. I find the material very much in the vein of Liszt's Harmonies poetiques et religieuses.

A slow, contemplative and tonally ambiguous opening leads into a dolorous, quasi-operatic section, growing ever more impassioned in moonlit solitude with intensely chromatic harmonies. A passing torpor gives way into a brief quasi-cadenza storm which slowly resolves into an almost ecstatic middle section passing through the sunlit uplands (perhaps reminiscent of Liszt's Cantique d'amour) into a tender allegretto.  The repeated Bb notes (the dominant of the Eb major middle section) which conclude this part fall to the A natural third of F# minor as the music returns to a sense of gloom and the deepest despondency. A funeral march in triple time follows as a procession of monks wends it way through the mists and night, before the piece ends with an ethereal and once again harmonically ambivalent passage (perhaps subconsciously reminiscent of the coda of Liszt's B major sonata) with arpeggiated chords in the treble leading to a peaceful Bb major resolution.

I would like to, at some point in the future, include such material on a full concert programme.

Piano: Weinbach grand
Mics: Rode NT5 pair

[carmelopaolucci]

Truly a beautiful piece! Your music is truly dense, sumptuous, and rich. The nuances you used are remarkable. What can I say? Truly excellent work!

[dizzyfingers]

Very beautiful music.
You're wisely continuing the great Chopin/Scriabin romantic tradition!

Interesting choice for the LH - - dense repeated chords.  This piece might sound even better on Chopin's Pleyel or another piano from that era.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Truly a beautiful piece! Your music is truly dense, sumptuous, and rich. The nuances you used are remarkable. What can I say? Truly excellent work!

Thanks! In contrast to the train piece earlier, here I feel the predominant aspect of the material is harmony and I think the level of chromaticism definitely enhances this aspect.

Very beautiful music.
You're wisely continuing the great Chopin/Scriabin romantic tradition!

Interesting choice for the LH - - dense repeated chords.  This piece might sound even better on Chopin's Pleyel or another piano from that era.

Thanks! I'd love to record it on a Steinway! I might be able to get more colour from it. The chords are somewhat of a bebung device typical of Liszt and Chopin's writing - famous examples would include Vallee d'Obermann and the 4th prelude.