Original composition: Op. 8 Sonata (video: audio + sheet music)

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Written in March-April 2026. Only thing that I've written that I would consider kind of decent. Feedback would be appreciated.

Audio is from Dorico (I haven't had access to a piano in over a year XP). Don't have the sheet music on Musescore (yet).

I threw the video together in a bit of a hurry, so some of the page flips are probably messed up. :/

[thorn]

I'll listen to the rest later, but my overall opinion of the 1st movement is you have good material but it could work harder for you. From a melodic perspective each phrase ending in a leading note-tonic/dominant-tonic pattern brings unity between them, but the repetitions (it seemed the development and recap sections repeated in their entirety?) combined with the slow tempo means it's easy to lose interest- maybe a more extended development playing around with melodic variations, but keeping the ending leading note-tonic/dominant-tonic minims would add interest without losing the unified whole?

And for rhythm, I'd actually say the opposite- the core rhythmic idea is a slow note followed by two quicker ones but it's not utilised enough in my opinion. For example in the exposition it appears as minim + two crotchets in phrase 1, not at all in phrases 3 and 6, and with a random grace note in phrase 5. Making this motif work harder for you would strengthen the rhythmic identity of the movement.

Oh, and also it felt like the piece was originally intended as F minor? It didn't stay in the major for very long! If so then perhaps embrace the minor key from the outset.

Edit: Listened to the rest of it.

The 2nd and 3rd mvts have 4 pieces worth of music in them. In both cases I really liked the opening material- in mvt 2 the improv style melody over LH figurations like a nocturne, and in mvt 3 the scale/arpeggio figurations like something you'd get in a classical sonata. But mvt 2 bars 13-20/29-32 sound like a different piece, and likewise the Andante middle/ending section of mvt 3. Overall each movement needs to decide which of the two identities it wants to go with and develop further in that direction, then the leftover material can be extracted into separate compositions because it's still good material. Oh and also mvt 3 bars 21-4 was a nice idea for developing the opening material but you only gave us 4 bars of it!

The section of the 4th mvt before the coda was my favourite part of the entire sonata. I loved the contrapuntal (fugue?) writing and how you drew in material from mvts 2 and 3 in bars 27-46. The problem I had with the coda was it repeated the "other" material from those movements, and as I said above those movements have an identity crisis. Since the rest of the 4th mvt works so well I'd suggest the material from bars 27-46 (mvt 4) as the material you keep in mvts 2 and 3, extract the remaining mvt 2/3 material into a different composition, then rework the 4th mvt coda with the material you've kept.

Overall this has the potential to be a really good sonata, just hone in on the material that has the strongest identity and cut the rest for use elsewhere. And literally everyone in their early days of getting into composition has this issue- too much material diluting identity. So keep at it! And also good for you writing a full sonata- my first compositions were variations and Liszt S.136 style mini-etudes, I'd never have braved a longer form xD