Need some feedback

[Jisho]

I finally got a mixer that can actually render some of my music well (and even made some pretty cool techno mixes of some popular stuff).

Give me some feedback (especially on the classical stuff like the Sonata, fugue, and exercise).

http://www.myspace.com/jisho23

[Wain]

Okay, these are just a few quick off the cuff responses based on a single listen to some of the pieces, if I say something that sounds negative, it's not meant to be, if I say something that sounds ignorant, I've only heard the things once in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep....lol....regardless, this is really good stuff and I don't want you to think that I consider any of it to be otherwise...but you asked for feedback, so these are my opinions:

First of all, I *love* the whole tone piece...seriously...it's a lot of fun.

Regarding the Sonata for Cello and Piano, I'm not clear as to why you are calling this a sonata.  Maybe if I give it another listen after I've rested, or if I see the sheet music it'll be clear to me, but I'm not really hearing any of the form, there are a couple of brief tonicizations, but your thematic material seems to be a couple of motives with no major development.  The piece sounds through-composed to me.  At the same time, once Beethoven shows up and all time after him, the entire form of a sonata movement gets thrown into question and your other work is clearly 20th century influenced so it's likely just that I'm adhering too strictly to the tonal idiom with the term...after all Berg's piano sonata no. 2 isn't particularly tonal...this could also partially be an issue with the recording as well.  At the same time when listening to Berg's you can still quite clearly hear the theme groups and it's very clear to the listener whether you're in Exposition, Development, or Recapitulation.

Regarding the fugue - I really like your main subject, it's funky but not so extreme as to completely lose a listener.  I will say however, that in terms of advice, I'd work on making cleaner distinctions between your episodes and fugal statements, while much of this may well be the virtual instrument recording, it tends to get rather messy and becomes harder to hear the shape and form.  Part of this could well be coming from whatever pitch collection you're using for this as well.

So yeah, in terms of advice I'd give you:  shape, shape, and more shape.  Shape and form are the things that kill us as modern composers, it's one of the hardest things to master and there's always a new difficulty with it.  What I'd really suggest is that you spend more time working with silence, I've listened to about 6-8 minutes of your music and didn't hear one really noticeable point of rest.  Once again, rest is usually something composers are afraid of (I know I am...lol) and it takes time to get a feel for how long it takes to clear a listener's aural palette in order to restate or introduce new ideas.

I think you've got some really beautiful music here, it's got really wonderful textures and you've a great sense of motion.  You've got a really talented ear, I hope you're taking the time to revel in your growth.  You've got some really great musical ideas, but I don't really think you play with them enough yet personally.

Also, an aside concern, you have verified that your sonata doesn't require two pianists yes?  I just remember a couple of bars that had me wondering because I couldn't hear clearly enough and there was a lot going on.

[Jisho]

You're probably right about the Sonata. I did my best and to me (at least) there are the 3 structural areas (an exposition, a digression and recapitulation) but I have omitted (or forgot) several key parts of the exposition that really throw it out the window. I contemplated changing the name to "Concert Piece for Cello and Piano" but there are still some sonata like qualities; if you listened to the whole thing there are definitely 3 major themes that I use and develop over the composition. And yes, as crazy as it sounds it is playable with two hands. You just need to be left handed (like me). That moving line is only stacked 5ths, so in the end its not beyond any pianist with a little practice. What throws the whole piece into a loop (which is why I'm so proud of how it turned out) is that most of the melodic motion is done in triplets or tied triplets, which makes the whole movement sound rhythmically more complex than otherwise and it makes it sound a lot more fluid. Oh, and the second and 3rd movement are on their way ^^.

I'm glad you like the whole tone exercise (it really is just an exercise with me messing with harmonies made by using alternating whole tones, sometimes in the same measure and sometimes on top of each other) but you raise playability questions with the sonata; the exercise is incredibly challenging. And the fugue is worse; one of the piano instructors at my school handed it back to me shortly after giving it to him saying "it'd take me more time to learn than it would be worth."

And you are right about not hearing a single point of rest. Its partly because I'm still such an amateur and in part because of fear, but I just can't bring my self to write a rest. I'm still working the kinks out of the program I'm using, so there are some clear "stops" in the music (usually a fermata) that are just simply ignored.