Intermezzo "Seven Notes" for Piano

[crimson]

Been busy for a couple of weeks, and this is what I've been working on. It's a really brief piece for piano, only a little over a minute long. There hasn't been any progress on my wind divertimento, but I might continue it some day when I got time for it.

I was able to find a composition teacher for myself afterall, and this piece is a 'fruit' of those studies. Actually this started as a one-minute piece consisting only of half and whole notes which I wrote for the first lesson, and I was asked to improve it on successive lessons. This version is the third lesson's work. I was starting to go nuts with complying to 16th century counterpoint rules when working with this composition, but luckily this version passed the review although I think there are a few forbidden parts still in it

I wonder if I finally succeeded in giving a correct name for a piece by calling this an intermezzo. To me it sounds like it would fit well into some kind of a theatrical play between scenes.

I'll give you the link to the score soon. One thing I learned with this work was to do proper notation, and I haven't heard any complaints concerning it from my teacher, so I guess I did something right...

Intermezzo "Seven Notes" for Piano

[crimson]

I put the score online. Here's the link: Score

You'll need Sibelius Scorch to view and play it, which you can download for free at the Sibelius site

[Majesty]

I definitely get the sense of "pearldrop". It is a very light piece. I guess it could be considered a "light" Intermezzo, or maybe a Ballade. Anyway, it a nice piece start to your composition lessons.

[crimson]

Thanks for the comment, Majesty!

I don't know but I'm kind of hoping that my teacher will ask me to expand this piece into a longer composition. It will probably take a while before we get to dealing with form, but I think this scribble has some nice material in it that could be worth of a longer composition.

[stevel]

I was able to find a composition teacher for myself afterall, and this piece is a 'fruit' of those studies.

Good job - and good work.

I was starting to go nuts with complying to 16th century counterpoint rules when working with this composition, but luckily this version passed the review although I think there are a few forbidden parts still in it

I wouldn't go against what your teacher says, but I wouldn't be too concerned about forbidden parallels, dissonances, etc. This is the 21st century, you really shouldn't hold yourself to the principles of 16th century counterpoint unless you're specifically trying to do so.

I wonder if I finally succeeded in giving a correct name for a piece by calling this an intermezzo. To me it sounds like it would fit well into some kind of a theatrical play between scenes.

I agree. I can picture it as something being played while a set or scene change was happening, or while narrative (but not spoken/sung) activity was going on. I also kind of hear it as a little dance as well - something that might be played while two characters danced in an otherwise non-ballet setting.

I'll give you the link to the score soon. One thing I learned with this work was to do proper notation, and I haven't heard any complaints concerning it from my teacher, so I guess I did something right...

Notation is something ALL composers need to work on, so I'm glad to hear your teacher is mentioning it already. One question - why does it say "Key of A Major" (or similar) at the beginning - that's kind of uncommon (i.e. not done to my knowledge).

Best,
Steve

[crimson]

Thanks for your comment, stevel!

The text mentioning the key is a left-over from my working process. I currently have a habit of writing down the key so I can more easily remember it later when I return to the score. I still haven't memorized all the key signatures except for C Major, so it would take time to figure out the key of a piece from the signature alone. But I think it would actually speed up the learning of the different signatures if I had to figure them out every time I looked at a score

I've been happy with my teacher so far. I think he was not being too strict about the 16th century counterpoint rules in this particular assignment, but he has pointed out all problems in excercises that have specifically been counterpoint excercises.

You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find a composition teacher in Finland. I don't think there are even many private teachers around here, which is pretty weird. But luckily I found one, and I'm happy about it.