Another Duo for Clarinet and Piano

[ttw]

A little piece in the style of a tango.

http://www.mediamax.com/sudoplatov/Hosted/tango714.mp3

[stevel]

Originally Posted by ttw

A little piece in the style of a tango.

http://www.mediamax.com/sudoplatov/Hosted/tango714.mp3

What a superbly, well-written piece. Congratulations.

I have some comments - feel free to accept or ignore:

Things I like:
1. The interplay between the Clarinet and the Piano melody - sometimes they're in dialogue, sometimes they're doubling (like around 1:23 which is really nice), and sometimes the Piano is providing countermelody or support.

2. I like how you treat the the piano as two instruments and really you have a three instrument texture here.

3. I like the pacing, and the themes, and the number of sections - it's not too long - good amount - enough freshness to hold interest throughout.

Things I don't like (you and others might though):
1. Texture - you've got a nice clarinet intro but, after that it's all "three" parts going all the time.

2. The "three" parts are always the same - it would be nice if the clarinet took on an accompanimental role, or layed out altogether. It would be nice if the piano LH stopped simply playing bass part and took a melody (though you've got some really nice bass melodies in here as a third contrapuntal line, and it's got the nice tango accompaniment around 1:23 which is a nice change of pace). There's a good opportunity here for three part counterpoint between all parts, rather than maintianing this heiriacrchy of clarinet-lead, piano rh-midground, and piano lh-accomp.

3. lately I'm in this "anti-sequence" mood, so I tend to be picking up on them, but at about :18-:24, and :51-:59, you've got these sequences that are kind of, well, sequency! At 1:09 - 1:22 you've got a chord progression that's very "progressiony". I know that sounds silly but my point is, after the initial music you've got these really nice chord progressions set up, and really nice distribution of material. Then you get to those sequences is almost sounds like you put them in becaue you wanted to see if you could, not because they "need" to be there. Same thing with the later progression - sounds a little like - well, they just sound "forced" - it sounds like you used some "stock" sequences and progressions in the middle of an otherwise cool set of material. There's one little funky transistion in this area too and it sounds a little like you had part A, and part B, and you thought to yourself, "hey I need to get from A to B, so I need to do this" and it's a little "jumpy". So i don't know how to describe it really, but it's just one of those things where you've got this very natural-sounding structure, and very natural-sounding melodic ideas, but these sections sound a little forced. I know - it's like when you're watcing a movie and they use some stock footage from WWII or something, and it's obvious that the movie you're watching, and those clips don't come form the same source - but they're trying to make it look like they're part of the same storyline - same issue here (though it may not be an issue for you).


4. I like how at the end there's this nod to Major in the sections that had previously been minor. This is the third time we've heard this material (IIRC) so it's a nice change. But after this, it gets just a touch to "repeaty" for my taste - this is where it seems you have a nice opportunity for 3 part counterpoint (more equality between parts), a nice unaccompanied clarinet part, or a solo piano part, etc. Why not give the clarinet the tango accompaniment pattern, and give the piano the lead? Many works feature a "pull out all the stops" mentality at the end - so much so that even new sections of previously unheard music can be included as a coda and stand on their own. Except for the Major nod, this seems like this part is crying out for some more obvious change - change in texture, change in distribution of parts - something to "build up" to the end.

In fact, throughout the piece I expected everything to wind down and you have a slow theme in the middle - it happens so frequently. I'm kind of glad that you didn't, but I'm also kind of disappointed that you didn't really give us anything to say "oh, something's happening, I wonder what" in the latter part. Not a biggie, but I think it would add to, rather than detract from the piece.

All that said TTW, there are plenty of pieces that are just like this - same texture throughout. So there's nothing wrong with it. I've probably got a shorter attention span than most but for my money, I want a "grand finale" instead of a repeat of previous material with a few (possibly unnoticeable by the lay listener) changes.

Are you getting this performed? You need to!

Best,
Steve

[ttw]

Thanks for the kind words. I agree with all the critiques. I hadn't thought of having the clarinet exchange with the bass instead of just being a duet with the treble. I'll try to take your coments into account for the next piece.

None of my stuff is performed; I'm not associated with any musicians (or school or whatever.) I retired a couple years ago (mathematics, not music) and have decided to try my hand at music composition.

[PeterG]

Hi ttw,

Originally Posted by stevel

What a superbly, well-written piece. Congratulations.

I agree with Steve, very nice and very much your style of work. Everytime you post another one you got me thinking of making a tango myself. maybe I will this time..

If anything at all to comment I'd want to say it's a bit, uhm, nice and quiet.
I mean, a tango is a passionate thing, people seducing each other in intimite dance poses driven by the music and if they do it well, they will end up in bed I guess (well, maybe that's my own imagination getting carried away... lol). It's a cat and mouse thing, and come a get me / take me if you can thing.. In general not nice and quiet things they do.
Does that make sense to you?

Thanks for sharing,

Peter