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Richard Ratner
- Male
- Somerville, MA
- United States
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Comment Wall (3 comments)
- At 7:42pm on August 14, 2009,
Ann Williams said… - Hallo,
I read your comments on the Musical Form discussion and came to your page to listen to your music. Needless to say, I am really impressed and was wondering if you perhaps would take a minute or two to look at two pieces I have posted. I would value your opinion greatly!
- At 8:16pm on July 5, 2009,
Emmanuelle Fonsny said… - Hi Richard,
Thank you for your comments. I'm not sure I agree with everything you said though...
I do agree that I have used the chromatic scale quite often but that was partly intentional, partly subconscious.
I came up with the theme of the 1st mvmt one day and it turned out that way. I developed the theme and realised tonal would not work. It presented itself as a very ironic piece so I decided to have the whole movement in that "soundworld". Hence I avoided tonality. I chose to have the 3rd mvmt share the same characteristics as the 1st for a better sense of unity. I made the 2nd mvmt more tonality based to add contrast.
I don't really agree that there's no direction. I think there is... May be our definiton of "direction" differs? To me, direction means that the music is moving forward so that the listener isn't just centered on the present to what's coming to. I can't really explain myself!
I do also think there is tension... may be more so in the 3rd mvmt. May be not the same kind of tension as in a Beethoven symphony but I do think it's present.
I am not concerned about sounding old-fashioned. I used to be a few years back but I'm over that. I've realised that what's more important is to stay faithful to what you want to express and that is what I have been doing. Some of the pieces end up like this one, showing the ironic side of my personality, others are more tonal based and show the quieter side of me.
- At 7:57pm on July 5, 2009,
Emmanuelle Fonsny said…
- Thank you for your comments. I'm not sure I agree with everything you said...
I do agree that I have used the chromatic scale often but that was intentional. Well, actually, I used it partly intentionally, partly subconsciouly. I came up with the theme of the 1st movement one day and it turned out that way. I haven't decided to avoid tonalities just to be different. I just think that in the 1st and 3rd mvts, tonalities turned out to be irrelevant. It wouldn't have worked. And I also was striving for unity. I wanted to achieve irony in both movements and tonal wouldn't have worked. Somehow, I find it liberating not having to be tied down to a tonal frame. You can do so much more when you are in no particluar key.
But I don't quite agree with what you say about direction. I do think there is direction. (may be we define "direction" differently?) I guess there are different types of directions in music, one being created by tonality and modulation, another created by rhythm and/or melody. To be honest, I haven't given much thought to direction until you mentioned it.
I'm not so much concerned about sounding old-fashioned. I used to be but I'm over that now. I'm more concerned in being faithful to what I want to express and I believe this is what I've been doing.
Profile Information
- What have you composed for? Or what medium do you work around?
- Choir, Small Ensemble, Songs
- What is your favorite genre or style of music?
- classical
- Is music your main income source?
- Sort Of - Music Related
- Where do you live?
- near Boston
- Website:
- http://richardratner.co.cc
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