The title of a composition can be important. It indicates what the composer wanted to express. Although there is quite a bit of swindling going on here. Some titles are only given to a composition later and not even by the composer.I like to play around with a title a bit. I recently wrote 3 compositions for organ manual: a prelude, an interlude and a postlude. Three 'ludes'. In Latin it means "plays". So I called the series 'Ludes' for organ manual. I'm happy with this. Usually I'm just fooling around, but this seems like a serious title. And that on my old day. If only my father could have lived to see this.Have any of you ever come up with a brilliant title?
You need to be a member of composersforum to add comments!
Replies
Jesus Christ! This forum...
The title of a composition can be important. It indicates what the composer wanted to express. Although there is quite a bit of swindling going on here. Some titles are only given to a composition later and not even by the composer. I like to play around with a title a bit. I recently wrote 3 compositions for organ manual: a prelude, an interlude and a postlude. Three 'ludes'. In Latin it means "plays". So I called the series 'Ludes' for organ manual. I'm happy with this. Usually I'm just fooling around, but this seems like a serious title. And that on my old day. If only my father could have lived to see this. Have any of you ever come up with a brilliant title?
I was pleased when I coined 'Partita Concordia' for my string trio work. The music was inspired by Bach Suites with a few unusual chords thrown in (my 'Pulcinella' moment), and is written in a tonal language....Partita...Concordia. Much more classy than 'A set of Dances in tonal style' or similar.
I meant to say - I listened through this in entirety on the day you posted the comment. It's wonderful work throughout, quite distracting as I kept stopping notation work at particularly beautiful or intriguing moments so I could see the score. My minimum preference for voices is four, and chords/stops I've barely explored, so it was as impressive a display of practical knowledge as composition. And the form and instrumentation sometimes evoked a kind of 1800s nautical feel. Lonely (if highly talented) sailors. A favourite atmosphere of mine.
You should post it here in a dedicated thread? But you don't have to.
Thanks Dave, glad it got through to you a little. The best thing about that recording was that nobody came to me and said a passage was unplayable. You are in a great position as a guitarist to understand multiple stops as being an ex guitarist myelf gave me an edge. I bought a cheap second-hand violin, viola and cello and I'd just hold the instruments like a guitar and play chords to assess their feasability. There's a little more to it than that of course but being able to judge chords by actually playing them was a fantastic way to get to start getting to grips with the good stuff. Maybe I'll post it sometime.
normally the mere mention of the name Bach sends me scuttling under a rock so I hadn't investigated this piece before. My loss -- a mosaic of ever-changing masterfully written dances. My favourites are probably the more soulful ones like the the Prelude or Sarabande. The ever inventive harmonies stops any danger of this becoming routine.
Thanks so much David, glad you liked it too. It was fun to write whilst working within set forms and even rhythms, although I did personalise them somewhat as you might have noticed. Things like the rhythm to 'God Save our Gracious Queen' where used in the Galliard (remarkably the English national anthem is based on a Galliard I believe), and emphasis on the second beat was maintained in the Sarabande and so on. I was more liberal with the harmony and the Bachian spirit of line/melody first held at times to create the more unusual dissonances. I guess I'll post it in another thread to stop derailing Rowy's thread. I really hope you can get into Bach one day as that bad boy is one of the most soulful composers I know.
with 99% of Bach, I've never really got the soulfulness. I prefer the more quirky Zelenka but basically the Baroque is simply not my period.
Maybe part of it has to do with the way Bach is often performed? There was a time when the trend was to perform him as accurately and as mechanically as possible. But later research is showing that this is probably badly misrepresentative of what Bach actually intended.
you may well have a point there.It's possible that if Bach were performed with romantic passion that more of it would appeal.
There are examples of the extended harmonic language and expressiveness which characterize Romanticism stretching back to the early Baroque. In my judgement (which means absolutely nothing), Girolamo Frescobaldi was the first acclaimed composer to embrace Romantacism, in spirit and stylistically speaking, long before it became the prevailing post-Classical approach.
And of course Bach's precocious and dreamy Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue (903) can't go unmentioned. It could easily be dropped into the midst of 19th century music and almost escape notice, except for the sublime contruction of the fugue, which would undoubtedly betray its notorious author.
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
of 4 Next