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Hi everyone! This is my first post here so I'll introduce myself. My name is AJ and I'm a 17 year old pianist and composer from Upstate, New York. I absolutely love writing music and its great to be able to connect with more composers through this site. The composers that inspire my work are Brahms, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Scriabin, Schubert, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Glazunov, Faure, Medtner, John Williams and countless others. However, even though the different techniques and ideas of other composers inspire my work, the number one source of inspiration for my compositions is life itself. I think that goes for everyone here. The love, passion, sadness, INTENSE sadness, tiredness etc... are all emotions that affect us and our work greatly. I'd love to hear who and what inspires your own work.
Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent here. This is my first opus, which is two pieces for solo piano. The first piece is a Waltz in F Minor, and the second is called Sarcasm Melancholique. I hope you enjoy these pieces and that they inspire/move you in some way, shape, or form. Thank you so much. I look forward to hearing from you!
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it's customary for this forum to post a link to the specific track, rather than advertise your profile on social networking sites.
You will also notice that people here (including myself) like to have a sheet to follow. This makes our remarks much more detailed and valid, and helps us communicate.
The waltz sounds a lot like chopin. I don't think that you "stole" anything, but many of the phrases you use are strikingly similar to a couple of the chopin waltzes. That's good and bad-it's very familiar and refreshing at the same time to listen to a style you know a lot of, yet it has some new aura in it, but it somehow bugs me to listen to certain chromatic licks or progressions that are so characteristic to my ear, yet they somehow don't go where I feel they should (yes, the waltzes are engraved in my head, lol).
The chromatic phrase at the begining gave me the hope that you've got something extra "saucy" for us, in terms of mindbending chromaticism and dark moods, but you just go on to a cliche chopinish melody. It IS good, yet I feel there could have been so much more in there. The introduction of that fast part was great, but I'd like to have more of it and see you play with the dynamics and momentum. ie, go to the fast part, like you did, cresendo, bring to a halt and give it a couple of slower bars, then build again on the fast part, then do some harmonic exploration before you cadence and head to the ending, or something along those lines. Perhaps that would be a good spot to develop those starting notes.
It's very good work. The similarity to known pieces sometimes is awkward, but most listeners wouldn't mind I suppose. It can become longer and develop more on some of it's ideas, should you decide to do so. Your playing is nice, too.
I listened to both pieces. They are absolutely gorgeous pieces. I listened to the Sarcasm Melancholique several times. I so love that melody.
You have taken on a wonderful legacy from classical music, and I would like to see how you evolve throughout your life in terms of your compositions. You are 17 and drawn in by the unbelievable beauty of Chopin's pieces (they're magical, and I remember being totally in love with them in my teens), though you have your own individual mark in these pieces, particularly clear in the some of your melody lines.
One time I had an interesting experience. Here's the story. I composed two waltzes (waltz 1 had a left hand in the style of yours). Then one day I started hearing them both superimposed in my head, i.e., I started hearing the right hand from waltz 1 playing together with the right hand from waltz 2. I tried it out at the keyboard (moving the waltz 2 theme to my left hand), had to make some modifications to waltz 2 for it to work, but the result was a dialog between the two hands -- see the first and last part of the piece I posted here: https://composersforum.ning.com/forum/topics/reminiscences-interpers...
That was novel, at least for me.
So what I learned from that is that we should let our brain play music freely, spontaneously, and sing wherever it wants to sing. It comes up with incredible stuff we could not have deliberately thought of. I'm guessing that is how your melodies develop, too.
By the way, your playing is incredibly expressive. I loved the whole thing.
Mariza
+1 to what Mariza said. Especially, "...we should let our brain play music freely, spontaneously, and sing wherever it wants to sing. It comes up with incredible stuff we could not have deliberately thought of..."
Nice work, AJ.
Thank you all for your kind comments. I appreciate the feedback very much. Spiros, I didn't shove my social media down the viewers throats. Of course I left links to my Website, YouTube, and Soundcloud so that if anyone is interested in listening to more of my music they're just a click away! And what exactly is wrong with trying to attract more listeners? . Instead of posting sheet music and an audio file separately I created a score video which actually makes it easier for everyone involved :). I appreciate your critiques and you taking the time to comment. Mariza, I will check out your composition very soon!
there's nothing really wrong with that, but this forum's purpose is not to advertise your spot on the web, but rather, discuss music with peers. Just embedding the soundcloud player or the youtube video is more than enough for anyone to look for more of your work. At the same time, you don't put us in the hassle of looking for that specific piece among others uploaded. On top of that, many people use tablet pcs or mobile phones to browse, and it can become inconvenient for some.
In the context of the thread living for just a few days, this is ok, but in the long run, it creates dead threads, or unfindable music and so on.
I just feel the forum is neater and easier to use that way. I didn't mean to say that you shove the links down our throats. It all comes down to you copying and pasting the embed code on here, which can't be that hard :p
Please link to specific pieces, provide a PDF if possible. A general self-promotion does not fit in with the mission of this site.
I'm a bit concerned here that a new member of the forum is being slammed so hard about something that is nothing more than not having understood the rules from the onset. Three separate complaints??? Wow! It feels over the top. Also, couldn't a polite private message have been sent to the new member instead?
I think the two pieces AJ shared with us were among the very best posted to this Forum since I've joined, and I really want to hear more of his pieces in future. AJ, please stick around and post more pieces when you're ready.
Mariza
Gav Brown said:
Hi Mariza,
I hope AJ continues to post more works as well. Just one at a time, with a link to each piece and perhaps a description of what the work is about. I personally don't have interest to peruse someone's personal website in its entirety. Other composers on this site are able to post individual pieces and interact with others about them. I hope AJ will join in this tradition - best -
Hello!
I have also listened to your pieces. Waltz is simply beautiful. Classic, Chopin-like-style. But I would also like to see full score, not on youtube film. It may be easier to follow notes while listening, but if you want to analize a piece, you like to look seperately at different parts, analyze whole structure at once, etc., don't you? :) Still, waltz is very nice!
I like whole climate in the second piece, nicely done.
You have talent, really. You are 17, but your compositions are really mature and thoughful. I am waiting for more.
Thanks for the comments. If you'd like to stay updated with my future work feel free to send me an email at ajlongspiano@gmail.com and I'll stay in touch with you! I think I'll back off and stop posting to this forum since I seemed to have struck a bad chord with some of the users here. I apologize if I came across the wrong way with this post. Hope you guys have a great day!
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