Collisions

Most of the pieces posted here so far are ones I've described as easy, and while Scherzo #2 is a little tricky, the rhythm of Once makes it a bit of a challenge, and the Allegro requires physical strength... this one is hard. I think this little nugget of insanity is less difficult to listen to than it is to play; at least, I hope it is. The title is in part a description of the "car horn"-like sound of the chords, but mainly due to the fact that the left and right hands actually run into each other and cross over in various places.

This is one of my "mathematical" compositions, not in the sense that it uses formulas as such, but in the generation of the material. It is based on a single four-note cell, starting with C, then up a half-step, up a whole step, and up another half-step. This cell (with various permutations and subsets) is used in only three transpositions, starting on C, G, and F, presented initially as the three opening chords. If you write out these three cells, you'll see that exactly one note in the chromatic scale is omitted, and exactly one note appears twice. These two notes, D and A-flat, comprise what there is of a "counter-subject", used mainly as a sort of punctuation.

Nota Brevis

This is another old piece, a short thing in the spirit of a Bach two-part invention, but more primitive -- less rigorous imitation, and modal (Aeolian) rather than strictly tonal. I'm pretty sure that the first several notes were based on either the letters in someone's name or a mathematical formula, but I don't remember which name or formula it might've been.

Waltz in D Minor

While continuing to work on some more substantial pieces, I'm also going back to some of my old ones. This is one of them, a quick little waltz -- nothing fancy, just fun. For some reason, I usually yell, "¡Olé!" at the end, which would make a whole lot more sense if it sounded the least bit Spanish.

Untitled Prelude

This isn't a prelude without a title; its name is Untitled Prelude, one of my few older pieces that has actually had a title from inception, which I find mildly amusing and possibly a tiny bit ironic. Now, prelude implies that there is something to follow, and there is, something that remains unfinished after years, although I think it's not too far from being done (and perhaps fittingly, it remains unnamed, the manuscripts being labeled simply with a Roman numeral II). This little prelude is in 3/4, G minor (actually, more Aeolian mode except in a couple of spots), mildly contrapuntal, one of my easiest pieces to play, and very brief (as it is an introduction to the unfinished companion piece):

I've always thought that this might be better on organ, but I couldn't get an organ sound that I liked for it on my current setup; I did, however, find this synth sound with an echo effect that suggests a background of running 8th notes; I especially like the effect it gives during the two ritardandos:

Allegro in C

This piece is primarily a reminder that the piano is a percussion instrument, although it loses a little something on a digital piano -- or at least on this one, which softens it and lessens the impact that can be achieved on a real piano. It's a modified sonata form: The primary theme gets a full hearing, but the second theme (in G, as expected) is very brief, with the development starting before its completion (there is hardly any sense of having ever landed in the key of G), leading to a brief false recapitulation in A before the real recapitulation with the primary theme in G rather than C and the second theme in C as it should be, but inverted, leading to a coda that combines the two main themes before working its way back to the home key and ending with an echo of the opening.

While it is in C Major, the harmony is based more on 4ths and 5ths (and by extension, 2nds and 7ths) than 3rds and 6ths. Also, the meter is fairly chaotic -- apart from one stretch of 5 bars in 2/4, the time signature doesn't remain constant for more than three bars at a stretch, shifting more or less constantly between 2/4, 5/8, 3/4, 6/8 and 7/8, but not in any particular order. Texturally, it varies between contrapuntal, statement and response, a few brief passages of actual single-line melody with accompaniment, but it's mostly just pounding out chords. It's fun to play -- not so much technically difficult as it is physically demanding; playing it (correctly) after being away from the piano for a while makes my forearms hurt.

Hmm... this description is almost as long as the piece itself. Enough talk; here it is:

Edit: I tried a different movie maker and got this:

Antioch

This isn't one of my earliest pieces and it isn't among the newer ones, either, but this treatment is new. Originally a piano piece, I've always imagined the melody being played by an oboe, and now I don't have to imagine it. What I like about this piece is that while the melody is very expressive, the accompaniment follows a logical, almost mechanical, progression that was like working a puzzle, and yet they seem (at least to me) to fit together pretty nicely. My mom actually prefers it with a flute, so here are both versions:

(flute)

(oboe)

Sonata in E Minor

This wasn't exactly easy to write, but it went much quicker than most of my pieces. It's a straightforward sonata in E minor with a very traditional harmonic language, the distinguishing feature being its time signature (11/8), which along with the tempo remains constant throughout, the apparent slowdowns being accomplished by the use of consecutive dotted eighth notes.

Why 11? For one thing, I like prime numbers. Second, I have some still unfinished pieces in 5 and 7, so 11 is the next step in that progression. Finally, I saw it as a challenge: to write something coherent in such an inherently unstable time signature. Complex time signatures can generally be broken into subgroupings of 2's and 3's -- 5 is either 2:3 or 3:2; 7 is 2:2:3,2:3:2, or 3:2:2; 11 bumps the possible combinations up to nine. I finished this one before the 5 and 7 pieces even though I started it much later; the decision early on to use the sonata form for this piece helped push it along. I still think the little fugue section in the development could be longer, but I like the transition out of it and don't want to mess with that.