Probably good to turn your volume up a bit.
https://soundcloud.com/artlowell/reverie-audio-only
Something For Dreamland
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- KVRAF
- 2861 posts since 3 May, 2003 from Germany
Have to confess that I'm still listening for the first time still while typing... though all what is offered has a unique and really dreamlandish manifold going. And I like it to follow. This is really great!
Thanks a lot
Thanks a lot
Symphony Nr.1
Meet the Cities Repair Team Unimportant laughter
music has become meaningless...we just keep doing it
Meet the Cities Repair Team Unimportant laughter
music has become meaningless...we just keep doing it
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- KVRian
- 893 posts since 12 Jun, 2006
Listened a couple of times now...some interesting development of raw ideas and motifs in there.
Textural changes are well judged and very effective - along with some of the catchy melodic ideas, the ebb and flow here is probably its strongest element.
Being critical (these are small points):
Although it is clearly quite dissonant throughout, it is very much tonal and possibly needs:
1) More variation in key centres?
2) More flowing and carefully developed transitions between these centres of tonality.
For me, the overall structure is a little bit too fragmented at times as a stand alone piece.
Textural changes are well judged and very effective - along with some of the catchy melodic ideas, the ebb and flow here is probably its strongest element.
Being critical (these are small points):
Although it is clearly quite dissonant throughout, it is very much tonal and possibly needs:
1) More variation in key centres?
2) More flowing and carefully developed transitions between these centres of tonality.
For me, the overall structure is a little bit too fragmented at times as a stand alone piece.
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- KVRAF
- 11502 posts since 13 Mar, 2009 from UK
It works for me, Art. It's quite dissonant, but never unpleasant. It was the second piece of music I listened to tonight, and has made a good job of easing me out of the the weekday malaise and into the weekend proper. It was a lively and entertaining listen.
Good work
Good work
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 339 posts since 12 Nov, 2008
Good comments, both of you. I like music with lots of contrasts. My ear is quite dissonance-tolerant. I just heard Bartok's Violin Concerto #2 for the first time in years, and was reminded of why it was once a favorite piece. It begins with a lovely diatonic mood-setter before morphing through more and more exotic harmonic changes and melodies in what I assume is some kind of eastern European mode. Bartok morphs this change in a way so smooth that you don't really know how you got there from where it started. That's the kind of music I especially admire. Thanks for listening, and you might check out the Bartok to see what I sometimes try to emulate.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 339 posts since 12 Nov, 2008
I forgot to mention. That little motif introduced early by the harp runs through about two thirds of the piece almost as an ostenato. That could account for the apparent lack of variety in key center. At the same time as that was grinding on, the initial English Horn solo came back a couple of times in my own made-up mode. I saw the part at about 3:30 in the strings as a second major theme in the VI key to the initial tonic key.
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- KVRian
- 893 posts since 12 Jun, 2006
Bartok's 2nd Violin - a great place to aim without doubt! For me, one of the underrated concertos of the 20th century...probably because it was a little conservative / restrained compared with B's other pre-war compositions. ( A minor study piece for me at University many years ago, and I've loved it ever since)!
As you said, it begins with quite simple harmonies. Not quite diatonic( as there are various chromatic moments in there); more sort of B minor Dorian mode. I say 'sort of' as Bartok flits between OLD STYLE and NEW STYLE Hungarian folk idioms by using an unstable 3rd degree of the scale...he introduces the major D# from time to time - see scan of my old battered score. (Ignore the circle - don't remember why I did that at the time) It develops quite rapidly at times and the solo violin eventually uses fully 12 tone melodies that hint at Schoenberg's serial technique. It isn't fully mathematical 12 tone technique though as the underlying parts move in different harmonic directions such as the simple pentatonic sections in the bass. Bartok called this his "Folk Song Dodecaphony"! makes it harmonically quite complex to put it mildly - a sod to analyse in depth!
Motivic development and unity is the big strength of the whole piece, giving it a solid, core structure. The way that Bartok warps, weaves and morphs some of his melodic ideas is extraordinary. The whole 3rd movement is based on variations of themes from movement 1!
Sorry, I''m warbling on...never get me started on analysing music in a serious way...I'll never stop! :0)
As you said, it begins with quite simple harmonies. Not quite diatonic( as there are various chromatic moments in there); more sort of B minor Dorian mode. I say 'sort of' as Bartok flits between OLD STYLE and NEW STYLE Hungarian folk idioms by using an unstable 3rd degree of the scale...he introduces the major D# from time to time - see scan of my old battered score. (Ignore the circle - don't remember why I did that at the time) It develops quite rapidly at times and the solo violin eventually uses fully 12 tone melodies that hint at Schoenberg's serial technique. It isn't fully mathematical 12 tone technique though as the underlying parts move in different harmonic directions such as the simple pentatonic sections in the bass. Bartok called this his "Folk Song Dodecaphony"! makes it harmonically quite complex to put it mildly - a sod to analyse in depth!
Motivic development and unity is the big strength of the whole piece, giving it a solid, core structure. The way that Bartok warps, weaves and morphs some of his melodic ideas is extraordinary. The whole 3rd movement is based on variations of themes from movement 1!
Sorry, I''m warbling on...never get me started on analysing music in a serious way...I'll never stop! :0)
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