A Simple Song

August 19, 2006 10:00 PM

A misleading title. It's a two-voice piano piece with a diatonic melody in the treble and a bass line that clashes whenever it can. A reasonably challenging piece for the intermediate player. Also sounds like watered-down Wayne Horvitz.

posted by NemesisVex (3 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

This reminds me of how I felt the first time I saw "The Red Balloon". Mostly sad, but happier for having had the experience.
posted by snsranch at 5:38 PM on August 21, 2006


The composition is sophisticated and well-thought-out. There's a really good use of chord progressions and harmony.

However, the performance is quantized and does not breathe. Each note is the same each time, it sounds like MIDI with a fixed velocity for each note. You should play it in and edit it as little as possible, sacrifice some perfection in performance for better heart. You can always cut together a few partial performances if you get nervous in front of a tape...

Also, the sonorities of the instrument are too restricted (which is emphasized by the unfortunately not-so-sweet piano patch -- the piece would benefit greatly by simply using a really expensive piano sample). There are very few times where there are less than two or more than four notes sounding at once. There was one moment in particular where I really wanted both hands to play chords moving up the keyboard together for a couple of bars to change it up, nothing beyond what an intermediate player could play.

Sorry for the loud-mouthed comments, feel free to ignore!
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 6:33 PM on August 21, 2006


... it sounds like MIDI with a fixed velocity for each note.

Actually, it is. I have yet to record this piece live. I actually wrote most of it in the sequencer, so I still have to figure out the fingering of my own piece! This recording is the playback from the sequencer.

I should have probably described it as a challenging piece for a beginning player -- I thought making something completely arranged out of the melody. But the idea of doing the opposite -- something that could very well sound like an exercise -- appealed to me more.
posted by NemesisVex at 10:42 PM on August 22, 2006


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