Piano Sketch about to be orchestrated....

Ok, first thing I've put up on this site, so I'm just going to put on a pair of asbestos trousers. Here's a piano sketch that I was just about to start to orchestrate.

I had envisioned a John Barry strings vibe, with the main melody being carried by violin or flute or piano.

I would appreciate any thoughts.

 

Wow, thank you guys, I was not expecting comments like that for sure.

I do appreciate the comments about it being a piano piece, but if I let a melody ferment in my head for long enough, they always end up being a piano piece. That’s a particular weakness in my compositions.

I have another piece that’s currently being fermented , it started out as a bluesy film noir thing, that has now turned into an Eastern European Gypsy piano thing. When I get back home I’ll post that up for comments too.

I wasn’t going to post this until I had orchestrated it, and then I saw Mike’s post about posting a two handed piano version to identify any structural problems before spending a lot of time orchestrating something.

I never envisaged this to be a large orchestral piece, but more a sweeping strings underpinned with some subtle brass and perhaps a woodwind or violin taking the melody for a section or so. It’s really simple harmonically as I am sure you noticed, and I think I wrung as much out of the variations without getting too repetitive. I certainly don’t want to make it longer by adding orchestration colours, but I think I would need to slow the tempo somewhat for strings to effectively deliver the melody.

It’s really A,A,A,B,B,C,B and I thought I’d start off softly, first A section Piano/violin or flute, then bring in the lower strings in the second A section, add brass (soft and low) and more powerful strings in the third A section, and then work my way through to the end, perhaps the final B section as a piano solo, with maybe just a high violin/Viola sustain at the end.

Alexander, with reference to the left hand arpeggios, they are pretty simple patterns in this piece. I am a big boogie Woogie and 50s rock and roll fan and when you play that style a fair bit, you left hand develops a mind of its own. I just tell my left hand what the chord is, and the muscle memory just gets on with it.

When I was first learning how to pay rock and roll, the sister of a rather famous Rock n Roll legend (surname was Lewis) told me to practice playing the left hand whilst reading a book, the result of which is I don’t have to think too much about what my left hand is doing - like Mike says, your hands will eventually just fall naturally on the keys and form certain patterns. With this piece, when I listen back to it, I think I would need to wind back the arpeggios a little if it were going to remain a piano piece.

Paul, thank you so much for your comments about the musicality of the performance - though you could also say that this is a very polite way of saying the tempo is all over the place. But in strict time, this piece doesn’t really work that well.

I’m really made up with your comments however, and when I get back home I’m going to crack on with getting some strings into this, and from there I’ll have to see where it goes. When I’m composing, I seem to have little choice where I end up - the music sort of sorts itself out and I seem to be just there to get it down so it can be heard.

Thank you so much for taking the time to listen and feed back. Really appreciate it.

Michael.