[MarkMcD]

Hi all,

Been very busy the last few months, doing stuff to the house and a little tour of Extremadura for a month, then family over to visit too..... But I've also been working on a couple of new pieces and I think I have this one in a pretty fair state, I'd love some feedback if you feel inclined.

It's a piano and flute duet, and I did actually start a thread a few months ago to see if anyone wanted to play a game, I uploaded a few bars of something I liked the sound of and I invited people to add a few more bars if anyone wanted, a few of you did and I liked a lot of what was added, but in the end, I've taken back my original few bars, and this is what resulted, I hope you like it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/17az3aa0ga3qs5u/Nocturn_in_C_minor.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xq464w0ymedvmnt/Nocturn in C minor.pdf?dl=0

 

[Vasks]

Your piece is in C# minor (the sharp was left off) which means almost all your C-naturals in this piece are to be notated as B#'s to be correct.

 

[Captainnumber36]

Hi all,

Been very busy the last few months, doing stuff to the house and a little tour of Extremadura for a month, then family over to visit too..... But I've also been working on a couple of new pieces and I think I have this one in a pretty fair state, I'd love some feedback if you feel inclined.

It's a piano and flute duet, and I did actually start a thread a few months ago to see if anyone wanted to play a game, I uploaded a few bars of something I liked the sound of and I invited people to add a few more bars if anyone wanted, a few of you did and I liked a lot of what was added, but in the end, I've taken back my original few bars, and this is what resulted, I hope you like it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/17az3aa0ga3qs5u/Nocturn_in_C_minor.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xq464w0ymedvmnt/Nocturn in C minor.pdf?dl=0

Good job! I enjoyed it.

 

[MarkMcD]

Thanks Captainnumber 36, I'm glad you liked it. Hi vask, what a stupid mistake, of course it's in C# minor, don't know why I left that out, and I will rectify the C naturals, thanks for your input.

 

[MarkMcD]

Here's a new link for the amended score should anyone like to see it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b6youcpm8c5z2tt/Nocturn in C# minor.pdf?dl=0

 

[Vasks]

A couple of suggestions:

(1) In a 6/4 meter (2 beats to a measure - the first consists of beats 1-3, the second 4-6), the start of the second beat (beat 4) must not be obscured. I'll point out 2 places, but there are plenty more. The RH of the piano in m.8 write the quarter note dyad (2-note chord - D & F) as two eights tied, so the eighth is the seen as the start of the "second beat" (of course I'd redo the dyad of E & G to be a quarter tied to an 8th so its end is beamed to the start of the 8th second dyad). The next place is m.9. The half note dyad must be first a dotted quarter tied to an 8th because the 8th note is where the "second beat" starts.

(2) Your pages are too cramped. You need to limit 3 systems per page. The pedal markings right now are way too close to the system staff below them, plus it makes you have to have phrase markings/slurs collide with crescendo markings. BTW, you really don't need all those pedal markings as after a few bars you could simply supply the term simile (actually just abbreviate sim.) ONCE and all pianists would continue with the pedaling you want. The sim. is placed where the pedal marking would be.

3) Expression markings like legato, espress., dolce, etc go above the staff (above RH of piano)

 

[MarkMcD]

Hi Vasks,
Thanks once again for your help and I do appreciate your attention to the details, I can see I'm going to have to pay more attention to the scores in future. I tend to leave them much as Sibelius writes them as my music theory is not good, although the placing of expression markings was my fault, I am a pianist albeit amateur, I still should have recognised that mistake having read thousands of scores over the years. I will have a look at the points you mentioned and see what I can do. I did know the point about the pedalling but in order for Sibelius to play it properly I think you need to keep telling it what you want in the way of pedalling, although I have to confess I haven't tried to simile or sim to see if it works, though I suspect it wont.

Thanks again
Mark

 

[Vasks]

Hi Vasks,
I did know the point about the pedalling but in order for Sibelius to play it properly I think you need to keep telling it what you want in the way of pedalling, although I have to confess I haven't tried to simile or sim to see if it works, though I suspect it wont.

Yeah it probably won't. I have Sibelius too. The pros who use Sibelius (there's a Facebook group that I sometimes read and Sibelius has one also) where you can learn lots of what to do. In my case I first make a score so it sounds like I want. Then when done, duplicate it and touch up the duplicate, so it looks like I want. The pros don't do that, but I'm a composer only and feel like it's a waste of time to research everything. It especially gets messy when you have the score just right and then have to create parts. Again the pros have work-arounds so they can create parts without messing up the score, but they're too intricate for me.

 

[MarkMcD]

Hi Vasks,

Well if it's too intricate for you, imagine what it would be like for someone who only has grade 3 theory! I do think it's a good idea though to print a second amended score for publishing/posting as lots of people like to read the score, me included, and it is annoying to see glaring mistakes (some not so glaring in my case), but I will take your advice under advisement and thanks once again, I know this is not really your type of music and so I appreciate your effort to help.
Mark

 

[KjellPrytz]

Wow, how beautiful this is. Brilliant.
Nice to have you back on the line, Mark. Your are a talented composer who also shows interest in others work.
Thanks for giving us this wonderful tune.
Kjell

 

[MarkMcD]

Hi Kjell,

Thank you for your kind words, I'm glad you liked it, it took a lot of work this one, but I think it paid off in the end. Still a bit of tidying up to do here and there, (or is it that I just can't stop tinkering with things when I should leave them well alone lol), but anyway, thanks again. I'm still busy with things in the house at the moment so I don't have as much time as I'd like right now, but we've nearly finished now so I'll be able to spend a bit more time here soon.
Thanks again,
Mark