I have been very busy, but had time last week to sketch a piece for piano. I have written a lot of material that fits rondo form, but this time my goal was to experiment with l:A:ll:B:l, that is, binary form. A piece I have been practicing, Bach's Invention no. 6 in e major, takes on this form and was somewhat of the model for the piece I wrote. In the invention there is a clear cadence point between the first and second section section, it is a downward B Major arpeggio. In this piece I instead use a half cadence, but hopefully it also has the trappings of a clear cadence point .

This piece is called "Autumn meets Winter," because the A section is meant to represent autumn and the B section, winter. As is characteristic to a binary piece, each section repeats itself. The second time through the A section, the B section is introduced. It is my hope this introduction is seamless, but if you don't think so, I would appreciate your feedback.

In the video, you see photos I have taken in autumn and the winter (it was winter 2010 if I am correct) these were taken in Carbondale, IL (Southern Illinois) were I live now.

Luckily I was able to record this piece on the music schools yamaha baby grand. I redesigned my recording set-up. This time my cardoid microphone is not so far away from the piano, but instead nearly under the lid above the soundboard. The result is a much more intimate tone, which is in tune with my taste, if you will forgive the pun .

I will submit the mp3 to this video if there is interest:

http://youtu.be/pszxmngjeio

Enjoy if you can,

~Riley

I sure enjoyed the video and the music ;
IMO it does convey the season transition you had in mind ;
best
Livio

Nice piece again Riley. Could do with a little more variation maybe.
The transition at 0:20, and a similar later on, sounds real strange. The note you would be expecting does not happen, and the phrase is left hanging in the air as if it were a sentence cut short. Is this intentional ?
Lovely pictures, too. And great sound !

Some pretty harmonies, Riley. And nice 'see' you playing!! One little thing though....do we have to think about winter already?

@ Livio, thanks for listening the compliment , I am glad you were able to see the seasons changing, that was one of the things I was hoping to convey. Originally I was going to add in ambient sound (such as birds chirping for the 1st and wind howling for the 2nd) as a way of putting the listener at the places in those seasons, but I decided against it because it was kind of distracting



@ Chris, glad you enjoyed it. I agree, it could use more variation. The sections are quite small, and the first three phrases of the first section are repeated so the tension is lacking to begin with and later there could be more development before the second section. About the transition at 0:20, to answer your question, yes, I was going for that! The cadence definitely does not have the quality of being stable that a dominant would better afford. I originally thought it was a half cadence but now that I look at it on the keyboard, I think, assuming the key of the piece is B major, it is a deceptive cadence-- a strange progression that I would analyze as: scale degree flat5 -7th chord to scale degree 6 - 7th chord (with both 7th chords in root position and in each case dropping the 5th). At any rate, the reason I ended the phrase on this chord was to create a sense of twilight between autumn and winter. There seems to be a few days after all the leaves have fallen when it isn't cold yet. To me it is "deceptive," and so perhaps a deceptive cadence is appropriate for its representation. Thanks again for the feedback.

Also I saw on the site that Mr. Streuff, a pianist and member here passed away. I did not know him here or in person but I listened to some of his pieces on here, for example his "5 piano pieces" and I really enjoyed his modern era harmonic style. Like other composers on here, having heard the composers music, I now would like to talk to him about his pieces but realize that is not possible now. Though it is nice that his work will be here to be shared and appreciated for people who haven't been introduced to his pieces.

@ Monica



Thanks Monica, that means a lot to me! About the video, believe it or not, but your piano music videos have inspired me! It seems you have a lot of skill with video editing so I am trying to take still pictures and stitch them into the main video that documents the pianist playing the actual piece (also of notable mention are Chris and Andreas who produce music videos with interesting camera angles ) About thinking of winter already, no, you don't have to! (And please don't if it brings you pain ) It looks like Oktoberfest has ended, but there still is Halloween, Veterans day and Thanksgiving yet! My sources indicate the first day of winter this year is Dec. 22, so there is some time..

~Riley

And Columbus Day too. You're right, plenty of time to go before winter hits. And even winter can be nice sometimes.

You've actually done something with video production that I have not done (yet), which is that you used your own photos. That's a nice touch. It's like tuning in to you in two ways - the music that comes from your heart, and the images that come from your eyes. Neato!

Columbus day, yes. October 10th is when I have on my calendar. SIU has "fall break" through the weekend till the day after Columbus day. A much needed rest! And this is somewhat OT but our schools faculty unions are having problems getting what they want and the SIU admin is preparing information to students and faculty in event of a strike (substitute teachers will replace teachers who choose to strike) so the strike might take place during this break. About winter being nice, I agree. The main problem seems to be the temperature, but bundling up takes care of that (admittedly in Chicago you have to bundle up more )

And I am surprised about this statistic that you have never used pictures you have taken. But the artwork you have used, for example in your Poulenc Improv, felt quite in sync with the music which is an accomplishment! About having music and pictures that are original, it is nice to be able to do this with relatively cheap equipment and its nice how in this day and age it is practical. About having two original pieces to form a final piece (video) maybe this type of process has already been termed by Wagner? That is, "Gesamtkunstwerk," or total artwork, which Wagner said for his operas called for good music as well as libretto writing, dramatic action and set design. I don't think I can compare myself to Wagner, though I have to mention him as I am learning about him in my music history class. His Beyreuth (said: by-royt) theatre financed by King Ludwig was said to be the first to have a pit orchestra! At any rate, maybe you should start taking pictures and incorporating them into your videos. And Chris too, however he seems to be more interested in angles and I don't think I have seen any piano videos of his on youtube that showcase artwork (if you are reading this Chris, you can correct me if I am wrong )

I am in the process of writing an orchestral piece for the school of musics annual composition competition. The prize is, if you win, your piece will be played (indeed, be given a world premiere) by the southern Illinois symphony orchestra and so I hope to win, but at the least it will be a good experience for writing not simply for one instrument but for a full orchestra, incorporating a larger range of textures and dynamics. Not a small challenge I realize, but I look forward to it

I have not got too many angles available, I can only film myself from the right. And I seem to be too lazy to many many videos anyway, let alone add fancy artwork. It already takes me too long to create a video with that lame old MS video program I use.

Nicely put together video. I have one suggestion about the cadence at 0.20. If you rit during the r.h. descent over the Bb min V7 at 0.19 and linger on the A natural, (then maybe arpeggiate the Db dominant 7th from the bass up?), I think it will sound less jarring to the ear. It makes perfect sense to me when I tried it out on my piano, but it's your piece and your conception is likely different to my initial reaction.

I'd prefer a little more variation within the piece, but overall it is not bad at all! Well done.

@ Chris,

I see. Yes syncing video using two devices to capture, one video and the other audio is time consuming for me also.

@ Andrew



This is an interesting suggestion and I think it does have a certain promise. A arpeggio might give it a more ethereal quality. Thanks for the feedback and compliment,

Riley