The Challenge: My New Musical Composition

Greetings.

I have just recorded a MIDI version of my newest piece for piano, "The Challenge, Op. 28." You can access the work at http://www.geocities.com/rationalargumentator/Stolyarov_The_Challenge.mid. You can click the link to play it or right click and employ all pertinent options to download it to your computer (it is about 20 KB large and will occupy a negligible amount of your memory). (If playing it outright does not work, download and try again; files on GeoCities sites sometimes exhibit such a glitch.)

Both the rapid tempo and the minor passages of this work are representative of tension and struggle, properly created, in my estimation, through this fashion rather than by dissonance. I transition frequently from minor to major to illustrate a rational man's intense exertion in the face of a challenge, and the successful (and pleasant) consequent outcome.

Feel free to share any other images/impressions that you receive from this work. I am interested in learning whether I had been able to convey my intention to my audience through my music.

I am
G. Stolyarov II

Post 1

Saturday, March 6, 2004 - 9:37pm

Mr Stolyarov,

I realise the production values are limited under midi, but here are my thoughts.

To maximise the sense of tension & struggle, you need move it a bit from maths to music. It needs to breathe a bit, like we do.

Here's a few ideas:

1. The melody needs to breathe. Try dropping the 'reply' notes at the end of the phrase (the downward fifth?), and resist their call. They trivialise the point, and are unnecessary. This will mean space.

2. The bass arrangement is not it's own beast. I'd start sparser with this at first, thus leaving room for it to develop some assertion power, at your chosen point, and hence the creation/accentuation of tension. Like an uninvited guest/enemy.

3. Some of your intervals could create more tension if they had a space in which to make an impact. It's about setting this up to happen. Maybe you could identify their moments, and work back to prepare/unprepare the listener for them.

I'd say the music is 'correct' but not moving. Too even. You need to take a few risks by taking away, not adding more. What you take away allows room for the listener to enter, by way of anticipation. How you do this is your own struggle.

Again, midi is quite unexpressive in itself, but you can still produce the sketch so to speak.

Post 2

Monday, March 8, 2004 - 2:55pm

Mr. Pierson,

Thank you for your comments.

One of the reasons why the melody proceeds continuously and allows little room for pauses in its structure is because this, in my estimation, is a means applicable to the portrayal of my subject, a challenging situation or task. Is it not the case that, at times, one encounters a project that seems to be ongoing and difficult consistently throughout, that resting is seldom possible but a high level of performance is expected in every stage? My purpose is to depict this situation, and to demonstrate, by the resolution of the passages of the melody, that it is conquerable.

There are indeed other situations where your advice, building suspense through a structure that allows for greater "breaks," is quite valid. I did follow it in the "Triumphant Endeavor, Op. 19," (composed prior to my orthografic reform).

http://www.geocities.com/rationalargumentator/Stolyarov_Triumphant_Endeavor.mid

I am
G. Stolyarov II

Post 3

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 2:59pm

Very impressive. I liked "The Challenge", but it made me very nervous to listen to. I guess that is generally what you were aiming at. Did you score it in a composition program, or record it to midi off of a keyboard?

Post 4

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 9:36pm

Mr. Landauer,

Thank you for your comments. Your response was indeed what I intended to evoke in a thoughtful listener. As for your question, I do have an electronic piano, with various other instruments/sounds incorporated onto it, as well as the option to record compositions in MIDI format. I subsequently upload the compositions onto my computer and The Rational Argumentator's database. Someday in the future, I may translate my compositions into mp3 format and create a CD-compilation.

I am
G. Stolyarov II

Post 5

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 9:36pm

Deleted

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 9:36pm

Deleted

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 9:40pm

G. Stolyarov, I can't access your composition at the address provided due to Geocities' bandwidth restrictions. If you want to email a copy to public@starbreaker.net, I'd be happy to host the file on my website; I pay for 15GB of data transfer a month and use only a fraction of it.

Post 8

Friday, March 12, 2004 - 3:01am

Very interesting. Here is how I saw it:

The opening brings to mind someone in a stuffy room, who on a daily basis has to withstand constant nagging when all he wants is a little peace and simple pleasures. Despite this negative force that regularly pounds on his spirit, he manages to put together a shaky appearance of living a steady life, if a little uneventful.

Then he goes out on little side excursions, maybe a trip to the park, a stroll in the street. The air begins to flow and the rigidity loosens. Even with the nagging softened yet clearly looming in the background, he begins to breathe a little.

But in the end, he has to go back to where he came from in the beginning, the stuffy room, the never ending nagging, and brace himself for the all too familiar daily struggle. He's just grateful to stay afloat going from one day to the next. An uneventful life is all that he strives for at this stage.

Sounds a lot like married life, actually, which isn't many things it purports to be but definitely a "challenge".

Post 9

Friday, March 12, 2004 - 7:37pm

With Mr. Stolyarov's permission, I have made copies of his works "The Challenge" and "Triumphant Endeavour" available on starbreaker.net. If you can't get the files from Geocities, get them from my site.

Post 10

Friday, March 12, 2004 - 8:59pm