I liked the build of the song. The theme never got boring. It was such a broad theme anyway, with 7ths throughout. That it was interesting by itself.
What a fantastic ending. Slow down for the big bang. Except what was that weird demolotion-ball-dropping sound at the very end?
One thing I can't understand is why you dropped everything out except the piano at 1:30 as if you were ending. Then you brought instruments in again. Isn't this what we expect at the end? a solo instrument such as your piano? I wasn't ready to hear it restart and build again, although you built it faster than the first time around, and it seemed even more beautiful than the first time I heard it. I'm glad you revived it, though. I hadn't heard enough of it before I thought you were ending.
Then again, if you were writing this for a scene or video, and the music called for this treatment, then I can see this. When I write for a drama, the scene dictates how I have to write, when to get big and when to get small and when to reprieve.
There is a note that kinda jars me at 0:54 (and other places, such as 2:39, where you repeat this). It's a B natural. In your other places you use a B flat--I mean in what sounds like the very same melody, too. For instance, in 1:09.
Your modulation at 3:19 was masterful--just slid right into it so naturally. Just a secondary dominant a half step up from your A flat dominant chord (to an A chord) and then right into the key of D. Masterful.
I can't get enough of this song. I have much to learn from it. It has everything I like in a song and wish I can produce in my music: beautiful theme, good development, great harmony, sound counterpoint (I'm thinking here of the cello that plays with the clarinet and piano in the second half where you revive the song again, and in the opening with the piano.)
I listened to your others on your site. I like your counterpoint in the
choir. All of your piano solos were good, too. Your pop song,
Winter Calling--it's similar to this,
Sky of August, by the way--and your guitar music. It's all good. But this is your best. I just listen to it over and over again and dream that I can write like this one day.
post edited by peggysuechan - 2010/08/13 14:15:09