Waltz Burlesque (formerly: Rustic Waltz)

[whitebark]

Hi Patrick, I'm glad you're back and composing once again.  I enjoyed listening to your waltz with its sly, witty sound and relentless flow. The piece seems to lack the traditional trio section, which could have provides some contrasting character. But it is a Waltz Burlesque after all,  so you can do anything you like as long as it is in 3/4 time. Nice use of instruments, solid counterpoint technique, just good all around.

Cheers,
Jay

[Patrick O'Keefe]

Hi Jay.  Thanks for your comments.  I'm glad you liked the piece.  I thought of making it a "scherzo & trio" kind of piece, but decided either that would make it too long or I'd  have to drastically shorten what I already had written.  I've decided to keep it as it is.

By the way, it is now named "Equivocal Waltz".

[Gillespie]

I enjoyed your piece very much.  It took me a few minutes to get used to reading the score in concert C--especially the horn part.  The parts interacted quite well.  Very nice part independence combined with interplay.  Nice job.

[Patrick O'Keefe]

Oops.  I intended to switch to a transposing score but forgot.  I'll do that right away.

[RJB54]

Very nice piece.

The interplay between the instruments was well done.

For me, it definitely had that light-hearted Mahlerian vibe to it. Of course, Mahler would have contrasted it with some super-angsty material and it would have been three times longer  .

Well done.

[Patrick O'Keefe]

For me, it definitely had that light-hearted Mahlerian vibe to it. Of course, Mahler would have contrasted it with some super-angsty material and it would have been three times longer  .

Mahler would have also used 20 or 30 times more musicians.  The length is not out of line with some of the shorter Wunderhorn songs, but my intent want's to make anything that felt or sounded like Mahler.   I just tried to use some of his techniques.

I like this instrumentation enough that I'm now working on a short suite for cello and wind quintet.

Pat

[Rex Potam]

I enjoyed listening to this lively waltz. The harmonic shifts bring enough spice but they are nicely prepared so they don't disrupt the flow. I love how the theme feeds the whole piece from start to end.
Well done!

[RJB54]

I like this instrumentation enough that I'm now working on a short suite for cello and wind quintet.

Yes this instrumentation works well. I was little skeptical at first, but adding a cello to the standard woodwind quintet added an interesting color with the woodwind, brass, and string timbres.

[Patrick O'Keefe]

I was little skeptical at first, but adding a cello to the standard woodwind quintet added an interesting color with the woodwind, brass, and string timbres.

I was a bit hesitant, but I wasn't breaking new ground in the winds + cello arena.  Dvořák's Serenade for Winds has both cello and bass.  Admittedly, Dvořák wasn't using a standard wind ensemble but I chose to ignore that.  I may have trouble getting it performed, but there's little hope in getting anything performed at the moment.  I'll worry about that in the future.