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WeeklyBeats.com / Music / fc's music / A Short Trip for Three Flutes (Piano Arrangement)

A Short Trip for Three Flutes (Piano Arrangement)

By fc on February 12, 2012 12:28 pm

Unfortunately, what I hoped to be a wonderfully non-tonal short work for flute trio (which was rehearsed briefly by a sextet today) turned out to be a little bit too difficult to play accurately under the unrehearsed conditions, and similarly, a little too difficult to multitrack with my partner while sightreading it. So I did a piano reduction instead. I wrote the piece for my partner and some friends (all flautists) who were having a get together today. Took me about two hours to write once I had my material. Had to conduct it, was fun. Difficult ensemble piece though.

The idea of the piece is that it moves from a set of two trichords to another set of two trichords, and shifts register. Pretty simple. The first trichord set is [ E F# G# ] [ A B C# ], or two whole-tone collections separated by a semitone. The second set is [ F Gb G ] [ A A# B], two semitone collections separated by a whole tone. So in effect, they invert, allowing the use of almost all twelve tones. I also used transpositions of these collections.

/nerd stuff.

Anyway, oneday I'll record it and put it on Soundcloud, but for now... SIBELIUS PIANO SOUNDS!

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I enjoyed listening to this. Thanks for including the description. Would be great to hear the way you intended it to have been played! Maybe one day, as you say smile

Thanks, LS. I'm sure once I get back to Uni I'll be able to get an ensemble recording of it.

nerd stuff ftw wink

big_smile

The theory goes over my head, but I like it alot. It's unlike anything else I've heard on here so far and I'd be interested to hear the other version if you chuck it up on Soundcloud later.

Thanks muchly, Orinoco. I'm glad you like it! Hopefully I can get a recording within a few months. smile

would really like to hear this with the live piano

Yeah, that would be lovely. Live flutes, also would be lovely!

All my love and respect to everybody who tries to push the boundaries of the classical music beyond tonal borders and classic shapes. As LS and yourself, I want to hear the flute ensemble version of course, but sounds incredible as a piano arrangement smile

PaK-Zer0: that's a beautiful comment. Thank you very much. You've inspired me (and my partner - a flautist) to do a multi-tracked version of the piece this week. So we will get it up on Soundcloud ASAP!

This is lovely! Some of the tones seem to be off but I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be like that.  My sister plays flute so I could definitely hear this on a flute.  I think it would sound cool with flute and piano!

Thanks man, yep, definitely some "off" tones, as it's not based on the major/minor system! Thanks for the compliment: flute and piano is a great idea! I might look into that down the track too!

holy thoery prowess batman.

So long as theory doesn't get in the way of expression, eh?

I quite liked this composition.  Worked well for a sort of 12 tone? piece  smile

Thanks rdomain. I think that the reason it works, perhaps perceptually better than some other music of this nature, is that a) it's not SERIAL music, meaning that I'm not cycling through the full tonerow before repeating a note, which means b) it is essentially "tonal", in that there are clear tone centers which change, and this is established through repetition. It's also reasonably "melodious" just like any tonal music would be.

I think this would adapt pretty well on guitar.

I phase out when theory is mentioned, so I skipped over that part. The composition itself is well done and would really benefit from a proper performance. Smashed that Sibelius piano like a boss though

Juan: I might try that with a guitar/flute arrangement.
Thursday: thanks again! Go Sibelius!

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