Autobiographical sonata
About three and a half decades ago, before the advent of computers, I played classical guitar. At some point I wanted to express myself and, after buying and studying a book of harmony, I composed a piece. Because of its unusual chords, however, I had difficulty keeping the tempo. Then came computers with DOS and probably with the first windows, I was introduced to midi. The piece, after several attempts and separating the voices into instruments, somehow managed to be heard. From then on, for more than thirty years, I was firmly convinced that I had composed something and that all that was needed was a real musician who, with minimal editing, would make it sound as it should. (What a wrong impression!)
After my recent articles about music clock I paid more attention to the musescore program and the current midi capabilities. In order to fix, as much as I could, my piece myself before contacting a musician, I found the music book OPEN MUSIC THEORY online and started studying it with the help of my laptop and the musescore program. I got as far as chapter four “Diatonic Harmony, Tonicization, and Modulation”. The second chapter “Counterpoint and Galant Schemes” and solving its exercises gave particularly good results. It was these results that gave me courage and impetus to continue the study. In fact, for me it was the chapter of most weighty importance, the subject of which I had been completely unaware until then.
(Important reference: A few months after writing this, I came across the amazing, in every respect, website Integrated Music Theory of which I could not fail to mention it).
When I found the courage to work on my piece, I fell from the clouds. Apart from the melody and a hint of form (which section follows which) all the harmony was a waste of time. Even the tempo was wrong. Nevertheless, the first new harmonization, following the rules of the book as meticulously as I could, sounded especially good to my ears. Every beginning harmonization, however, of the remaining parts of the composition seemed like Golgotha. Each ending, on the other hand, sounded unexpectedly good and gave encouragement for the rest. Of course, I must add here that I have a brother who was enthusiastic from the very first attempts and followed them all step by step. Not only does he have an excellent ear, he found by ear several notes that had been lost in the count or had been forgotten in their editing, but with constructive criticism and enthusiastic exhortations he pushed me to continue. In other words, I could not continue further unless I had his approval.
Thank you, my brother. If my composition is worth anything, without you it wouldn’t be worth half of it.
That’s how I managed to complete my unique composition, after thirty years, in a way that I found very satisfactory. I can now claim to have ‘I did my part’. The whole process, studying elementary theory, manipulating the musescore and harmonizing *only took my spare time, in my spare time of one month. I could never have imagined that a single month of study could be so helpful to those who like music composition. In other words, for me, it turns out to be a shame to compose without having studied, even for a month, the basics of music theory.
You can add whatever content you want to the composition. I call it “Young and confused” and for me its content is simple. There is a single melodic phrase, heard unaltered, pure, in what is aurally identified as the third part.
Section A. It is asked “why” in E minor. “Why are you so desirous of enforcing your choices?” Its background is the aforementioned main sentence cut.
Section B. Formulates arguments to the contrary in D major. “Life can only be meaningful if we own our mistakes. That is, if we have the freedom to even make mistakes.” Her background is even more truncated in the main sentence.
Section C. In every circumstance where “right” choices are imposed on us for our “good,” the third part declares grief in B minor. “Your suffocating love is suffocating me.”
The sections are repeated. A, more nervously with some indignation. B, more lyrical, welcoming the revolution. The third, more bittersweet. Sweet because it understands the necessity, of oppressors, for oppression of those they love, but bitter because the oppressed are suffocating.
At the end there is only the repetition of ABC. The ABs, however, are united by a revolutionary mood that grows in E minor and matures and prevails in D major. But with its end, either because of its success (if it had failed there would always be the hope of success of a future revolution) or because of the past age, there is no more hope and dreams of a better tomorrow. The deadlock or the end has come, since even a personal tomorrow does not seem guaranteed. Hope and dreams, the most faithful friends of a life, are gone. C, by tripling the length of its motifs, mourns in B minor for the loss of these friends of a lifetime.
The piece all these decades ended sadly. However, I dedicate the improved version to my wife and my children. What if my parents were children and grew up with their own dreams and hopes, which they once saw fade away, what if I was a child with dreams and hopes, for a better tomorrow, which I don’t have now. Our children have a right to dreams and hopes. With our wishes that dreams and hopes accompany them into old age, perhaps they will not lose these precious life friends, repeating the cycle. So, a few days ago, the repetition of section C was added with the bittersweet tone, but along with the conversion of B Minor to E Minor. After all, the composition started from E minor and had to end in E minor.
The editing of the composition by any musicologist is of course welcome. The musescore file can be found here (roman numbers instead of quality they just remind me at what scale do I am), as the score in pdf.
It can be listened to in ogg here.