Midnight Tempest Concerto (3:30)
by Eterman in 30.10.2000
Despite the strong orchestral background, this, naturally, is
a piano concerto. Raging, distant, wandering stormscape creates the
nightly mood around a lonely observer, whose toughts and experiences the
solo piano is mostly meant to represent. Mostly influenced by composers
from the romaticism (what I have listened are for example Ernst Mielck,
Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov, Sergei Rachmaninov and of course Jean Sibelius)
but there are some modern influences as well. The song I listened during
the early phases of the composition, was Richard Addinsell's Warsaw
concerto. The beautiful melodies there inspired me to start this
ambitious project. Especially the pattern 4 remainds me of that
Addinsell's masterpiece, although considering the harmonies themselves,
there is only faint resemblance to be found.
Weather, the inspiration for this composition. Gently raving rain,
anxiously wandering clouds, a cold breeze of night; What am I in the
middle of all this? What do these swift changes, this strange,
intriguing performance in the skies, try to tell me?
I have to say this has been the hardest piece of tracking
work I've ever tried. Sometimes despite of much work I did so little
progress, I didn't believe this piece would ever come alive. But still,
somewhere in my head, this simple, small thought dwelled telling me the
work was worth the effort.
This faith lingered strong enough to always take me back to
the chair, back to my audio equipment, at my computer, back to work. I
just had to press forward. Sometimes I did not know what I was doing. I
had glimpses of inspiration in my mind, but with the tracking, it seemed
just all so messy. But I created. I made parts and with great pains
succeeded in arranging them all together.This was not only hard to track,
the composition took at least an equal amount of time. This time I
wanted to give the best notal quality I could.
If something, this project made me pine for some kind of MIDI
equipment. It's rathrer annoying, not to be able to play ones ideas down.
Mostly all inspiration I get, goes first to my fingers. And that's where
I have the original version of this piano concerto. I just can't track it
down here the way I feel like.
Not that it was that bad, the influence added at the tracking
process, actually. I like it myself. For example that pattern 14 was
created completely trough the tracking process. There was no glimpses
of such melodies in my head before I tracked them down there. Some
"fantasy" influence, I think. It is not in the "original" version, only
here, as tracked. I think it fits well. For me that phase brings a sudden
burst of brightness, as clouds are slightly swept away letting the sun
gradually reveal some of its shine once again.
Afterall, this composition may even have benefitted from the
tracking process. Sometimes it's easier to experience certain melody
structures and harmonies in the tracking program itself, and that brings
a lot of fresh influences that would not be here otherwise.
Still, some day, I wish I could hear an orchestra and a
good pianist playing this concerto in its finest, original form. Now I
can only imagine the orchestral presence. Nevertheless, in this tracked
version, for me, the vision of nightly storm comes easier.
I guess all the forms of composing have their own advantages.
Writing notes manually may sometimes be painful (at least for me), but as
to this particular piece of music, the first pattern, for example, was
first only written to notes on a piece of paper. Being not the most
skillful piano player around, I could not completely play or imagine the
actual sound of those notes, before I tracked them down, but the result
is still fine.
Some greets: (you people are cool)
A51 DNA, BAm, BeatBoostie, Bluesummer, Claude, Cykiq, Da Freaker,
D Fast, Fermus, Idaho, Mad God, Pete Cacmac, Pikari, PlasticMind,
Psychic Mind, Ralesk, Saviour, Space Walk, Stumbleine, TanTo Hashi, Tero,
TONi, Tranzity, Twilight Terror, Ufopoli, WDM, White Edge, Whiz, Zaki,
Zookeeper
In wandering clouds I see,
a sudden reflection of me.
As my mind anxiously seeks,
surrounded by thundery peaks,
if words I say, apart from rain,
won't just swiftly fall in vain.
-Harri Kivisto
eterman@writeme.com
And one thing I almost forgot:
Some chords:
1. Fm Bb7 Eb Cm Db G G7 Cm
Ab F Bbm Gb7 B G Dm Bb
6. Cm Bb
Fm7 Bb Gm7 Ab Eb F
7. Cm Eb Bb Cm7 Bb
Fm7 Cm Gm7
8. Ab Cm Ab Eb Gm7
Db Bbm F G
9. Ab Cm Db Fm
Gb Bbm C Fm Db Cm Eb Gm7
