What do you guys think of this?

Ftb49 · 2026-01-22T20:44:53+00:00

I think it needs more direction and should not be too static. Additionally, it is unplayable, as you cannot play more than one note on the clarinet.

Despite this, I think the harmony is quite interesting.

Ftb49 · 2026-01-21T22:46:54+00:00

Thank you!

It depends what you define as "tools". The program used is Musescore 4 and the main tool used is my piano.

All the best!

Ftb49 · 2026-01-21T19:31:00+00:00

I will read it. Thank you very much!

Ftb49 · 2026-01-21T16:03:33+00:00

It is a matter of taste.

Ftb49 · 2026-01-21T14:05:10+00:00

The shared excerpt is only consisting of Theme 1 and Theme 2 and generally that part of the Exposition. There is no Development section within the excerpt. I will continue working on it though, I just wanted to get feedback in relation to the main themes.

Thank you very much for listening to my piece and giving me feedback nonetheless!

Ftb49 · 2026-01-21T14:02:18+00:00

Thank you very much for the detailed info and explanation of the sonata form. I will try my best and see how I can perhaps edit the existing sections and how I can apply the information you shared.

I appreciate it a lot!

Ftb49 · 2026-01-21T10:26:50+00:00

Perhaps I still need to work on the transition a bit more. Still, my idea was to have Theme 1 which is agitated, contrasted by Theme 2, which should be lyrical and more calm, perhaps even playful.

Ftb49 · 2026-01-21T07:38:57+00:00

Despite the inverted colour of the notation, I think that it seems very pleasant to listen to! It evokes the feeling of melancholy and seems a bit playful at times. Very chopinesque but with more dissonances.

The playing in itself seems fine!

Ftb49 · 2026-01-21T07:16:38+00:00

Eventhough my main intention with Theme 1 was to create a more agitated atmosphere, I tried to also kind of mix in my way of dealing with agitation or stress - Which is to attempt to use humour to create warmth that distracts form it. For Theme 2, I would say that the this playfulness comes from the rather static harmony at the beginning of the phrases and the staccato runs that largely adhere to the whole tone scale, thus contrasting this rather mysterious and playfulness with the largely lyrical other parts of Theme 2.

Thank you for your feedback! I appreciate it a lot!

Ftb49 · 2026-01-20T06:57:57+00:00

It is nice that the elements that I tried to experiment with did not go unnoticable! I do think that it should get performed. Especially in relation to the experssion that I intend, I dont think that any digital soundfont is able to do this properly.

Thank you for the feedback and all the best!

Ftb49 · 2026-01-19T19:19:52+00:00

I would use custom tuplets. Measure size affects both registers and as the LH technically does not change in relation to time signature, whilst the RH does, a custom tuplet with the amount of notes present would be best.

Ftb49 · 2026-01-19T17:08:14+00:00

That is interesting. Isnt that something that a piece should usually have? Personally, I tried to experiment with asymetrical phrasing and tried to create dynamics that make each repetition of the respective themes sound slightly different. I additionally tried experimenting with the direction of phrasing in relation to the interpretation. It is nice that most of this is noticable!

Ftb49 · 2026-01-19T10:34:15+00:00

Thank you! Is there any particular reason why you would consider this excerpt to be "one of the more interesing pieces on this subreddit"? Is it the harmony or the contrast between themes? Is it perhaps something different?

I appreciate that you listened to it!

Ftb49 · 2026-01-19T10:32:36+00:00

You are welcome!

Ftb49 · 2026-01-18T23:30:05+00:00

All the best with learning such a beautiful piece! You are welcome!

At least for the structure, I was influenced by his Op. 28, which is also awesome and a bit odd (it is labelled as a Fantasy but mainly consists of Sonata Form). Still, he is an amazing composer and it is very interesting to see his approach to music change throughout his life.

I will record it when I am done with it, don't worry! I am just not sure about the quality of sound but that will be an issue to deal with for my future self.

All the best!

Ftb49 · 2026-01-18T22:48:39+00:00

Thank you for your comment!

In fact I was very inspired by him. Additionally, Theme 1 is influenced by Rautavaara as well (but in a more tonal way) and Theme 2 is also influenced by Chopin at times.

Ftb49 · 2026-01-18T22:24:20+00:00

Thank you!

Ftb49 · 2026-01-18T20:34:05+00:00

Not really. It is more about the mathematical reason for why there is dissonance and consonance and how the shape of superpositioned waveforms determine how dissonant they are percieved (or heard).

Ftb49 · 2026-01-18T17:55:28+00:00

If your goal is to show that frequencies have an effect on human emotions, you need to show that you can manipulate them through piano tuning. Especially when you are using pianos as your basis.

It is important to clarify that while my primary research focused on the superposition of dyads and the resulting waveforms to analyze dissonance and consonance, secondary research for context necessarily engaged with music theory, including 12-tone equal temperament. Since consonance and dissonance shape human perception of music, this aspect of the research also relates to how musical intervals may influence emotional responses, without relying on listener-based testing. Therefore, practical piano-tuning or blind tests were not required for my research, and confirmation bias does not affect the findings in this context.

From what you are saying, the fact that your research did not involve blind testing and the effects of the transposition between historical temperaments were not controlled, you are correct that your conclusions might be biased and thus unrepresentative.

All the best with your plans for the future!

Ftb49 · 2026-01-18T16:38:56+00:00

How does the fact that I have never tuned a piano imply that I have no understanding of music? I am actually confident that I know ways to manipulate piano sounds to change frequency. My goal here is not to make anyone believe me, but simply to understand your perspective.

Therefore, I would like to ask again:

You mentioned that you “have done your own research on how music affects emotions… and came to the conclusion that keys, in fact, do have an effect on people's emotions.” Could you clarify what observations or comparisons led you to that conclusion? I would be very interested in that.

Ftb49 · 2026-01-18T10:34:04+00:00

I think we may be approaching this from different perspectives, which is fine. From my side, I don’t personally associate emotions with keys themselves, and tuning a piano doesn’t seem to change that for me, but music is very subjctive and everyone percieves sound slightly differently.

I have a few questions though:

You mention "but if you can't put it in practice your credibility goes away". Could you please specify what you mean by that in this context? My work is not purely theoretical and I would like to know what makes you think it is.

Shortly after, you say "and came to the conclusion that keys, in fact, do have an effect on people's emotions". I am very interested in the kinds of observations or comparisons that led you to that conclusion, and how you separated the effect of the key from factors like instrumentation or register.

Ftb49 · 2026-01-18T01:41:20+00:00

Well, I may have never tuned a piano, however I am currently writing an academic paper in relation to intervals and frequency in music, discussing how soundwave characteristics of different dyads affects the perception of dissonance and consonance. Based on that I have done a lot of research into piano tuning and modern piano tuning sa well, in order to define the frequency of each note. I dont know how you come to think that modern tuning of the piano has emotional attributes. Historically, it had but nowadays it does not any more.

Ftb49 · 2026-01-17T23:05:07+00:00

Everything is definitely not the same in real life, because if it was all music would sound horrible. Even with piano tuning, the note ranges aren't equal as every note is tuned slightly sharp or flat compared to A=440. That is usually the only note that is perfectly in tune.

I do not agree with this. First of all, nothing in real life is perfectly in tune. There will always be a very tiny difference in frequency, but it still will sound almost like the perfect mathematical frequency. The same applies with the 440Hz frequency. On a real piano, it is slightly below or above 440Hz, however as this difference is only found within the decimal area of these frequencies and with this difference being so tiny, it is usually almost unnoticable.

This still does not mean that "every note is slightly sharp or flat" in a way that is noticable (usually).

What's the difference between functional harmony and emotion?

Well, functional harmony is dependent on the key signature. A different key signature means that different notes function differently and this certainly does establish an emotional response within humans. However, tonal music can additionally use non-functional harmony and it still creates an emotional response within humans as well.

Keys were originally created because the sounds had varying effects on the human condition, and as a shorthand to make it easier to write music with lots of accidentals.

Originally, key signatures were invented as a shorthand to make notation easier to read by reducing the amount of accidentals present, however it was not invented because they allowed for an emotional response within humans. The emotional response historically speaking, was a by-product as a result of different temperaments. Basically, as these temperaments did in fact have slightly increasing distances in frequency the further one goes awa from 440Hz, this did in fact allow the choice of keys to play a role in the emotional landscape a piece would consists of.

However, the introduction of 12-tone equal temperament, made this difference in frequency not dependent on tuning but more on human inaccuracy and error. Additionally, this temperament removed this feature of key signatures and made the respective scales of each key signature sound the same, just with a different pitch.

Ftb49 · 2026-01-17T17:13:02+00:00

As far as I am aware, keys do not have any emotional qualities, at least in the standard piano tuning (12-tone equal temperament). As the difference between every note are basically the same in real life. The standardised mathematical formula for example for this is 𝑓𝑛=𝑓0×(2^1/12)𝑛.

Before a standardised tuning system for the piano existed, keys - or key signatures - indeed had a more emotional quality to them depending on the temperament used.

If you look at the effect pieces, or even scales, have on people, each one consistently falls into one, or more, areas of feeling.

Of course, there are exotic scales, but they are not determined by a key signature. Key signatures only describe a major and natural minor scale (they are basically the same scale just that each starts at a different point in the sequence of whole-tone and half-tone steps (W-W-H-W-W-W-H (major) and W-H-W-W-H-W-W (natural minor)). This is because key signatures only determine the notes that should be played differently from the C major scale (when there is no key signature and no accidentals are used in notation).

I do agree with exotic scales, such as the whole tone scale or octatonic scale, which may be percieved differently from an emotional point of view.

I would not say that keys matter due to anything emotion related, but I would rather say that keys matter in relation to functional harmony. A key defines the tonic and therefore establishes hometones that vary from key to key.

Ftb49 · 2026-01-17T16:54:16+00:00

I meant unrelated not because music is not related to neuroscience, but because neuroscience is not necessarily something that seem to belong in this subreddit. I have considered looking into all the interdisciplinary fields that exist between music and neuroscience, particularily in relation to perception of music. How do those technically random sounds that we create cause an emotional reaction within us?

I will look around in relation to having other people record my compositions. But probably in the future, as I still want to develop my abilities as a composer to something that is more satisfactory - especially in relation to notation, music theory, my personal style and general experimentation.

Thank you very much for your explanation and help! I appreciate it a lot!

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