Piano Sonata (Dr. Wily - Stage 1)

[AdvanceWarsAddict]

Yes, I know that this song has been remixed about fourteen million times. Still, it's great, and even if it's mostly negative, I'd like to have some constructive criticism of an arrangement for solo piano that I wrote.

MP3: http://www.mediafire.com/?ymj5jydzrcy

Sheet music: http://www.mediafire.com/?wi5jmtyydwn

This is only my third arrangement of anything, so please keep that in mind! That said, any helpful comments will be greatly appreciated, both with arrangement and audio.

I strove to make this playable as well as aurally pleasing, so if anyone would like to assist me with playability, that would also be greatly appreciated!

The piano sound used was the Piano sound from the Sibelius 6 Essentials.

Thanks,

Glenn

[Gario]

Ooo, a Sibelius score! I haven't seen one of those since college . God bless Sibelius (finally got a copy, myself - can't wait to refurbish some of my older compositions and get them published with it ). To be honest, people should post scores more often, except generally it can't be done with the programs they use .

Yeah, there are in fact two piano Wily arrangements on this site (live performances, no less), so I don't think it has a chance to get on here, unfortunately, but let's look at it as if it isn't going on the site and give you good criticism, anyway (just being honest, not harsh).

Alright, first of all it's not a sonata... I'm sure you used the title to mean 'Piano song' in a more clever way, but it's not a sonata in the technical sense. Form would need to have an exposition, repeat, development and recap (which, I'm afraid, this track doesn't have). I don't know, I just thought it might give you some ideas

The triplets that occur in mm. 21 - 22, while a good idea, are an isolated idea that sound out of place in the music. If you're going to use triplets be sure to incorporate them in more than one part of the music; otherwise I'd recommend taking them out, entirely.

Watch some of the harmonies - the penultimate harmony toward the end of each phrase tends to be a bit off from the source.

I personally like the slow intro + Midnight Sonata 3rd movement action you have going here, but it doesn't seem like enough play on the original. Normally, if it's not an OCR song I don't mind, but because there's enough remixes and arrangements online to satisfy every genre out there ten times over (especially piano), you've got to give it something different to differentiate it from the rest of the crowd. It's not bad (especially for a first attempt) but it doesn't quite stand out, as is.

Needless to say, it sounds mechanical, but with that handy-dandy score you've got that's relatively easy to fix - find someone to play it for you . Let me take a quick look at the score to see if it's playable...

Too much pedal! If a real pianist say this score and actually used the pedal like you have it the music would become a muddy disaster (especially in the quick parts!). I can appreciate the pedal in the slow sections, but even then most pianists worth their salt would add the pedal there for flavor, anyway, so it's redundant to write it in so often.

The ties that go nowhere are strange - I take it you just want the note to ring, right? If you keep the pedal markings the notes will ring, anyhow, and if you simply add the notes at the end of the ties it'll be clear enough to let the notes ring. Just letting you know I haven't seen that in notation before, nor do I find it necessary to do here.

I notice you like to tie eighths together to represent quarters. While that's technically acceptable, it might be easier to read them if you either make the tied eighths rests instead, or make quarter notes instead. The way they're laid out looks strange. The only time you should use the ties in the context of this song is when the quarter (or whatever) note will take you over the barline.

Measure 52 looks strange with the eighth - sixteenth combos in the left hand - you should just change them all to eighths (with the sixteenth note you'll get at the end tied to the next measure, of course).

Alright, hope this helped, and good luck on your next remix... Oh, and welcome to OCR .

[AdvanceWarsAddict]

Haha, yeah, I love Sibelius. I have actually never used a sequencer in my life, so I'm probably not ever going to produce anythng as high-tech/quality as some of the submissions on here, unless I manage to write something with straight instruments that's good enough.

Are there two Wily arrangements for piano here? I knew about Wily's Wedding, but I didn't know there was a second, or that either was live.

I could have sworn that a sonata was simply a "played piece", not necessarily in the sonata allergo form... though, in retrospect, that would seem logical.

Hmm... looking back, I see what you mean. I was really looking to change up the phrase, but I forgot to check the more global context.

I tried to make the piece a bit different, but I'm not very... confident, shall we say, in deviating far from the written when I arrange. I suppose this will grow with time.

It does indeed sound a bit mechanical, but I felt that the arpeggios and small-interval runs would be easy enough for an intermediate-advanced player. As for pedal, it seems that I used it in lieu of a phrase marking, or something similar. Thinking about it more, I understand (I haven't played a piano for a while, so I forgot the muddiness that runs can produce).

The "tie to nothing" style is adapted from percussion notation: I'm primarily a percussion player/writer, so I tend to use my styles for percussion writing in other types of writing. This is also why I notated the tied eighth notes like so; it's generally easier to see a note or rest on every downbeat for percussion, so I adapted here. I'll fix this for future non-percussive works.

I was actually debating with myself whether to use sixteenth rest-eighth-sixteenth notation or sixteenth rest-eighth-eighth notation. I picked the former because of my aforementioned percussion experience. I guess I chose wrong. I'll fix this too.

Thanks a ton for your review! It was very helpful. I'll take all of this into consideration for (potential) future works.

[Gario]

Ah, you're primarily a percussion writer - I see why you made most of those decisions (it's technically easier to see rhythmic patterns with the ties, and the resonance notation is common). I used to do the tied notes for my music, as well, which is why I know pianists don't like it . Look at some piano music if you want to learn to write idiomatically for the instrument (that goes for any instrument, as well).

Don't worry about it's mechanical sound, since you can't really do much to fix it on Sibelius. Find a player to play it for you - that'll fix it .

Yeah, about the two Wily mixes... I guess there really is only one solo piano mix (I hear a few that use piano and other instruments and got them mixed up )

Best of luck with future pieces, and if percussion is your forte why not make a percussion remix of a tune? We don't get too many of those on here (although one does immediately come to mind, lol).

[SoulinEther]

Whether 14 million times, 25 billion times, or 1.3530 * 10^(10^50395209632) times, I'm pretty sure I'll always like a new take on MM2 Wily.

Wee. I am digging the fast pacing, however you completely abandon the slower, pensive mood you use to introduce the piece. I feel somewhat unsatisfied hearing this work end (and I like the ending) without at any point revisiting that original, more deliberate and less chaotic mood. What do you want to say with the contrast of slow/steady and hectic? I think you should elaborate on your story.

And I think this piece stands out pretty well. Kind of reminds me of both Blue.Nocturne's Dr. Wily Symphonic (which took a "fairly" conservative approach to this source although yes, it is orchestrated, and I think this remix is not too conservative) and dhsu's A Clockwork Vampire (which is like 90-100% melodically similar to its source, but with modified harmonies, and on piano too). I think right now it may have a chance, if made less mechanical with a pianist playing it live. (I think with a pianist it'll reach the panel but it's still a matter of judging.)

Cool. Anyway, as a sidenote... are there any remixes here in sonata allegro form? I've been wondering for a while. Maybe it's a matter of length, ...raising the max submission filesize might take care of that.