Solo piano compositions

While I have since come up with many more little tunes, melodies, production ideas, chord sequences and motifs, my first 3 compositions were all for solo piano, and are all in a playlist on youtube.

Vexed in Eb Major

Beyond very simple melodies I'd played around with, this was my very first finished piece of music. It was created partly for Higher music, but it ended up not being used for examination, and so in the end it was just for fun - the best reason.

The piece starts with a melody heavily inspired by the chorus of REM's Everybody Hurts before transitioning into an erratic and surprising quasi-chorus. Progression continues by settling into a C section which functions sort of like a bridge in the middle of the piece, with some left hand movement I'm still quite pleased with to this day. The piece then reruns the verse-chorus from the beginning with some varirations, the most notable of which being the Everybody hurts chords being outlined by large arpreggios shared between both hands with the melody being played alternately by each swapping hand, inspired by movement in the opening theme of Franz Lizst's Un Sospiro.

Sad in E Minor

Created during a lockdown-infused period of piano obsession, and as a kind of rebuttal to my sister's appreciation of Einaudi's works, I thought I'd create my own minimalist piece. All this means that it's very repetitive, there's a strong verse-chorus structure, and there is constant build up and release. I am a particular fan of the main theme, directly inspried by the main theme from Einaudi's Divenere. The rest is a nice-ish piece but nothing spectacular.

Hope in E Major

After I spent a rather intense week nearer the end of lockdown learning Debussy's Arabesque No. 1, I was struck with inspiration for my Advanced Higher Music composition to create a piece based on it. Once again, the composition for the exam was cancelled but the piece remained and this is the one I am proudest of. Like Arabesque No. 1, it is in E major, the main melody makes heavy use of 3:2 polyrhythms and there is a clear ABACA structure.

I am particularly happy with my application of my understanding of harmony. While the melodies are nice too, it is the chordal structures and progressions I really like. I think I did a good job of creating new, but similar-feeling sounds to the original piece. Hope you enjoy listening!