rob wrote:In a composition lesson a million years ago I took a Chopin Etude and changed all the octaves to sevenths. The result sounded like Messiaen! Some would think of that as torturing Chopin.
I think changing them to *minor* 9ths would make the effect more excruciating.
rob wrote:Nevertheless I used to be able to play (after a fashion) a piano sonata and a group of preludes that I wrote when I was 13 or 14, but attempting that now would torture me let alone anyone listening.
I'd be interested to see those scores - I bet they're better than you seem to be saying.
But I'd hesitate to show people music I wrote at a similar age - but I can't throw it out, because it is full of memories for me. At least the vision I had for my music then was, I still feel, essentially good, even if I was far less able to realize that in practice than I believed I was at the time. I still have the haunting feeling that, if I could have written my music then the way it was really meant to go, it would have been far better, and quite worthwhile, even if a little derivative of Beethoven (whom I idolized as a boy).
Regards, Michael.