New Song Highlight: Moonlit Escape

I'm really happy with how this one came together. Not only is it cohesive in theme and scope, but I also wrote it surprisingly fast. Most of my pieces take weeks to months to complete, but I had this one 90% finished within two days. 

Title

I wanted to include "Moonlit" as a reference to some of the harmonic ideas I took from Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata". "Escape" describes the sense of uneasiness and urgency that lies beneath much of this piece. 

What I learned writing this piece

This piece applies something I've learned about composing recently - that a composition doesn't have to be new idea after new idea. Rather, it can simply expolre one musical idea. That may sound reductionist, but it's actually how so many of the great composers operated and can result in complex pieces.

In this song's case, there's really one central musical idea: the oscillating bottom notes of the right hand along with the rising third interval in the melody. That structure repeats throughout the whole song, but we take it through a journey of chord progressions across different keys that are also some of my most sophisticated.

Tempo

I've gone back and forth on if this should be a slower, more contemplative piece, like the original first movement of the Moonlight Sonata, or more brisk and anxious like Bach's C minor prelude. I'm leaning towards the latter. Kinda spooky 🎃

Hope you enjoy!