C Lydian N.1 Dwm

It sounds like a study, nothing wrong with it, but it seems a bit predictable or at least a bit repetitive to me... let's just say that your other pieces impressed me more.

Only technical note: I don't know if the "phrasing" effect at the second minute is intentional, it seems a bit thrown together to me.

I share [your view], the problem is that playing for several minutes on a single scale ......

since it is not a diatonic scale, it greatly reduces musicality and expressive possibilities.

Diminished scales in modal harmony serve only to color chords; in effect, it is a study piece whose sole purpose is to savor the diminished color and should be listened to with that objective in mind.

modale wrote:

I agree, the problem is that playing for several minutes on a single scale ......

since it is not a diatonic scale, it greatly reduces musicality and expressive possibilities.

Alternatively, you could have oriented yourself towards aphoristic composition, perhaps by pairing the voice declaiming or intoning a short but significant phrase.

Certainly, if I were to perform an extemporaneous composition based on the diminished color in public, I would insert a term, an appoggiatura, all things that give musicality to a piece. I believe that, however, at the level of a study piece for professionals, these are elements that distract attention from the true purpose, which is to savor the diminished color. This and other pieces are didactic works that I actually use for myself as well to go into depth and renew my awareness of the diminished color.

On one fundamental point I disagree, the "true end" is not the diminished color, just as it was not the Lydian or Dorian color of other compositions; the purpose of a musical piece should be "the music," whereas the color, whether tonal or modal, is a MEANS, not an end, and moreover it is ONE of many possible means. This is why it seems very reductive to me to refer to a scale to create a piece; at the base of a composition there should be a creative spark and not a technical means, or rather, the technical means should be bent to the will of the composer and not vice versa....

Moreover, the scale in question is nothing other than the semitone-tone scale, widely used in jazz, along with the tone-semitone one, on diminished seventh and dominant chords, even in 100% tonal pieces; just analyze a few solos by Charlie Parker or Oscar Peterson to verify it.

Questions of method, this method is useful to me for "incorporating" a color. I published a study piece, not a musical piece. The technical means must undoubtedly be bent to the composer's will, but one must know them well to do so, and personally, to know them well, I adopt this method. Among other things, I do not personally use this scale over dominant seventh chords; it seems outdated, at least to me. I use it in modal harmony to express the diminished color which I believe is a vector of a set of internal sensations which then actually create the "music."