It doesn't really sound like an Einaudi piece. You use some cords that he would use, but other than that it doesn't really capture his style. As someone who listens to Einaudi and neoclassical music in general, this feels too repetitive to me, even though I like the repetitiveness in Einaudi's pieces. He doesn't just repeat the same thing over and over, he adds some layers and nuance to the repetitiveness. He does quite a lot with few notes. If you listen to a piece like Swordfish closely, while trying to not analyse it like some classical piece, you may notice some features that you aren't used to. I would say his music is a bit like ambient music.
It sounds a lot like his style. I like the song. It sounds most like his more recent stuff, like the additions to In a Time Lapse such as "A Dark Bank of Clouds". Well done!
Aural treacle - you've made a brave attempt, but that was awful; the nearer you get to Einaudi, the more saccharine you get - a very good argument for heading in the opposite direction at some speed.
As someone that genuinely enjoys Einaudi's music, if this came up as one of his songs I would not really question it. But I must admit that I can sense that the essence of what I do like with (some of) Einanudi's pieces is missing in this one. Of course, it's very difficult to pinpoint to what it is exactly, and maybe it's just me knowing the difference, but to me, this piece feels more ‘jolly’ and ‘typically derived from music theory’ than Einaudi’s ‘airy and sometimes eerie’ and ‘typically minimalistic’ music. (These are just some rudimental descriptors I chose, so don’t get too hung up on those.) But as a humble critique, I believe that there is more to Einaudi's music than what you managed to distil it to. When we don't like something we tend to generalise it much more broadly, thus missing the details. It’s the reason why all jazz sounds the same to someone that doesn’t like jazz, and the same with classical music. Good try though, but nothing I would really listen to when anticipating Einaudi. But in some other setting, I believe this music would be perceived beautifully!
Sounds more like Yanni. Do you even know Einaudis more dynamic pieces with other players or a whole orchestra, for instance "Lady Labyrinth"?? Ahh, but so many people are so pleased with this kind of simplification! At least half of Einaudis pieces are different from what you are trying here. Why not try to copy these?
This is a beautiful melody. As an fan of Einaudi's music, I would say that you managed the left hand a little bit different. Overall, there are three or four main things in Einaudi's music that might differ from your composition, essentially his soft acoustics (well, mainly in his late work like underwater), his control of the pedal purposefully to overlay strong and soft sounds, a less playful style and a little more of consistency in terms of rythm with a subtle variance in the dynamics. In music like this, every note contributes to the atmosphere, being noticeable when one is played differently. I think in the album "7 days walking" this becomes clear. I have ADHD, so I love listening to him because I can keep my thoughts in order while doing other things and at the same time keep track of the music and still receive an emotional reward. I believe you are correct when you said in your main video that he restrains himself when playing, in the sense that he is trying to describe the human sensorial experience when facing nature. Other than that, it becomes space for the listener to complete the composition himself. I hope this feedback is of any use for you David, I am a huge fan of your videos too, keep going with the great content.
Love your comment... Every time I listen to Einaudi, I am just in awe of the delicate absolute beauty of the pauses and the emotion in certain songs (and it floods over me and lifts my bipolar depression). My faves: (Two Trees, Discovery at Night, Almost June, Luminous, Nuvole Bianche (of course), Seven Days Walking: Ascent etc...) I don't care that he writes certain pieces for some movie or whatever - that the music is supposed to be in the background making someone 'feel' something. He knows what he is doing. Every single note has a purpose, the timbre of his piano, (mastered of course) and I understand why people don't get it. They don't get a lot of things I get. lol I think the fact that DB's original Einaudi video has close to 100K views already says something as well...
Well, sorry to say, and I want to say it as kindly as possible, but you failed. This piece does nothing to me. Not a flinch. And I can't tell why it is so, and at the same time I can't tell why some of Einaudi pieces can make my eyes watery and produce floods of feelings coming down on me. Interestingly enough, for me it is much more so from piano solo interpretations of other youtubers (there are very few capable enough for this), less originals from Einaudi himself. What you found out about opening doors, fragments that show you the way, etc., it all sounds very plausible to me. It's like talking of those brain theta waves. And if you look how he plays live, he makes faces, like he is about to shit a watermelon. But then, those are the places in his composition or subtleties not necessarily that important to me. Other aspects are. But yes, how some of those particular notes are played is important to me, perhaps even more than what notes are played. There are videos of professional piano players or teachers playing Einaudi extremely poorly because they don't "get it". They don't understand it. Because they can't. They are apparently wired differently than me, I guess. And perhaps this is the answer why this piece doesn't work for me. You understood some of the principles, but your musical brain is wired in such a way that it can't process or produce this kind of music at the required level. Because this music does nothing to them. Perhaps this is a good thing, because it is the only thing that allows for such a wide and far reaching musical landscape of producers and consumers. And this is why every boy gets a girl, no matter how ugly any one of them is.
Great comment! I agree that some YT covers actually improve on his originals, especially if they leave out a string section etc... Some of his songs do nothing for me, others, yes, I'm balling. Even if I've already heard it a hundred times already. It's the anticipation of knowing what is coming as well as the beauty and sometimes the feeling of flying. I mentioned a while back that some people 'don't get him' and was trolled for 'don't get what? - There is nothing to get...' My point exactly! lol
I think you've hit the nail on the head with his style. I know that many despise Einaudi's music, at least for me he is by no means the best composer I have ever heard, but I have to admit that his music is not bad, it is simply simple, it does not pretend to be more, it does not want to be less, It's just that it is an ambiguous background for the senses, and I think it fulfills that function within the varied range of music that has become popular today. I recommend listening to their entire albums and not just their most viral hits, maybe you'll find something interesting out there. Good video.
Yay, thanks for sharing! LOVE those 10ths... 1:36 is gorgeous! Pure Einaudi for a few measures there... I think if it had faded out at 3:04 it would have stayed within the boundaries of the ambient genre and would be eligible for your everyday 'calm' and 'peaceful' piano Spotify playlists. 💙
I'd have preferred it to have faded out rather earlier than that - however: we all look for different things from music; I realize I'm intolerant, though it's a bit late to change after all these years. I'll say it once, though, and then bugger off for you all: I hate this music.
The point made in the main video about how people wish to engage with music seems quite reasonable. But it did seem odd to me that David Bruce seemed to suggest that the way someone chose to engage with music was static for each individual. I sometimes really enjoy pieces of music where there is so much going on that I'll still be spotting new stuff having listened to it several times. However, that's not what I want if I am, for instance, focusing intensely on a particular mathematical problem. I may still want to listen to music in this instance, as I find it does a good job of drowning out 'background thoughts' that might distract me, however, complex music as I've described above is far too distracting for this application. However, my requirements for a piece of music won't, of course, just be based on the activity I am completing, it'll also be based on my mood as defined by a multitude of external factors. This explains why, despite enjoying quite a few of his pieces, enjoying quite a few of his pieces I have, tried to listen to Einaudi and experienced the same disconcerting sensations described in the main video. One thing find interesting is that there are a few comments of an unfortunate pretentious nature* that claim this sounds exactly like Einaudi. With the greatest of respect to Bruce, this piece does not, for me at least, "nail" Einaudi's style and doesn't have the same effect his pieces have. That's not to say it's not beautiful and far better than anything I could have written, but, while I can hear echos of Einaudi's style in this piece, I don't think I would have been Einaudi if I hadn't known *Especially considering the thoughtful and nuanced approach taken by the main video. For context: I'm mainly including this to preemptively reject any assertion I'm simply defending Einaudi because I'm some kind of superfan. I am not. I like a number of his pieces (though not all of them) and, quite frankly, classical music only makes up about 10% of my listening. If I was defending Ben Folds or Public Service Broadcasting you might have grounds to accuse me of being biased, but not in this instance. This comment was brought to you by Dyslexia, the world's leading supplier of bad speling and poor grammar.
Who, David? Well, that might justify it: I'm all for chaps getting on in the world! And - I don't have to listen to it, so winners and trebles all round.
Oh I recognize the song - the video is supposed to start by showing dabs of paint on the paper, and then it should show the painting's progress to finish. Not sure why there's some guy playing piano...
I think you’ve managed to get very close to the style. I like Einaudi’s music, I know it’s not great music, but it has a quiet and calm musical quality that I like. The wife likes it too, we had Einaudi’s music at our wedding nearly 20 years ago.
It has a pretentious quality and weight while at the same time sounds to be inspired by advertising music and the alarm sounds that comes with your phone. That being said, you nailed the style.
The melody from 1:16 (which recurs a couple of times) sounds extremely familiar, and I seem to be coming across it in multiple places - I found it in the track Saalaikal by Thaikkudam Bridge (around the 5 minute mark) and very unexpectedly in the background music to a couple of Half as Interesting videos. This makes me think it must be from a classical composition of some sort? I've tried many ways of tracking it down but with no luck so far... Would anyone here know where it's from?
Jeremy's rendition is nice and enjoyable , but I cannot help wondering if it is really good since most of the original composition's personality is almost entirely gone. Nevertheless, what an interesting exercise, and great series of videos.
