BlackBerry fan writes an original piano piece in the classical sonata form in honor of BB10!

By Kevin Michaluk on 1 Feb 2013 09:54 am

A winning entry in CrackBerry's What Would You Do for a BlackBerry 10 Phone? Contest!

* Download the BlackBerry Sonata here (25.8MB) *

With all of the BlackBerry 10 launch event buzz and the BlackBerry Z10 Review content hitting CrackBerry the last couple of days, we took a short break from posting more winners from our What Would You Do for a BlackBerry 10 Phone? Contest. But we're back with our next winning entry, from Daniel Richmond.

Daniel's idea was to write an original piano piece in the classical sonata form, using the traditional BlackBerry ringtone. To say we were intrigued by Daniel's idea was an understatement, so we picked him as a winner and boy did he follow through. You can listen to the BlackBerry Sonata in E-Minor above, and keep reading for more details on the inspiration as well as the sheet music.

In Daniel's words:

The piece is in sonata form from the early classical era, and still shows tendencies of the Baroque era that preceded it, almost as if written for a harpsichord instead of piano. The two halves of the BlackBerry ringtone make up the starting notes of the primary and secondary themes of the piece (in e and in G). I hope you enjoy it! It was fun to make such a piece on such a time crunch.

What would I do for a BlackBerry 10 phone? I'd make a piano piece in classical sonata form!

Great job Daniel! You deserve the free BB10 phone you have coming your way. You have mad skills!

And this is why I love contests like this on CrackBerry - it shows the amazing diversity and talent of our readership and BlackBerry owners. When we pick the winning ideas for What Would You You? contests, we pick a range of ideas - a couple crazy ideas, a couple hard work and effort ideas, some talent-related ideas, a couple sexy ideas, some arts and crafts ideas, etc. We mix it up - from tattoos to bikini photoshoots to musical sonatas and everything in between! We realize not everybody will love every idea that gets picked (especially those who submitted ideas that didn't get picked), but that's the nature of these types of contests - can never please everyone. Don't over think it - just enjoy the posts. And remember, on CrackBerry another contest is never too far away. In fact, we have another contest going right now where you can enter to win a free BlackBerry Z10!

And we still have six more entries to come. We're actually picking 11 winners since the BlackBerry bikini photoshoot was more of a bonus round on the eve of the BB10 launch day to keep everybody entertained (it seems to have entertained a lot of you too - over 90,000 views on youtube which is a record for a What Would You Do contest entry - even more than some of our entries from the Storm contest we did years ago!).

Enjoy the Sonata and stay tuned for our next winning entry!

BlackBerry Sonata

Topics: BlackBerry 10 BB10Contest News & Rumors Contests

Kevin Michaluk 3684 (articles) 3023 (forum posts)

47 comments

smiff_beats Feb 1, 2013 at 9:58 am

I was wondering what happened to the rest of these "what would you do for a bb10 phone" entries.

digitalhomeboy Feb 1, 2013 at 9:59 am

WOW, that is beautiful. I would love to download it. Well deserved.

Kevin Michaluk Feb 1, 2013 at 10:01 am

I'll get it uploaded so people can download it. Great idea!

BBThemes Feb 1, 2013 at 1:08 pm

will it be on BlackBerry World?

advil_yum Feb 1, 2013 at 10:26 am

amazing job - oozing talent!

oolm Feb 1, 2013 at 10:37 am

Thank you Daniel for a beautiful musical experience - uplifting and joyful.
I hope I can download it and continue to enjoy it. Could I make it my new phone ring??

Dan Richmond Feb 1, 2013 at 12:20 pm

Good by me!

portal Feb 1, 2013 at 10:39 am

Fantastic piece of play. Absolutely love it. Looking forward to the download file.

rexxenex Feb 1, 2013 at 10:40 am

That is well done! Definitely deserves a BB10 phone for this! Awesome!

Anthony Roberts 1985 Feb 1, 2013 at 10:46 am

Hey Kevin were you aware that the Blackberry Q10 on GSMarena.com is number 1 in Daily Hits in the current rankings over the Sony Z and even the Note 2 ?!?!? :)

qbnkelt Feb 1, 2013 at 11:07 am

Oh WOW want this for my Z10 phone ring!!!!!

jakie55 Feb 1, 2013 at 11:13 am

Such talent! Heard the Baroque influence, and sure liked the left hand parts that sounded like the phone ringer. A very deserving winner.

rrtek Feb 1, 2013 at 11:22 am

Really nice.

hallda01 Feb 1, 2013 at 11:23 am

He totally ripped of Bach's Little Fugue in G minor.

Dan Richmond Feb 1, 2013 at 12:11 pm

Wow, when writing it I didn't even notice that it was the section of Bach's Organ Fugue in G minor transposed. The actual basis for that section was a Haydn sonata (Hob. XVI No. 37 in D major, Mvmt I during the primary theme group). I specifically tried to avoid looking at Bach as a model due to my desire to be closer to the galant style than to the baroque style which is very contrapuntal in nature.

When I ran the melodic line through musipedia, the closest thing I got was Mozart's Requiem, so I assumed it was clean. Good catch!

Credit to Bach for, well, everything!

yasmar Feb 1, 2013 at 11:25 am

awesome - definitely deserves a Z10

KoreAairlines Feb 1, 2013 at 11:32 am

A amazing idea in the first place in the first place, and really well done. I love it !

Congratz

newcollector Feb 1, 2013 at 11:55 am

Wonderful piece and parts of it sound very very familiar. Ringtone inspiriation and also clearly some Bach plagiarism. But if you are going to "borrow" at least borrow from the best!

http://youtu.be/PhRa3REdozw

Dan Richmond Feb 1, 2013 at 12:15 pm

It's true, borrowing from Bach is the best way to go if you're going to borrow (The Great 48 is heaven to me) but the source was actually Haydn, which served as the inspiration for all my form for this style, with adjustments made based on the Sonata form readings of the History of Western Music by Burkholder.

newcollector Feb 1, 2013 at 3:11 pm

Haydn was influenced by Bach (who hasn't been) and your wonderful piece definitely rings true to them. The immediate and unmistakable parallel to these great composers is heard in form and in style. Though Haydn is your source, the melody and counterpoint is more baroque Bach in my humble opinion. But who really cares. You deserve the Z10 and I applaud your efforts.

Dan Richmond Feb 1, 2013 at 4:03 pm

Well, thank you very much for that! My own contrapuntal studies tend to be from the following books:
Counterpoint in Composition by Felix Salzer and Carl Schacter
The Study of Counterpoint (from Gradus Ad Parnassum) by Johann Josephus Fux (I did my own translation because I was too cheap to by Alfred Mann's at the time)
Preliminary Exercises in Counterpoint by Arnold Schoenberg
Counterpoint by Kent Kennan
Counterpoint by Walter Piston

My favorite is the Salzer, who was my teacher's teacher, but I can't ignore the tradition of the Fux book and the other greats who have studied from it.

dehrlich01 Feb 1, 2013 at 12:00 pm

Beautiful! Dubstep remix? Kidding... Or am I?

Dan Richmond Feb 1, 2013 at 12:17 pm

That could be arranged if I have some free time. I am still a college student, so I'm pretty busy as I apply for graduate school.

stevedee Feb 1, 2013 at 12:10 pm

First, I congratulate Daniel on the piece - although yes somewhate reminiscent/derivative of classical Baroque, anything since the mid-20th Century can be labelled with that. I liked the nice tight structure without too many unnecessary attempts at cleverness.

Now, two points: the first is that the ending, being only partially resolved, indicates musically that there must be a second (and really, a third) movement to follow (and what a contest that would make!)

I'd also love to see it performed on the Z10!

Great job, thanks for including the scoring as well.

Curve 8330 CDMA (eww, I know, u/g to BB10 soon!)
Winner of EA Mobile SE Playbook - rockin' it!

Dan Richmond Feb 1, 2013 at 12:25 pm

Second and third movements will follow as I get time to do so, as will undoubtedly a revision of the first movement. I did what I could get done in six days time on the side of my coursework.

pmich Feb 1, 2013 at 12:09 pm

a million times better than the "photoshoot"

king benny Feb 1, 2013 at 1:02 pm

Wasn't expecting to see an entry like this! Very cool and we'll deserved! Congrats Daniel!

Qaxl Feb 1, 2013 at 1:02 pm

NIIIICE

Kevin Michaluk Feb 1, 2013 at 1:38 pm

Added the download link!

BBVegasGirl80 Feb 1, 2013 at 1:48 pm

Hi Kevin,
I respect what you said just now about everyone not liking the entries. I feel bad about what I said earlier about the bikini model and I apologize. I was trying to make a point, but I was also jealous. I did overthink it and I don't know if anyone responded to what I said, but I just wanted to state my opinion.

With that being said, congrats to Daniel for your wonderful piano composition in honor of BB10 and to everyone else who has won so far. At the end of the day, we're all here to support BB and that's what really matters. :-)