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Friday, October 30, 8:00 pm Littlefield Concert Hall
MILLS PERFORMING GROUP: DON'T SHOOT THE PIANIST!
MUSIC FOR MULTIPLE PIANOS
Morton Feldman: Piece for Four Pianos (1957)
Fred Frith: Impur (for twenty plus pianos) (2009 version)
José Maceda: Sujeichon (for four pianos) (2002)
Meredith Monk: Ellis Island (1981), Folkdance (1996), and Phantom Waltz (1989)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Sonata for Two Pianos, K. 448(1781)
Steve Reich: Piano Phase (for two pianos) (1967)
With Belle Bulwinkle, Chris Brown, Regina Schaffer, Robert Schwartz, and many others. Steed Cowart, conductor
W.A. Mozart: Sonata for two pianos, K. 448
The multiple piano genre inspired only two complete works from Mozart, a Fugue in C Minor (K. 426) written in 1783 and a Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major (K. 448) from November 1781. Both are "incomparable masterpieces" according to the musicologist Alfred Einstein. He goes on to describe the Sonata on today's program as "galant from beginning to end; it has the form and the thematic material of an ideal sinfonia for an opera buffa; no cloud obscures its gaiety. But the art with which the two parts are made completely equal, the play of the dialogue, the delicacy and refinement of the figuration, the feeling for sonority in the combination and exploitation of the different registers of the two instruments—all these things exhibit such mastery that this apparently 'superficial' and entertaining work is at the same time one of the most profound and most mature of all Mozart's compositions."The pianist Robert Levin describes the music as "a tour de force in every way."
The Sonata had its premiere at a party on November 23, 1781 at the residence of Herr von Auernhammer, whose daughter, Josepha, was a favorite piano student of Mozart's. She played the first piano part, while Mozart took the second. Josepha von Auernhammer has the dubious distinction of being described by Mozart in letters to his father: "If an artist wished to paint the Devil in a lifelike way, he would be obliged to resort to her face as a model. She is as fat as a peasant girl… To see her is enough to make one blind; a single look is a whole day's punishment…. She is the biggest bore I know." And " The young lady is a monster! But plays enchantingly; only the true, fine, singing taste in cantabile [passages] is missing; she chops up everything. She revealed to me (as a secret) her plan, which is to study righteously for two or three more years, and then go to Paris and pursue her career. ‘For,' she says, ‘I am not beautiful,' au contraire, [she is] ugly." Despite Mozart's pitiless description of her physical attributes, he must have thought Josepha was an excellent pianist, because they performed together several times. — Belle Bulwinkle
Morton Feldman: Piece for Four Pianos (1957)
In this ground-breaking composition, all four pianists read from the same pages of music material, but they play at their own internal speed. The amplitude level, like most of Feldman's pieces is as quiet as possible in order that small events and the fullness of the harmonics of each struck tone or aggregate (chord) may be heard. Gradually a landscape of delays is created, spreading away from an initial single sound source, an horizontal rather than vertical evolution. The effect is that of sublime, slowly changing chordal textures. This use of phase-modulation in music is another approach than that used by the pattern or "minimalist" composers (Reich, Glass, Riley). —"Blue Gene" Tyranny
Steve Reich: Piano Phase
Piano Phase, composed in 1967, was Steve Reich's first attempt at applying the "phasing" technique previously used in the tape pieces It's Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966) to live performance. Reich's phasing works generally have two identical lines of music, which begin by playing synchronously, but slowly become out of phase with one another when one of them slightly speeds up. Reich had previously applied this technique only to sounds recorded on magnetic tape, but experimenting in his studio, he found it was possible for humans to replicate the effect. In Piano Phase, he has the two pianists begin by playing a rapid twelve note melodic figure over and over again in unison (E4 F#4 B4 C#5 D5 F#4 E4 C#5 B4 F#4 D5 C#5). After a while, one of the pianists begins to play their part slightly faster than the other. When they are playing the second note of the figure at the same time the other pianist is playing the first note, the two pianists play at the same tempo again. They are therefore playing notes at exactly the same time, but they are not the same notes, as they were at the start of the piece. The process is repeated, so that the second pianist plays the third note as the first pianist is playing the first, then the fourth, and so on until the process has gone full circle, and the two pianists are playing in perfect unison again. The second pianist then fades out, leaving the first playing the original 12 note melody. They then seamlessly change to a similar melody made up of 8 notes. The second piano fades in again, only this time playing a different 8 note melody at the same time. The phasing then begins again. After the full eight cycles have gone through, the first pianist fades out, leaving one 8 note melody playing. After a few repetitions, the pianist then takes out the first 4 notes of the melody and the first pianist fades in unison. They phase through the now four cycles, and finish after returning in unison. The music is made up, therefore, of nothing more than the results of applying the phasing process to the initial twelve-note melody - as such, it is a piece of process music. The piece is played by two pianists without breaks at any stage. A typical performance may last around fifteen to twenty minutes. Reich later made a version for two marimbas. Reich further developed this technique in pieces like Violin Phase (also 1967), Phase Patterns (1970), and Drumming (1971); this latter work marks his last use (so far) of the phasing technique.
José Maceda: Sujeichon
Based on well known and beloved Korean court music from the Silla Synasty (around 700 A.D.), Sujeichon was written at a time when Maceda was delving into the theoretical aspects of traditional musics in Asia, especially with regards to mathematics, physics, and language. It is built on the rhythmic cycle of 4, 4, 3, 3 beats maintained by the changgo drum part in the Korean ensemble, and played here by Piano IV (the one playing in the lowest register).
*Maceda performance materials made available through the courtesy of the Center for Ethnomusicology at the University of the Philippines
Meredith Monk: Ellis Island
In Ellis Island, the music of the two pianos makes one stream or overall texture. Energy passes back and forth between the two pianists, so the dynamics of the playing need to be balanced. Folkdance is robust and kinetic. The "hey's" are like calls, with the impulse for the vocal sound coming from the diaphragm. I originally composed Phantom Waltz for Ellen Fischer's dance-theater work Dream Within a Dream, inspired by the life and work of Edgar Allan Poe. It was used to accompany the part of her piece based on Poe's The Masque of the Red Death. I later developed it into a concert form. The bitonality in Phantom Waltz sets up a tension between the dancing motion and the sense of hovering doom.
Fred Frith: Impur (piano version)
Impur was originally composed and performed during a residency at l'Ecole Nationale de Musique in Villeurbanne, France in 1996. The first hour of the piece consisted of an occupation of every room in the school by groups and soloists of all persuasions—chamber ensembles, jazz combos, African drumming ensembles, rock guitar players, Indian percussionists, clarinet consorts, and especially, given the unique characteristics of a music school, a large number of pianists. The musicians had stopwatches, and a score that consisted of pieces and fragments of pieces written especially for each group, and indications of precisely when they could begin to play, and for how long. Some of the musicians were improvisers, but they also had strict limitations as to when and for how long they could perform. The audience was free to circulate along the corridors and stairs, or, even better, to sit outside in the courtyard listening to the music through the open windows.
Recently I released the recording of this performance on CD, and had occasion to remember with great fondness the sound of multiple pianos suddenly playing the same piece without being able to hear each other. Today's version of Impur is a development of this idea, and, since it clearly owes something to both Feldman and Reich, its inclusion in this program can be taken as an hommage.
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