Navy Seals: Segment #2

Written in response to a contemporary art exhibition by a local artist in Sheffield.

One particular exhibit drew my attention as it contained a partially-obscured piano score. On closer inspection the music turned out to be a segment from a well-know piano study on step-wise contrary motion.

The piece in question is here: http://www.lizvongraevenitz.co.uk/portfolio-item/the-universe-music-and-me-4

I'm particularly interested in "found art" and partially-revealed source material, so it wasn't long before I had transferred the piano lines to my score paper and began to build a piece around them.

There are two sections. In the first, violins and cellos pluck their way through the contrary motion material from the original piano exercise, whilst a wind trio attempt to perform homophonic statements of the classical V7-I cadence. The wind section are unable to produce meaningful harmonic cadences because a pointillistic convention has been imposed. Undeterred, they travel around the circle of fifths, attempting a cadence at each step. Where parts of the piano score are obscured (by sections of a printed circuit board), a synthesiser plays a "sample and hold" line. This is technology's naive and misguided attempt to decorate the wind cadences with a coloratura line.

In the second section, the wind trio are granted space to conclude their cadential statements and complete their journey around the circle of fifths. The final cadence (E7-A) is celebrated by a flatulent trombone, swanee whistle, and percussion. It's only now that the piano feels it can make its contribution, which it does by proudly announcing a broken major chord. Unfortunately, this confident, vulgar statement is mis-timed and not welcome, so its left to the percussion section to cut it short and introduce the closing section. For the close, the ensemble present a contradiction in terms - a pointillistic tutti, followed by a successful tonic-dominant cadence from the string section.

Top To Bottom

Piano and Synthesizer improvisations over patterns and harmonies derived from the number seven.

Instruments:

Yamaha Piano
Roland Juno Synthesizer
ARP Solina
Yamaha CS80 Synthesizer
Moog Synthesizer

After Est.