song without words (1975)
for cello and piano
Dedicated to Kálmán Richter
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Score and instrumental part BDE 1017 published with Connectivity
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Duration: 6 minutes
CD Recording
Recorded by Friedrich Gauwerky (violoncello) and Daan Vandewalle (piano) on Wergo CD: WER 736 12
Première
First performance: 25 September 1977; Market Theatre, Johannesburg; Kálmán Richter cello, Michael Blake piano
Further performances: 18.12.2016; Kunstsalon-Gelbevilla, Hürth, Germany; Friedrich Gauwerky cello, Daan Vandewalle piano (European première)
Programme note
song without words for cello and piano was one of several pieces I wrote in 1975, imagined as a response of sorts to Mauricio Kagel's "Programm: Gespräche mit Kammermusik". Notable about the pieces was a deliberate absence of musical substance, the use of collage technique, a return to tonality, and so on.
song without words takes piano pieces by Mendelssohn, and recycles the material without one essential element - the melody. They become songs not only without words, but without melodies too, in this case Mendelssohn's sentimental tunes. The remaining accompaniments are deconstructed and recycled into frequently changing harmonic and rhythmic patterns, with fragmentary quotations - diary-like - from the contemporary cello and piano repertoire which I was often performing myself at the time. (The same year I wrote warhorses for guitar and tape, but further pieces in my possible cycle of "Conversations with Chamber Music" never materialised.)
for cello and piano
Dedicated to Kálmán Richter
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Score and instrumental part BDE 1017 published with Connectivity
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Duration: 6 minutes
CD Recording
Recorded by Friedrich Gauwerky (violoncello) and Daan Vandewalle (piano) on Wergo CD: WER 736 12
Première
First performance: 25 September 1977; Market Theatre, Johannesburg; Kálmán Richter cello, Michael Blake piano
Further performances: 18.12.2016; Kunstsalon-Gelbevilla, Hürth, Germany; Friedrich Gauwerky cello, Daan Vandewalle piano (European première)
Programme note
song without words for cello and piano was one of several pieces I wrote in 1975, imagined as a response of sorts to Mauricio Kagel's "Programm: Gespräche mit Kammermusik". Notable about the pieces was a deliberate absence of musical substance, the use of collage technique, a return to tonality, and so on.
song without words takes piano pieces by Mendelssohn, and recycles the material without one essential element - the melody. They become songs not only without words, but without melodies too, in this case Mendelssohn's sentimental tunes. The remaining accompaniments are deconstructed and recycled into frequently changing harmonic and rhythmic patterns, with fragmentary quotations - diary-like - from the contemporary cello and piano repertoire which I was often performing myself at the time. (The same year I wrote warhorses for guitar and tape, but further pieces in my possible cycle of "Conversations with Chamber Music" never materialised.)
