It’s been difficult to sit down and write anything over Christmas, but I have finished drafting the 5th serial miniature for piano. One to go now to complete the set!
This one came from studying the introduction to Schoenberg’s Variations for Orchestra (Op 31). In this he uses two versions of the tone row, PO and I9. They are interesting because the first half (tetrachord) of the tone row of P0 contains the same notes as the second tetrachord of I9, and, consequently, vice-versa.
I decided to look at the series I created and find out whether there is a variation of that that works in the same way. I found that I1 does this. Like Schoenberg, I combined the first tetrachords of P0 and I1 and the second tetrachords of the two rows to create the piece. Interestingly what this does is effectively mean that I am working with P0, but divided into two halves. It makes for interesting harmonic treatment.
I decided to take another idea from Schoenberg’s introduction and use triplets and repetitions, rather than slavishly moving from one note in the series to the next. There are three main ideas: a trill, a chord played horizontally in a triplet, and a faster triplet passage. I was feeling quite frustrated and angry at the time and wanted this to come across, which I think it does.
Some of the writing (particularly the last two bars), would be difficult to play, but I would be interested to hear from any pianist that wants to give it go. The score can be found below. I have included the version with the notes on about which series is being used at which point. A clean version is also available. Please just ask if you wouild like to have a copy. I also found this one easier to write using Sibelius rather than with manuscript paper, though the main ideas were sketched out on manuscript. That is interesting as it means I don’t have a record of the development of my thinking . . .
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