2018: from "In the Land of the 3 & the 2" for solo piano
These six pieces were in fact my final compositions for my MMus degree. This is what I wrote for the assessors – it may be too long…
In many ways this is an autobiographical collection; I was born in the Caribbean, grew up in England and now reside in Australia. The on-going interaction and collision of the 3 and the 2 - two profoundly different units - resonates strongly with me literally, musically and metaphorically. I have written before that much of my professional work has ultimately been about the same subject: when one moves from one place to another – in the migratory sense – what is brought forward and what is left behind? I think I have been asking that question all my adult and artistic life, so this collection sits firmly in that arena. Calypso, the music of my birth country – Trinidad – is based on the 12312312 rhythm, in England as a young child it was the music of my home life. Away from home, the classical music I knew of in my youth was either in strict 3 or 4 time. This was the music I was led to believe I should aspire to and the religious strictness of musical time was a sought after pinnacle. However, as a “child of the sixties” I was hugely influenced by the blues and later, playing guitar in many blues/jazz bands, I was always challenged to “feel” a rhythm that was somewhere between the uprightness of 2 or 3 and arrive at the magical land of the “groove”. Later still, I learned of music from places like Haiti, Cuba and much of West Africa – particularly Ghana – that brought me to the hemiola rhythm produced when the two numbers overlap:
1 2 3 1 2 3
1 2 1 2
It is with all this in mind that I approached these compositions. As such they are mainly ‘studies’ but I think, on reflection, that they point to a new course for my compositions and I have already begun thinking of a new series of piano pieces, this time for public performance.
NOTES & SHEET MUSIC
1 The Lop-Sided Waltz
This is very much influenced by Ligeti’s ridiculously difficult Desordre, from his 1st Piano Etudes. The LH is in a different time signature to the RH – one in four and the other three. Later, the piece moves into five-four time – another 3-2 variant. Aside from these technicalities, the whole piece reminds me of old Venezuelan tunes from my childhood. View sheet music.
2 Fugalypso
This does what it says in the title – it’s a sort of fugue based on a calypso melody and rhythm. The “3 & 2” collision is emphasised by lots of intervals of major and minor 2nds and 3rds, triplets against fours and six against four. View sheet music.
3 Glad Rag Sad Rag
This swing-time Rag is really two rags in one; a Sad Rag clad inside two Glad Rags….View sheet music.
4 Just Below the Surface
There is a beach in Tobago called Nylon Pool, where the water is still and idyllic as anywhere in the world. The main theme of this very simple tune describes that very place; it could almost be from a tourist advertisement. However, just below the surface of any Caribbean Island are the ghost voices of its African heritage; and this is a gentle reminder of that. View sheet music.
5 Yanvalou
Many years ago I had the privilege of spending some time in Haiti studying the music of Vodou, a much maligned but highly sophisticated and complex religion. Its music reflects this complexity and in this piece I’ve used the Yanvalou rhythm associated with the Rada deity as a starting point. The rhythms bring to the front the tensions between the 3 and the 2. View sheet music.
6 Djouba
Djouba is another Rada deity from Haiti; this piece plays with the perception of where the first beat is; a particular style common in much Haitian percussion. View sheet music.