{"id":448,"date":"2016-01-13T16:08:58","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T22:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/?page_id=448"},"modified":"2016-01-13T16:09:39","modified_gmt":"2016-01-13T22:09:39","slug":"sebastian-currier-scarlatti-cadences-and-brainstorm-2005","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/sebastian-currier-scarlatti-cadences-and-brainstorm-2005\/","title":{"rendered":"Sebastian Currier, \u201cScarlatti Cadences and Brainstorm\u201d (2005)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen<\/a>
\n<\/a>There’s a curious contrast of two pieces here. The second, \u201cBrainstorm,\u201d is almost a perpetuum mobile of rapid sixteenths in both hands, punctuated by loud chords. It echoes, and emulates, the \u201cDanse Sacrale\u201d from the Rite of Spring<\/i>: measures in 13\/16, 11\/16, 4\/8, 5\/8, etc. But Currier’s emulation is dry and formalist: the harmonic density of Stravinsky’s work is absent, and the \u201csavage\u201d syncopations are flattened into rushing sixteenths. It’s almost like a rhythmic abstraction from Stravinsky’s piece.<\/p>\n

\"ScreenThe first half of this, \u201cScarlatti Cadences,\u201d is in A:B:A form, beginning and ending with slow passages (quarter note = 48) that quote and elaborate on actual figures in Scarlatti. They aren’t all final cadences, but parts of sequences, and cadences leading to caesuras. Currier collages them together, and adds grace notes high on the keyboard, which Scarlatti never would have done. The result is a kind of tour of plaintive, minor, and unresolved moments in Scarlatti. The middle, B section is a fierce allegro section (dotted quarter note = 120) in 6:8, which develops some simple sequences and chords into a kind of mad schizophrenic Scarlatti improvisation. It plays with Scarlatti’s jumps, including some very postmodern leaps up and down the keyboard, and Scarlatti’s cluster chords, and it doesn’t resolve or slow at all–it just suddenly gives way to the closing section. Like the \u201cBrainstorm,\u201d it creates an odd effect, as if Scarlatti and Stravinsky were put through a minimalist algorithm, stripping them of forward momentum and harmony and leaving their energy and poignance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ScreenThe most interesting thing is the odd contrast between the structures and allusions of the two parts of the piece. There is no easy way to describe the effect or intention of the contrast, except that it feels intentional (it does not feel like a fortuitous or flippant juxtaposition).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Screen\u00a0\u201cBrainstorm\u201d is a sort of short-circuited version of the middle section of \u201cScarlatti Cadences\u201d: it\u2019s what would happen if that already frenetic part of what we\u2019re asked to think of as Scarlatti\u2019s imagination became even wilder.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a curious contrast of two pieces here. The second, \u201cBrainstorm,\u201d is almost a perpetuum mobile of rapid sixteenths in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/448"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450,"href":"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/448\/revisions\/450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jameselkins.com\/pianofiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}