Etude Retrospectif
This piece has a strange start. In the beginning, it was a
piano/keyboard sequence, consisting of a number of fast 16th notes,
with a simple
rising scale underneath. It stayed in my head in different forms, but
it would not turn into a piece.
A couple of years later, I went back to
it, and suddenly there was a structure. All the fast notes were, in
fact, a sub-voice in a choral-like episode! Now it was easy to complete
the piece, starting out with the sequence, and gradually introducing
parts of the choral as the 16th note theme is progressing. A
disturbing element enters the scene, and afterwards the choral is
played through with the fast notes accompanying in a middle voice. The
piece ends with a variation of the initial sequence, that, so
to say, get's the last word.
During the whole piece, tempo is slowly but
surely accelerated throughout the piece. Tonally, it is very classical
in terms of harmony, but there are a number of harmonic shifts that are
all but classical. It could be used as a move your
fingers
(and feet..)
study before working with something like Toccata
by Charles
Widor.
The classical version is for church organ, and just for fun (and
as tribute to the original keyboard sequence), I created a
synthesizer version. Link here (opens in new tab)
The Finale music notation program simulations (that are used for most of the excerpts), are far from perfect. I could have used recordings from an actual performance, but the simulations provide a "neutral" interpretation, and together with the score, they give a fairly relevant picture of the music in question.