I liked the sense of two melodies playing at the same time, coming from one instrument. The only part that I didn’t like so much was the dissonance from around :45-1:15. But that could just be my love of things that sound “nice” as I am not a composer or anything.
Hey Brian, thanks for your thought! I’m impressed you only heard dissonance from :45-1:15, since the whole thing is pretty conventionally “dissonant.” I think it’s because there’s less emphasis on a discernible melody in that section than what comes before and after it - between is more of a contrapuntal mush of melodies. But you need the contrast to feel like you’ve gotten somewhere at 1:15, I think.
I heard this piece perofmred in Long island at the North Shore Pro Musica concert– where Nissim gave a pre-concert talk about it to the roomfull of people more used to baroque music than, well, what Nissim had to offer. I think the talk helped them listen to the piece better. What I liked about the talk was that Tami played samples of the “theme” so that when I actually heard the piece, I had something to latch on to. I very much enjoy the mix of the sound of the instrument, with the frankly incongrouous notes coming out of it– The harpsichord textrue is so linked with a certain kind of music that it’s jarring, in a good way, to hear other kinds of music performed on it. I like that this is the first of what might be several pieces to be written for “old” instruments!
I liked the sense of two melodies playing at the same time, coming from one instrument. The only part that I didn’t like so much was the dissonance from around :45-1:15. But that could just be my love of things that sound “nice” as I am not a composer or anything.
Comment by Brian Irwin — July 1, 2007 @ 1:07 pm
Hey Brian, thanks for your thought! I’m impressed you only heard dissonance from :45-1:15, since the whole thing is pretty conventionally “dissonant.” I think it’s because there’s less emphasis on a discernible melody in that section than what comes before and after it - between is more of a contrapuntal mush of melodies. But you need the contrast to feel like you’ve gotten somewhere at 1:15, I think.
Comment by nissim — July 2, 2007 @ 3:13 pm
I heard this piece perofmred in Long island at the North Shore Pro Musica concert– where Nissim gave a pre-concert talk about it to the roomfull of people more used to baroque music than, well, what Nissim had to offer. I think the talk helped them listen to the piece better. What I liked about the talk was that Tami played samples of the “theme” so that when I actually heard the piece, I had something to latch on to. I very much enjoy the mix of the sound of the instrument, with the frankly incongrouous notes coming out of it– The harpsichord textrue is so linked with a certain kind of music that it’s jarring, in a good way, to hear other kinds of music performed on it. I like that this is the first of what might be several pieces to be written for “old” instruments!
Comment by Sarah — August 11, 2007 @ 10:37 pm
Dude. I really dig this.
Comment by Jenny — October 22, 2007 @ 8:34 pm