Two Concert Etudes for Solo Piano
Justin Dello Joio
About this work:
1) Momentum
2) A Farewell
These etudes are written in the traditional sense of a technical etude, but the virtuosity and dexterity required to play them, is nonetheless, subservient to the musical ideas.
Momentum, as the title suggests, concerns thrust, motion, and the release of energy. It begins with a brief introductory section that has 2 musical gestures. The first is reminiscent of a ball hurled with great force, that begins to bounce, first slowly and then with ever increasing speed. The declarative opening pitch is repeated, slowly at first, and it starts to accelerate and create tension. The resulting energy is released into a second gesture, an arpeggiated figure.
This figure quickly breaks off, and the repeated note gesture returns. The static texture is once again built up, and like an engine revving in neutral, the tension creates the forward thrust that is then released into the main body of the etude. The musical materials of these 2 gestures is reformed into music of increasing and lessening momentum. The materials are explored so that phrases of symmetric rhythm are juxtaposed next to asymmetric phrases, formed in bars of increasing or decreasing meters. (i.e. bars in 2/4, or 4/4, followed by 13/16, 12/16, 11/16, 10/16 etc; or the reverse pattern)
A Farewell was written in memory of a very dear friend, a Danish opera and film star, Poul Bundgaard, I hoped to capture the sense of loss, inner stillness, and the finality of parting. The varying degrees and shades of pianissimo provide one of the more challenging aspects of piano technique, and therein is the technical challenge of this etude.
Year composed: 2001
Duration: 00:10:39
Ensemble type: Keyboard
Instrumentation: 1 Piano