Gran Cacerolazo
Paul Desenne
About this work:
GRAN CACEROLAZO (2010)
For piano, strings and percussion
Street demonstrations have been our weekly or even daily fare in Venezuela, marching, banging on pots and cans, or shouting out slogans on both sides of the political divide. There is something childish and invasive about the idea of protesting with rhythmic noise, and after a while here, one can barely think without putting everything into a throbbing binary pulse. Once the layers of subdivisions, disruptions, syncopations, and fantasies begin to develop, the sounds of a walking crowd can become an interesting theme for a concert piece, even if the core is the silly, constant beat of a spoon on a pot. Afro-Venezuelan culture has always used antiphonal forms of rhythmic singing and hand clapping, and this is perhaps the source of our tendency to put everything spoken into rhythms. This is expressed in the buildups and phase dislocations that make up an important part of Gran Cacerolazo – its form has no clear recurrent theme, therefore no return to its origins, no cycles of memory, only a constant progression through various textures under a steady, constant pulse representing the unending present. This pulse is connected to various musical references: the raw, throbbing motives of a riot reappear occasionally, but are covered quickly with Caribbean musical forms – salsa, Dominican merengue – and even the debris of disco music or ragtime, forming an extremely vigorous patchwork of complaining, dancing, and banging. The piano glides through these passing musical forms and brief roles, becoming a metallic polyrhythmic tin can instrument, then suddenly exploring registers of huge velocity and very tight syncopation. The strings and percussion provide the collective rhythmic backdrop to several of the buildups, but the orchestra also brings a decisive, thematic element that shifts the whole climate of the piece at various points. A few concessions to the concertante form are present, in spite of the rhythmically saturated, streaming character of the piece: a relatively structured introductory phrase that puts things in motion; a central relaxation with an open space for solo piano improvisation; and a final dancing salsa phrase that ends the movement with panache.
Paul Desenne
Year composed: 2010
Duration: 12:00:80
Ensemble type: Orchestra:String Orchestra with Soloist(s)
Instrumentation: 1 Percussion (General), 1 Piano