New Music USA Online Library

Twelve Concert Etudes

Lawrence Kramer

This collection of twelve Etudes--the number fixed by Liszt, Chopin, and Debussy—
enlarges on the traditional idea of finding expressive potential in what seems like an exercise in technique. Many of the pieces are based on qualities not usually considered elements of form--rests, harmonics, repercussions, textures. Half are given the title "Phantom Etudes" because their music inheres as much or more in what their sounds leave behind--their "aftersounds"--as it does in the sounds themselves. Sounds fading, lingering, or accumulating, sounds veiling or unveiling
other sounds, sounds impinging on or dropping away from other sounds, all form a running counterpoint to the presence of "positive" notes and phrases. The "negative" sonorities produce a kind of shadow music that lingers alongside the positive sounds, envelops them, and changes their character.

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