Incitation to Desire (Tango)
Chester Biscardi
About this work:
Incitation to Desire (Tango), for clarinet, horn (or viola), violin, violoncello, percussion and piano (1984/1993) (Originally written as a solo piano work and published by Quadrivium Music Press as part of the International Tango Collection.) Commissioned by the Skaneateles Festival and dedicated to Robert Weirich and Lindsay Groves.
Published: C. F. Peters: Score: Edition Peters No. P67596a; Set of Parts: Edition Peters No. P67596aa
Original piano version recorded: Chester Biscardi • At the Still Point, CRI CD 686 (Anthony de Mare); Gay American Composers, CRI CD 721 (Anthony de Mare); Incitation to Desire, New Albion NA073CD (Yvar Mikhashoff); Tango Diablo!, Sept Jardins Records SJCD-1910 (Louise Bessette); Music By My Friends, Albany Records TROY695-96 (Bennett Lerner); Videocassette: 88 Tangos, March 1, 1986, (Yvar Mikhashoff, piano; Jeff Fontaine, lighting), Dance Theater Workshop and Composers’ Forum; Nominated in the Best Instrumental Performance Category, 2nd Annual Gay/Lesbian American Music Awards (GLAMA), 1998, for Incitation to Desire (Tango), for piano (1984), performed by Anthony de Mare on Gay American Composers (CRI CD 721).
Incitation to Desire (Tango), for clarinet, horn (or viola), violin, violoncello, percussion and piano (1984/1993), was originally written as a solo piano work (Edition Peters No. 67596b) for Yvar Mikhashoff who first performed it at the North American New Music Festival in Buffalo on April 14, 1985 and whose recording of it appears on a New Albion release in 1995. A version for solo marimba, commissioned by Makoto Nakura, was first performed in Kyoto on June 11, 2006. It was originally published by Quadrivium Music Press as part of the International Tango Collection which included 88 composers as varied as John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Virgil Thomson. The Skaneateles Festival commissioned this version which was premiered on September 3, 1993 and is dedicated to pianist Robert Weirich and ‘cellist Lindsay Groves. It is in one short movement starting with a brief, flashy introduction, then the tango itself entitled “In the style of a tango-canción” (originally a vocal form with instrumental accompaniment and strong sentimental character) with abstracted characteristic habanera rhythmic patterns in 2/4 meter and sentimental melody, and then a brief, driving coda.
This chamber version explores the possibilities of the sensuousness of timbre especially in the combination of violin, ‘cello, clarinet and horn and the resulting dialogues between them - like the ”duets” between violin and clarinet, horn and ‘cello, the interweaving an exchange of “partners,” and so on. The percussion and piano give depth to the harmony, heighten the rhythmic drive, and articulate particular colors. The title comes from H. C. Colles’ “Tango” entry in the Fifth Volume of the 1944 Third Edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians: “The movements of the dance are less presentable to a polite audience than those of the Habanera, and as now performed in the cafés chantants of Madrid and other cities of Spain the Tango has become nothing but an incitation to desire.”
Version: chamber version
Year composed: 1984
Duration: 00:04:00
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Other Combinations, 6-9 players
Instrumentation: 1 Clarinet, 1 Horn in F, 1 Percussion (General), 1 Piano, 1 Violin, 1 Cello
Instrumentation notes: Viola may substitute for Horn;
Percussion: Vibraphone and Glockenspiel