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Eine Kleine Klangfarben Gigue (1975) |
for any group of instruments and keyboard - 10'-15'
The implicit harmonies and melodic lines in Bach's music are always the subject of the earnest teacher prodding the reluctant student. Klangfarben-melodie ("sound, colour, melody") is a term coined by Arnold Schoenberg around 1911 to denote a series of tone colours (right down to single pitches) which he treated as a structural element equally important as melody and harmony. The first four bars of the Gigue from Bach's Partita No. 1 are looped to provide the performers with the opportunity of not only "colouring" the old lines but creating new ones from the implicit melodic material. Implied harmonies are filled out in "sonic techicolour". Eine Kleine Klangfarben Gigue was inspired by some of work of American composer Philip Corner and from a group of my own works like Quintet and Trio which are based on famous 18th and 19th century works. Eine Kleine Klangfarben Gigue developed in the early 1970s first as a workshop piece for educational projects but since that time has most frequently been performed as a concert work.
Notes © 1998 Stephen Montague