|
Mirabella - A Tarantella for Toy Piano (1995) |
toy piano - 3'
Commissioned by Margaret Leng Tan, New York City, 1995. First performance: Taktlos Festival 96, Kultur Werkstatt Kaserne, Basel, Switzerland, 28 March, 1996, Margaret Leng Tan, toy pianist. A second performance during the same festival was given at Rote Fabrik, Zurich, Switzerland on the 31 March, 1996. In 1995 Margaret Leng Tan asked me to write a new work for a European tour she was doing with a programme of toy piano pieces. I was intrigued by the idea and always liked a challenge. I had of course never written for a toy piano (which is one of those instruments if mentioned at all in music encyclopaedic sources was usually categorised as "exotic" or "rarely used"). I knew John Cage's Suite for toy piano from 1948 but beyond that it was not the sort of instrument a composer often encounters. Its sound, however, once heard, is never forgotten. I instantly remembered its unique timbre - the tinkling chime bars and thumping keyboard which conjured up in me an array of fleeting images from my old toys in the attic to spooky movies with dolls that slowly animate after midnight. As I sat down to begin work on the piece I soon realised I didn't know much about the instrument- the range, dynamic possibilities or how fast or slowly the keyboard responded. It was obvious I needed to do a little research, so I bought a small toy piano and tried it out. I was once again charmed by its innocent and imperfect, clangourous sound. What also became immediately apparent was that the new piece needed to be short and played at a tempo that would give the little chime bars time to "breathe" and ring. A tarantella soon developed. The dance starts in the traditional 6/8 tempo moderato. The pace gradually quickens 'til it runs out of breath and collapses with a thud at the end.
© Stephen Montague