Newsletter Quarta Corda
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Quarta Corda Year IX n.1 - february 2006 - Genoa for Paganini - Premio Paganini 2006 - Let me introduce you... Azio Corghi - Pleased to meet you... Syncopations - Q&A Volker Biesenbender - Paganiniana 2005: give youth a chance! - "I voli di Niccolò" by Luca Francesconi - The Paganini for Paganini: Q&A Carla Magnan - After the Premio - Download Quarta Corda Pdf Format (4 Mb) |
Pleased to meet you... Syncopations*
*Work for solo violin (duration 8') commissioned by Artistic Committee of the International Violin Competition "Premio Paganini" Genoa - 2006 Edition to be published by Casa Ricordi, Milan.
Two questions motivate the abstract speculative play of this work:
1st: is it possible to reverse the terms of the classic transcription that takes its cue from Paganinian violin virtuosity and eventually influences the "corporealpianistic" technique of Liszt (a transcendental technique that places the music within a theatrical space)?
2nd: can there be a point of encounter between musical works that belong to different genres and are opposed in conception?
I have tried to answer these questions by probing the purely musical materials that make up two pieces written for the piano - Nuages gris (1881) by Franz Liszt and Elite Syncopations (1902) by Scott Joplin - in the (absurd, yet absorbing) attempt to find a solution through the use of the "corporealviolinistic" technique of Paganini (here I apply the preceding Lisztian definition).
The first piece is an "andante" that oscillates between intervallic movements of an expressionistic flavour and timbral colours of an impressionistic quality. The second is a "rag", danceable yet "sweet", characterized by thematic cells of Chopinian derivation (featuring the characteristic initial leap of a major sixth). In terms of key, the minor mode of Nuages contrasts with the major of Elite.
From the harmonic point of view, the extreme chromaticism of late Liszt is only apparently reflected in the chromatic sliding of Joplin, while the melodic motives in both compositions are generated by arpeggiated chords. Instead, a genuine point of encounter lies in the principle of syncopated rhythm (hence the title): here the figures "by augmentation" of Nuages (e.g. bars 3-4) are opposed to those "by diminution" of Elite (e.g. bars 21-22). They are figures that generate a mosaic of fitted pieces within alternating agogic-dynamic permutations. A result is the "dialectic" aspect of an unusual violin notation that unfolds on two staves (as already anticipated by Paganini in his Duo Merveille) both to separate the technique of the bow from that of pizzicato and to emphasize the differences between the materials cited.
Azio Corghi
(translated by Hugh Ward-Perkins)