FRANK STEMPER, COMPOSER
Four Piano Pieces (1976)
for solo piano [5 mins.]
Premiered 9 May 1977 by Diane Guernsey at SUNY - Stony Brook.
50+ subsequent performances by various pianists in the United States, Mexico, Europe, UK, etc.
Opus 1 — A.S.C.A.P. work I.D. 36024066
SCORE
50+ subsequent performances by various pianists in the United States, Mexico, Europe, UK, etc.
Opus 1 — A.S.C.A.P. work I.D. 36024066
SCORE
NOTES
FOUR PIANO PIECES (1976)
Music in its smallest form can be very visual. These four pieces are approximately a minute each, and, at that length, can be swallowed in a single gulp. So, unlike longer pieces of music, the beginning of a very small composition is still fresh in our memory as we hear each piece’s conclusion. We can more easily make sense of the whole, or translate it, or whatever we do when we digest music.
As a student in New York, this piece was a breakthrough for me. I had been searching for many years for my language. I swept through pop and jazz as a kid, that, while certainly part of the esthetic, the repetitive nature of both the theme and form seemed repetitiveand then, while still a teenager, I heard Beethoven for the first time, and immediately transformed my musical goals to the grander and through-composed esthetic of so called “serious” “art” music. Beethoven was a novel rather than a jingle. It had nooks and crannies, and everything fit together perfectly and beautifully. So did Chopin, Mozart, Bach, Liszt, et al.
FOUR PIANO PIECES (1976)
Music in its smallest form can be very visual. These four pieces are approximately a minute each, and, at that length, can be swallowed in a single gulp. So, unlike longer pieces of music, the beginning of a very small composition is still fresh in our memory as we hear each piece’s conclusion. We can more easily make sense of the whole, or translate it, or whatever we do when we digest music.
As a student in New York, this piece was a breakthrough for me. I had been searching for many years for my language. I swept through pop and jazz as a kid, that, while certainly part of the esthetic, the repetitive nature of both the theme and form seemed repetitiveand then, while still a teenager, I heard Beethoven for the first time, and immediately transformed my musical goals to the grander and through-composed esthetic of so called “serious” “art” music. Beethoven was a novel rather than a jingle. It had nooks and crannies, and everything fit together perfectly and beautifully. So did Chopin, Mozart, Bach, Liszt, et al.
PRESS NOTICE
FOUR PIANO PIECES
—performed by Junghwa Lee
"Quite the antipodes is the opening of Four Piano Pieces. The mood of first piece is far removed from that of Global Warning, and opens so quietly, one wonders if the composer’s aim was to effect a trance-like state in the auditor. However, the second movement begins to introduce some flights of virtuosity into the flow of subdued notes, eventually reaching a fortissimo zenith in the powerful chords present in the third move- ment. The arch, if indeed the composer considers it as such, is completed in the subtly evocative and gentle concluding movement. Written in 1976, this work is the earliest in Stemper’s official catalog, and was writ- ten under the guidance of David Lewin, mentioned above."
David DeBoor Canfield
Fanfare vol. 39, No. 1 2015
FOUR PIANO PIECES
—performed by Junghwa Lee
"Quite the antipodes is the opening of Four Piano Pieces. The mood of first piece is far removed from that of Global Warning, and opens so quietly, one wonders if the composer’s aim was to effect a trance-like state in the auditor. However, the second movement begins to introduce some flights of virtuosity into the flow of subdued notes, eventually reaching a fortissimo zenith in the powerful chords present in the third move- ment. The arch, if indeed the composer considers it as such, is completed in the subtly evocative and gentle concluding movement. Written in 1976, this work is the earliest in Stemper’s official catalog, and was writ- ten under the guidance of David Lewin, mentioned above."
David DeBoor Canfield
Fanfare vol. 39, No. 1 2015