FRANK STEMPER, COMPOSER
Six Short Piano Pieces (2006)
for solo piano [6 mins.]
for solo piano [6’]
Opus 57 — A.S.C.A.P. work I.D. 494575574
World Premiere by Junghwa Lee, Monash University, Clayton, AUSTRALIA
SCORE
Opus 57 — A.S.C.A.P. work I.D. 494575574
World Premiere by Junghwa Lee, Monash University, Clayton, AUSTRALIA
SCORE
NOTES
Six Short Piano Pieces (2006) are homage to the six piano pieces by Arnold Schönberg (Op. 19), which taught me so much about modern music. Arnie’s six gems, although teeny in duration, were huge in regard to the beginnings of atonality, pan-tonality, and serial music. But I also wrote these pieces as a revisiting of my first piece, Four Piano Pieces (1976), which were written directly after studying, learning, analyzing – devouring Arnie’s Op. 19. So on the 30th anniversary of those four pieces, I wrote six more as kind of a personal recapitulation. The titles were after-thoughts, and are written in the score at the end of each of these short pieces, like Claude’s (Debussy) Piano Preludes.
Six Short Piano Pieces (2006) are homage to the six piano pieces by Arnold Schönberg (Op. 19), which taught me so much about modern music. Arnie’s six gems, although teeny in duration, were huge in regard to the beginnings of atonality, pan-tonality, and serial music. But I also wrote these pieces as a revisiting of my first piece, Four Piano Pieces (1976), which were written directly after studying, learning, analyzing – devouring Arnie’s Op. 19. So on the 30th anniversary of those four pieces, I wrote six more as kind of a personal recapitulation. The titles were after-thoughts, and are written in the score at the end of each of these short pieces, like Claude’s (Debussy) Piano Preludes.
PRESS NOTICE
SIX SHORT PIANO PIECES
—performed by Junghwa Lee
"I’m thankful that Albany put in a good amount of space between (KLAVIERSTUCK I) and the following stylistically similar Six Short Piano Pieces, lest I confuse them in my mind. The latter are Stemper’s homage to the Six Short Piano Pieces that comprise Schoenberg’s opus 19. Now, if you’ve read this issue of Fanfare in order, you’re thinking, wasn’t there another review of a work written in homage to that same piece? Yes, you’re correct: My earlier review of a disc by Laurie Altman contained just such a tribute in the form of his Fanta- sy. So, what are the odds of that happening! In Stemper’s case, this tribute was written both because of the influence that the Schoenberg miniatures had upon his own musical development, and also his desire to mark a 30-year celebration of his own first official work, the Four Piano Pieces, reviewed above. Stemper is not seeking to imitate Schoenberg’s dodecaphonic style, but the influence of the seminal Austrian com- poser is not hard to detect in these brief pieces. As in most of the previous pieces, sudden virtuosic figures appear out of nowhere, almost like lightning bolts in a black sky."
David DeBoor Canfield
Fanfare vol. 39, No. 1 2015
SIX SHORT PIANO PIECES
—performed by Junghwa Lee
"I’m thankful that Albany put in a good amount of space between (KLAVIERSTUCK I) and the following stylistically similar Six Short Piano Pieces, lest I confuse them in my mind. The latter are Stemper’s homage to the Six Short Piano Pieces that comprise Schoenberg’s opus 19. Now, if you’ve read this issue of Fanfare in order, you’re thinking, wasn’t there another review of a work written in homage to that same piece? Yes, you’re correct: My earlier review of a disc by Laurie Altman contained just such a tribute in the form of his Fanta- sy. So, what are the odds of that happening! In Stemper’s case, this tribute was written both because of the influence that the Schoenberg miniatures had upon his own musical development, and also his desire to mark a 30-year celebration of his own first official work, the Four Piano Pieces, reviewed above. Stemper is not seeking to imitate Schoenberg’s dodecaphonic style, but the influence of the seminal Austrian com- poser is not hard to detect in these brief pieces. As in most of the previous pieces, sudden virtuosic figures appear out of nowhere, almost like lightning bolts in a black sky."
David DeBoor Canfield
Fanfare vol. 39, No. 1 2015