# A new piece for harpsichord



## juergen

Hi there,

I bother you again with a piece for harpsichord (for two harpsichords, to be exact):

2Clavicembali - energico e passionato

If you want to give a feedback, I would be particularly interested in your opinion about the end of the piece (the last minute). I made some experiments with chromatism there, but maybe it sounds a bit too weird. The range of opinions I've heard about it ranges from "unbearable chaotic" to "great, reminds me of something from Zappa's Jazz from Hell".


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## tdc

I enjoyed this piece, it felt well written. In my opinion in places it could've benefited from a little more use of dissonance and perhaps a little more rhythmic complexity. There was a section from around 3:30 - 4:23 that I really liked, more specifically at about 3:52 it feels like an interesting idea is happening that could've been expanded on more, perhaps a slower more abstract section to the piece could be added here. The ending I thought sounded all right, it could maybe be 'cleaned up' a little, but I thought there were some good sonorities going on there.


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## juergen

Thanks tdc for the feedback,

that's very interesting that you liked the section between 3:30 and 4:23. In fact it was originally a bit longer and I shortened it as I thought it might be boring. Sometimes people say I stretch some sections too long. But adding a slower section there is probably a good idea.

Yes, the end likely need to be thinned out somewhat. Maybe it's also a bit difficult to perform, as it is now. I'll see when I write the score.

Thanks again for listening.


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## tdc

juergen said:


> that's very interesting that you liked the section between 3:30 and 4:23. In fact it was originally a bit longer and I shortened it as I thought it might be boring. Sometimes people say I stretch some sections too long. But adding a slower section there is probably a good idea.


That's interesting! That section really intrigued me, and I thought had a lot of potential to be expanded further. I think this work could easily be made into 3 movements. At around 3:52 I see the potential for an interesting slower section inserted somewhat similar to what Ravel does when he makes things a little more 'blurry' and abstract in the middle section (until the end) of the piece 'Alborado Del Gracioso' from _Miroirs_. Something in that 'feel' but done with 2 harpsichords I think would sound just fantastic, and I haven't come across anything like that in this format before. Just my 2 cents, it is of course your composition!


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## Head_case

juergen said:


> Hi there,
> 
> I bother you again with a piece for harpsichord (for two harpsichords, to be exact):
> 
> 2Clavicembali - energico e passionato
> 
> If you want to give a feedback, I would be particularly interested in your opinion about the end of the piece (the last minute). I made some experiments with chromatism there, but maybe it sounds a bit too weird. The range of opinions I've heard about it ranges from "unbearable chaotic" to "great, reminds me of something from Zappa's Jazz from Hell".


Oh my goodness  

You certainly are no amateur writer for the harpsichord. I found myself completely spellbound and entranced by this piece, throughout the piece. It's really very impressive. I can't imagine how wonderful it is to discover that there are non-dead writers for one of my favourite string instruments - to find such a refined and articulate contemporary writer for the harpischord here is a rare grace!

Upz with the harpsichord and down with pianos! :cheers: :cheers:

The overall feel of the piece has an exciting rhythmic drive - that pounding maelstrom of harpsichord heaven which Gorecki and Syzmanski's contemporary works have brought out, although the undertones of baroque, like Scarlatti's use of attention notes (more of a jazz thing I know but, I don't know classical harpsichord theory at all) in some of his sonatas, reworked this way really gives it a strongly neo-baroque flavour, as if it were like Scarlatti doing speed or maybe just opium as they would have in his century lol.

On a minor detail, on repeated listening, I'm breaking up the pieces into three distinct parts. The opening highly tensile frenetic right hand driving the higher sonorities in a dance like waveform really shock me as a listener into paying attention. The melodic grace of the rhythmic right hand is splendid here. Its' transformation of the opening material is very successful until it slows into a less frenetic hair raising pace by the second minute.

By around 3 minutes (2 minutes 50 second), the chord domination by the left hand recesses the rhythm as if it were beginning a completely new piece. The left hand carries an aggravated tension which bizarrely seems to lapse into a more comical mood by the end of the minute. Then the right hand rescues the main theme (that tensile highly strung freneticism which makes the piece so energetic and gothic). In this respect, I suppose there is a discontinuity within the piece. This discontinuity also resurfaces at the last minute which you've expressed reservations about; the opening thematic materials are lost by the finale and perhaps it felt a little like an anticlimax with little recall of the inital theme - that is, the resolution of the piece wasn't particularly forthcoming and felt like it had exhausted itself out of sheer energy, despite the remarkable energy of the piece, purging the listener throughout. I love the harpsichord playing of Landowska, Ruzicka and Knoblochova - I imagine that somehow, Ruzicka would fit with this kind of repertoire best.

Nevertheless, it's a brilliantly charged and exciting piece. I hope you write more like this, and certainly get a wider audience with your mastery of the harpsichord. Just from listening to your piece, it's clear you have a profound knowledge of the intricacies of this historical instrument, if not as a harpsichord player, as someone who is very comfortable articulating your emotional world with it.

Thanks for sharing


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## juergen

Thanks head_case for your elaborate review. I'm glad that you like the piece.



> Upz with the harpsichord and down with pianos!


I wouldn't rate the harpsichord higher than the piano, but it's true, it is a very underrated instrument. Most see it as a historical instrument that belongs to the baroque period and with which one can only make Baroque music. This is a pity, because you can make much more with it. The harpsichord can have a surprising richness of tone in the bass and with its metallic sound it can sound almost like an electric guitar. But unfortunately there are relatively few compositions that fully exploit this potential. That's also a reason, why I prefer to compose for the harpsichord, instead of the piano. I could perhaps also write some decent pieces for piano, but I feel, that it wouldn't make much sense. I probably could add nothing of any relevance to the already existing billions of piano pieces. In the field of the harpsichord things look quite different.



> In this respect, I suppose there is a discontinuity within the piece. This discontinuity also resurfaces at the last minute which you've expressed reservations about; the opening thematic materials are lost by the finale and perhaps it felt a little like an anticlimax with little recall of the inital theme - that is, the resolution of the piece wasn't particularly forthcoming and felt like it had exhausted itself out of sheer energy, despite the remarkable energy of the piece, purging the listener throughout.


I experimented a lot with the end. One of the possibilities was to bring back the opening theme, but ultimately that seemed to conservative. It would have resulted in something like a sonata form, but I wanted to try something different. Your comment that it sounds like "it had exhausted itself out of sheer energy" describes pretty much the intended effect. The end of the piece shall give the impression that the player simply is exhausted after all the fast runs he had to play and has no longer the power to play the right tones. So he beats wildly on the keyboard, throws the harpsichord down the stairs and says "enough is enough".

Thanks again for listening to the piece and for your kind words.


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## Head_case

> I wouldn't rate the harpsichord higher than the piano, but it's true, it is a very underrated instrument. Most see it as a historical instrument that belongs to the baroque period and with which one can only make Baroque music. This is a pity, because you can make much more with it. The harpsichord can have a surprising richness of tone in the bass and with its metallic sound it can sound almost like an electric guitar.


I think this reason approximates to the very reason as to why I would rate the harpsichord so much more highly.

Our consciousness of the piano and its sounds are everywhere .... such that hearing a contemporary piece on the harpsichord, is necessarily defamiliarising: it relocates the sphere of the listener in a space which is ambiguous; familiar perhaps with Bach's Well-Tempered Klavier, and somewhere with the striking modernity of the composition, to anneal fragments from different chronological epochs, into an aurally novel (original) experience.

You're spot on about the lack of compositions which exploit this potential. As a listener, I can find some contemporary music [BIS recordings] for solo harpsichord; Poulenc's Concerto Champetre; De Falla's Concerto; Martinu's Concerto; Frank Martin's, Gorecki's fabulous masterpiece (which yours bears some echo traces of) and Szymanski's Partita which have been stable repertoire for years. Transcriptions of piano works back into harpsichord playing just don't work very well; as if the music has been ill-conceived or unsympathetic to the natural timbres of the harpsichord.

I think this is why your piece stands out - it is astonishingly sympathetic to the natural timbres of the harpsichord and written by someone who has a profoundly deep understanding of the instrument, and not just apeing an understanding of it.

I think, I was indeed expecting a sonata form, so like Tdc, perhaps felt intuitively that something wasn't right with the piece, as it ended in the exhaustiveness of the piece's energy. That is probably my narrow preconception, which is delightful to see burst into an appreciation of something different.

Perhaps refining this conceptual framework of exhaustion in the finale - either by dropping particular chords, or losing a section of the keyboard totally, or expressed through rhythmic decline in a more structured exhaustiveness, would help separate the listener from feeling that the piece is an anti-climax and ended because the composer exhausted himself of ideas, rather than the player. I like the idea which you describe about the player's exhaustion - I can certainly appreciate this after playing long periods (about 30 seconds lol) of tremelo on the harp, although musically and compositionally, I suppose the raw sentiment of the quickened discharge of nervous energy at the very last minute, feels perhaps, too rushed.

Anyway, those are just my lay person's thoughts; it's a highly engaging piece of music, and the more I listen to it, the more I'm inclined to think that you've got a special connection with the harpsichord composition (devotion, and attunement) and something rather unique to communicate in your composition, instead of just writing frenetic music on a weird or wacky old instrument as a shocker.

Kudos! :cheers: :cheers:


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## Head_case

Oh my goodness.



You're Juergen Kraus, winner no.3 of the British Harpischord Society's Annual Competition?!

http://www.harpsichord.org.uk/bhs-news.php

It's a real privilege to have you here sharing your compositions. Can't say how honoured that makes us small potato feel!

:tiphat::tiphat:

PS - shame I missed that deadline for the job advert in the BHS link lol.


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## juergen

:tiphat:

Here you can listen to the piece, which was my contribution to the competion: 
http://www.talkclassical.com/22190-thank-you-forum.html

But be warned: There is no sonata form, too.


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## Head_case

Haha...I confess to stalking your name on google to find out more about the fabulous maelstrom of the 2 clavicembali piece which you composed. I missed out on that Talkclassical link.....back in October/November, I was still on limited bandwidth (don't take internet for granted  ) and travelling ..

The Ascent of K517 is a fascinating piece. I reminded myself of Scarlatti's original:






I love the nimble quickening of the pace and the fingers threshing furiously yet elegantly in the original. The K517 has an opening flowery burst of sudden activity which finishes gracefully and just as suddenly.

https://www.box.com/shared/fbc2f54ade4d64c88cc8

Are you familiar with the work of Helmut Lachenmann? He seems to use inspiration in a similar vein to this piece. Gone is the avant-garde (so yesterday!) notion of 'surprise'. Hence, no presto sforzando prestissimo!

The Ascent of K517 seems start off in near aleatory fashion (like the avant gardes) working notes into a motif, both tonally and rhythmically, with jarring/dissonant complexity structuring it towards a haunting unease with itself , which seems to move me into anticipation of a full melodic line, which isn't given until the last phrase and then end point. It reminds me of the music of Morten Riis (Danish composer I think) although initially when I listened to it, it sounded like computer music being re-assembled. It's very engaging afterwards although it does take a more concentrated effort. My guess is that most classical fans like harpischord music to go with the Sunday roast, rather than something out of Hammer House of Horror on a late Thursday after midnight 

Damn it's too short! Inventive yet brief :lol:

I can see why it won the BHS 3rd prize. It's a remarkable piece of writing. I really hope you write more for the harpischord - just listening to this piece convinces me that you have something special/original to say in harpsichord compositions.

Errr....Not so for the string quartet on the Roumanian theme unfortunately. I love string quartet music; perhaps this is my comfort zone and I tend to listen to it more than any other genre. The quartet writing for the piece might work as film or incidental music perhaps. Apart from Enescu's two string quartets composition and the Ad Libitum Quartet & Balanescu Quartet, however, I'm completely ignorant about Roumanian string quartet literature. The Balanescu Quartet feels closer to the quartet music on the Roumanian theme.

In any case, I hope your works get to see their justly deserved premier. Maybe in Hampstead Heath in the cool English gardens of Fenton House?


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## hreichgott

Wow. This is great. It's the sort of thing that makes one re-assess what an instrument can do.

Around 2:00-2:15 the constant drone in the bass started getting to me a bit, so it was rather a delightful moment of relief when the "unbearable chaos" came in!
(Amusingly, as I was typing this, my wife said "That started out nice and then it turned into a drunken clown party.")

I don't think there's anything wrong with the ending at all. The chromatic weirdness has a good anchor (in the form of that melody in octaves) and it sounds like a logical ending to the piece, fits well with the rest of the piece.

Now I have to go look up the Martinu and Gorecki that others have mentioned....


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## juergen

Thank you for all your nice comments. This is really very encouraging. Yes, I will certainly write more for the harpsichord. I still have ideas...


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