# "Petite Passacaille sur le nom d'Andrée Bonhomme" for piano



## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

This piece, a homage to Dutch female composer Andrée Bonhomme (1905-1982), was composed for a project that included works by various composers, and pieces by Bonhomme herself.
The Passacaglia theme is derived from the letters of her name (A-D-E-E-Bb-B-E, or in German notation A-D-E-E-B-H-E), and is subjected to all kinds of variations, rhythmical, contrapuntal and proportional. The piece is played here by Alice Hendriks:






The sheet music can be downloaded for free at my IMSLP page:






3 Keyboard Pieces, Op.212 (Peters, Rob) - IMSLP: Free Sheet Music PDF Download







imslp.org


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Really nice. The passacaglia theme is very memorable and aids the ear well as an anchor when absorbing the chromaticism for the first time. I also love the counterpoint and the lovely resolved ending.


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

mikeh375 said:


> Really nice. The passacaglia theme is very memorable and aids the ear well as an anchor when absorbing the chromaticism for the first time. I also love the counterpoint and the lovely resolved ending.


Thank you very much for your reply, I'm glad you liked the piece.


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

RobertJTh said:


> This piece, a homage to Dutch female composer Andrée Bonhomme (1905-1982), was composed for a project that included works by various composers, and pieces by Bonhomme herself.
> The Passacaglia theme is derived from the letters of her name (A-D-E-E-Bb-B-E, or in German notation A-D-E-E-B-H-E), and is subjected to all kinds of variations, rhythmical, contrapuntal and proportional. The piece is played here by Alice Hendriks:
> 
> 
> ...


Great work! I liked your harmonic language which is not too restricted at all but has a healthy and conscious mix of consonant and dissonant intervals — a bit in an Hindemithian way. Also there clearly were characterized sections and things happening dramatically, energies and weight points and momentum shifting.

Also, I might mention that your sense of harmonies might be greatly influenced by your work as an organist, for I perceived this mostly as harmonies and less as horisontal movement. There is also something Brucknerian in the handling of the textures and in the combination of the bass and upper registers, maybe.

This is despite the fact you have stated that you nowadays focus mostly on horisontal lines — instead of having a ’fermata’ on every change in the harmonies. 😉 Of course a composer rarely sticks to just one principle / type of texture which would be boring.

(I recently found myself in the middle of thick and heavy vertical chords even though that is not what I am usually drawn to in my own work nowadays.)


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Waehnen said:


> Great work! I liked your harmonic language which is not too restricted at all but has a healthy and conscious mix of consonant and dissonant intervals — a bit in an Hindemithian way. Also there clearly were characterized sections and things happening dramatically, energies and weight points and momentum shifting.


Thanks for your great review! You certainly made me think about how my music is perceived by an educated and sensitive listener - that's the kind of feedback I value a lot, but it's exceedingly rare.



> Also, I might mention that your sense of harmonies might be greatly influenced by your work as an organist, for I perceived this mostly as harmonies and less as horisontal movement. There is also something Brucknerian in the handling of the textures and in the combination of the bass and upper registers, maybe.


I'm happy to hear that all the contrapuntal tricks weren't "in your face" and the impression of a work built on harmony, timbres and textures is prevalent, because I was trying to make the music sound as little "academic" as possible. Though I need to admit that in this case, the particular challenge was to produce a work close to Bonhomme's style - which can be described as expanded and heavily French-oriented impressionism. Usually my music is less flexible, with much less use of tempo fluctuations and dynamics. I feel that the pianist (who did a good job otherwise) should have exploited those contrasts more, the performance is kind of lacking in dynamic extremes and contrasts in tempo and articulation.



> This is despite the fact you have stated that you nowadays focus mostly on horizontal lines — instead of having a ’fermata’ on every change in the harmonies. 😉 Of course a composer rarely sticks to just one principle / type of texture which would be boring.
> 
> (I recently found myself in the middle of thick and heavy vertical chords even though that is not what I am usually drawn to in my own work nowadays.)


That's right, and it's always a danger that if we find a style and form of expression that suits us well, we'll stick to it to the point of monomania. It happened to me a couple of times that I thought "didn't I use this kind of formula a bit to often recently?" But on the other hand, I don't subscribe to the modernist credo of every work having as much originality as possible. After all, the older generations of composers didn't mind sticking to one style for the most part of their lives - and still produced masterpieces.


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

RobertJTh said:


> Thanks for your great review! You certainly made me think about how my music is perceived by an educated and sensitive listener - that's the kind of feedback I value a lot, but it's exceedingly rare.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



My first listens are often all about first impressions — what I perceive as the main facet of communication and expression. 

When my colleagues listen to my works in process, I always ask for their first impressions.

In this instance, listening to your work, of course I could have paid more attention to the horisontal passacaglia aspect, but I am ’built’ to do those evaluations and analysis later on.

I tend to think that the first impression on a section of music is very important. Often if my colleagues do not get the impression I have been aiming at, I conclude that I could have expressed things more clearly. Quite often moving from a sketch to the definite expression of the idea is indeed strengthening the level of the first impression.

You most certainly managed to curtain your ’academic approach’ enough because the music sounds inspired. Of course it can be sensed and heard that there is a lot of intelligence in the structures, and that is a good thing.

For me a good composition gives a strong first impression — and after that (often but not necessarily) reveals fine structural constellations.


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