Just curious Alistair, under what conditions would you grant someone permission to play this in a public performance?
I would not grant permission for anyone to relay this MIDI file in a public performance. However, any pianist is free to perform it on the piano (as intended). The MIDI file is wholly unrepresentative of the piece, in view of its inflexibilities of nuance and lack of due dynamic variation; the piece was never intended to be presented in that format and the value of that MIDI file extends nowhere beyond the mere passing interest that it might be thought to generate in terms of what its pitches might actually sound like if given in a performance by a real live pianist, so it's hardly a substitute for a real performance.
For your interest (I hope!), here are my notes on the piece that appear as a preface to the scoore and which should give you some background as to how it came about:
Étude en Forme de Chopin, Op. 26 (1992)“Blow, blow thou Winter Wind -
How Art-knots so entwined
Chopin’s ingrate-Études..??”
(with appropriately abject apologies to Shakespeare)
ÉTUDE EN FORME DE CHOPIN, for piano, was originally entitled LES TROIS CHOPINS and completed on Chopin’s 167th birthday (1 March 1977). The composer was not very satisfied with it; reading afterwards that an étude similarly combining the three A-minor études of Chopin had long since been completed by that Master of pianistic re-creation Leopold Godowsky (no actual manuscript has yet been discovered, however) provided the necessary incentive for him to introduce his effort to the waste paper basket.
In May 1992, unbeknown to the composer of this work at the time, the brilliantly gifted Canadian composer and pianist Marc-André Hamelin wrote an étude for piano combining these three Chopin études. Entitled TRIPLE ÉTUDE AFTER CHOPIN, it is dedicated "To anyone who has ever wondered what Godowsky’s own transcription would have looked like".
In a later letter (enclosing TRIPLE ÉTUDE AFTER CHOPIN) to the composer of this work, Hamelin, referring (though not specifically by name) to LES TROIS CHOPINS, wrote "I would have been extremely interested in seeing yours, but I guess it was not to be".
Guesswork can involve dangerous risks. The fact that TRIPLE ÉTUDE AFTER CHOPIN provided the composer with what may be seen as the unnecessary incentive to reconstruct LES TROIS CHOPINS perhaps proves this.
This final definitive version of ÉTUDE EN FORME DE CHOPIN is different from the original LES TROIS CHOPINS in several respects (this is perhaps unsurprising, as it was reworked from memory). It lacks a little of the absence of technical accomplishment of the first version and introduces numerous reminiscences of other Chopin études, in the manner of characters entering into an unfolding drama – (if you believe that, dear reader, you’ll believe anything). Like the original, however, this étude has as its
cantus firmus Chopin’s Op. 25 No.11 throughout until just before the end where the Winter Wind has its last gasp and blows itself out (the pianist may well have his or her last gasp earlier than this).
ÉTUDE EN FORME DE CHOPIN is conceived in the manner and spirit of Godowsky, albeit with but a fraction of his technique and pianistic imagination. As with Godowsky, it endeavours not to show off by trying to out-Chopin Chopin, but to celebrate the greatness of those glorious Masterworks of Opp. 10 and 25 with which Chopin ushered in a new era in the history of piano composition.
It might well have been dedicated "To those whom it may concern, if any, and others who prefer minding three other people’s business to minding their own"; instead, however, this unholy trinity is dedicated with much affection to Marc-, to André and to Hamelin (e trebus unus).
The reference in the final paragraph to "To those whom it may concern" is an adaptation of a printed notice by Sorabji about himself. A typeset edition of the score was made by Simon Abrahams in 2004.
Best,
Alistair
Topic: favorite ultramodernism thread.