Drama

[pianowolfi]

Furtwängler wrote on Jan. 9:

Oh, please, you post some music, Wolfi!

 K. wrote in my thread "Last Hope" on May 17th, 2009:

You know, you have a way with the dramatic aspects, and it just makes me think, where does this come from ?  I mean, where does it originate or spring forth from ?

So I'm posting "Drama", an improv from June 10, 2007. I played it with the intention to do something really lengthy, like 20 Min. Well, it's still 14 and after editing it might still have some 10-12 ish.
I hate some of the blurry pedalling in it, I think I had so many things to keep together that I somehow couldn't handle this aspect very well anymore.
It has roughly 4 parts: Turmoil, Remembrance, death Birds, Showdown. Apparently it's a part of "Styx-Journey", of what I call the "Journey-Apocrypha"  

I post it especially (but of course not only) for Karli, Goldy, Furtwängler

Enjoy  

[ted]

I find (generally, not always) your improvisations carry what I can only describe as a glimpse of something very large and very forbidding, and this is no exception. Superficially I could remark about certain resemblances to Beethoven, not so much in the actual notes or keyboard vocabulary, but in this hinted, partial revelation of something profoundly disturbing and , at least to you, inescapable.

I like the section immediately following about 5:30, with the almost minimalistic repetitions. However the effect here is not one of serenity at all but foreboding, confirmed by the presently interrupting bass line. This is interesting to me because this particular type of figure is more often employed to generate placid contemplation. It always pleases me to have common figurations bring about effects in my brain not usually associated with them.

I dislike tying a given emotion to a particular musical figure and much prefer to be surprised, frightened or delighted, which I was here.

[pianowolfi]

Hi Ted

thank you for your very interesting comment!
It's this sort of comment that is indeed actually helpful to me because it lets me listen to my own stuff with different ears and hear different aspects than before.

Actually I could even sometimes describe some of that "very large and forbidding" thing in words but I certainly won't do that because it would sound quite strange and surrealistic, I guess. And it's certainly nicer to do it musically.

[furtwaengler]

This is huge! It is very much the world of Styx, and through the turmoil and the volatility which has us on the edge, cornered, back against a wall, begging for the next breath, it ends in an improbable triumph. I am unsure the nature of this triumph, whether it is real or the defiant, sinister wail of the enemy as he strikes the hero down. Or maybe the battle's not done...our hero has been struck down, a seemingly mortal blow by the enemy, fallen like an ax fells a tree, only to rise up with power (beyond his own strength) and deliver a retaliatory hit, and that's where we are.

I have two sound files I'd like to respond with...I just don't have time. I'm so tired. Soon.

(I find it interesting that I'm trying to trim my improvisations under 20 minutes and your trying to get one up there...it reminds my on one of yours I wrote that you could say more in 6 minutes then I could in 30 minutes, or something like that. 'Tis true. You are very intense )

[pianowolfi]

Ha!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
You have said so inspiring things, now I'm thinking about the "battle" and enemies and stuff like that, all somehow new aspects to me, regarding this piece
Very cryptic. Who is the "enemy", who will win and how?

Perhaps I have another Triumph for you, a silent triumph after another huge battle.

"Eremitage" (Hermitage)
It's here:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=25228.0

Now I see a bit more of the picture. I had been on a walk there, capturing something of that atmosphere...at this place there are many old castles and ruins from the middle age (I guess it's middle age)

"Drama" was played shortly after that day...

I'm looking forward to your responses

[goldentone]

Journey-Apocrypha.   indeed.  In acknowledgment of that Holy Scripture?  

After the opening, you settle into a section that reminds me of Centuries, which corresponds to "Remembrance", and that makes sense.  The coda is very interesting and creative, an "Agony-Triumph." Thanks for bringing this out for us, Wolfi.  I enjoyed it a lot.    

[pianowolfi]

Ha! Agony-Triumph. What a word. Very interesting

I called some of my improvs and sketches "Styx-Apocrypha" because they didn't make it into the concert program. Like some scriptures didn't make it into the "canon" of the bible  

But "Drama" has actually persuaded me two nights ago, it will get edited and be a part of my new program.....

Thank you, Goldy!