this performance is dedicated to charlotte
it is one of the most beautiful piano pieces that have ever been created.
the whole piece leaves a very lonely and sad atmosphere. the goal (imo) is to create a mood that makes one think and leads to inspiration. if you are waiting for the next section/picture you are lost. it is all about listening to the present impression that should fill your senses.
before having created this work simeon ten holt was known for his atonal compositions (such as solodiuvelsdans I, 5 etudes etc...). he surprised everyone by inventing a new style of minimal music with this piece. he used harmonies that seem to come from the romantic era, a quintuple meter, an ostinato bass line and counterpoint-composition like in baroque music, and the numerous nonchord tones that ressemble chopin's style. a very interesting mixture that makes this piece so unique.
canto ostinato contains 106 sections but i see a structure in parts, like this:
0:06 introduction and stairs going up
10:35 back and forth (with bridge)
27:11 the deep and bombastic"one-chord-part", (from now on only one chord per section)
36:59 the "dolce" part
46:35 a brief interlude
48:25 the dramatic semitone (i love this part and decided to play it 5 times
)
51:46 to the theme
55:48 theme I
1:09:22 bridge to the "dark" part
1:11:56 dark part (section 88-91). sections 89 and 90 (1:49:12-1:51:10) just produce a key change in between and are not really a part of the dark part.
2:15:35 back to the theme
2:17:58 theme II
2:29:58 ending with section 106.
this was originally written for 4 pianos. 1st piano playing the bass and the leading melody line, 2nd playing the melody phased, 3rd playing slower chords as accompaniment (and sometimes creating another melody), 4th fortifying the bass.
i used the solo piano transcription by andreas ahlborn just as a compact orientation for playing (be aware of the many little mistakes hidden in there
) and tried to play pianos 1+2 simultaneously whereever possible. in some places i also played piano 3 or 4 to add other important ideas.
a rough estimate shows that in total i played a bit more than 100000 notes which is quite an astonishing number. (for example rach3 only has 28000 notes) in many parts i used the jeu perlé technique (which was pretty useless considering that the sound is digitally created...) this led to a pain in the wrists after about 30 minutes. as this was the second time i played the whole piece i already knew that i would need some pauses. so i prerecorded the theme to play it with 3-4 voices which sounds very authentic and allows me to relax the left hand from the fast notes. i abandoned the pictures in theme II so that you can see what i did there.
for me personally it was a challenge to plan the whole performance (such as finding drinking places and change pages without interrupting) and play the whole thing through in one go. furthermore i tried to spend 5 minutes on a page (that would lead to 2h 0m total length) so i obviously failed in this part. (thats also why i put my alarm clock there
)
anyway it is a great personal success to have an own, self-recorded rendition of this piece.
you can download the audio here:
https://www.mediafire.com/?yw322z2ycabhhmv (142 mb)
thanks to springhörnchen, charlotte, my dad, google and some others for their pictures.
Topic: Simeon ten Holt - Canto Ostinato (video)