Piano improvisation inspired by Salvador Dali's "The Persistence of Memory"

[kalospiano]

https://soundcloud.com/kalos-piano/salvador-dalis-the-persistence-of-memory-a-piano-improvisation


My second attempt at piano improvisation, trying to translate one of Dali's most famous works into musical notes, and setting a very different mood compared to my first improvisation, inspired by the much more tranquil and relaxing "Water Lilies" paintings by Monet.
I'm starting with two notes, at a regular beat, one semitone apart, emulating a ticking clock. Immersed in an ethereal atmosphere of high register clusters, the two notes slowly descend and liquify just like the melting clocks in the painting.
I'm using the whole tone scale to conjure a mood of unease and uncertainty and dissonances suggesting unpleasant memories. Eventually powerful octaves emerge from the low register: I must admit I was thinking about the heavy pace of the giant, long legged elephants appearing in other paintings by Dali, such as "Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening", "The Temptation of St. Anthony" and "The Elephants", but I guess the effect fits the mood of this work as well.

Inspirations for this improvisation have been the late Liszt, Satie, Debussy and atonal music in general.

[ted]

Attempting concomitant musical response to Dali’s dream world would be far too challenging for me. Therefore I find your interpretation interesting and effective. The use or avoidance of tonal subsets has ceased to concern me for years and matters little one way or the other. Please let us hear more of your improvisation as it has both interest and promise.

[kalospiano]

Thank you so much Ted! I’d love to hear your take on this work if you ever find the right inspiration 

[quantum]

A successful improvisation at conveying aspects of the painting.  You have a knack for this, and I hope you will continue to improvise. 

Did you plan out themes or ideas before improvising, or did the themes appear to you as you played?

[kalospiano]

Thanks again quantum. For the Water Lilies improv I actually had already some ideas in mind and I kinda noodled with them for a couple of days before coming up with the final result. With this one instead I only started knowing that I wanted to imitate a ticking clock, and the rest came naturally on the first take (well, actually the second, since on the real first one I noticed after a minute or so that I had not clicked on the record button...)