Meyn - Piano Suite
Till Meyn's Piano Suite is a collection of dance music for the piano. It is in three movements, and incorporates styles and forms of various composers and eras.
The first movement, "Fanfare", was written initially as the theme music for Youngstown State University, and has been used in advertisement and promotion. This expanded version includes a reflective middle section, which leads back to the YSU theme for the conclusion.
The second movement, "Allemande", takes the form and character of a Bach piano suite, but its content reflects Schoenbergian serial writing. Both of these systems give rigidity to the music, which remains fairly strictly within the confines of its constraints. Although one twelve-tone row is used in the allemande, a derivation of the row permits a chromatic scale to be played as well.
The title of the final movement, "Frottola", refers to a renaissance dance form that often uses hemiola and moves quickly. As in the first movement, the main melody is manipulated using methods derived from twelve-tone technique. The musical language, however, is modal and tonal, not chromatic, and therefore feels like a meeting of styles from vastly different times. The theme is played in retrograde, inversion, and other forms, and the rhythm is also altered separately from the tune to create multiple combinations that keep changing. The pressing tempo and relentless theme create a perpetuum mobile that moves the music forward to the suite's conclusion.
The first movement, "Fanfare", was written initially as the theme music for Youngstown State University, and has been used in advertisement and promotion. This expanded version includes a reflective middle section, which leads back to the YSU theme for the conclusion.
The second movement, "Allemande", takes the form and character of a Bach piano suite, but its content reflects Schoenbergian serial writing. Both of these systems give rigidity to the music, which remains fairly strictly within the confines of its constraints. Although one twelve-tone row is used in the allemande, a derivation of the row permits a chromatic scale to be played as well.
The title of the final movement, "Frottola", refers to a renaissance dance form that often uses hemiola and moves quickly. As in the first movement, the main melody is manipulated using methods derived from twelve-tone technique. The musical language, however, is modal and tonal, not chromatic, and therefore feels like a meeting of styles from vastly different times. The theme is played in retrograde, inversion, and other forms, and the rhythm is also altered separately from the tune to create multiple combinations that keep changing. The pressing tempo and relentless theme create a perpetuum mobile that moves the music forward to the suite's conclusion.
| 1 | Fanfare | 3:08 | Antonov, A. |
| 2 | Allemande | 3:17 | Antonov, A. |
| 3 | Frottola | 2:56 | Antonov, A. |
