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The gestural composition techniques have been present in the music of many
composers since especially the beginning of the 21st Century. In order to approach
this topic, I’ll do in this essay a brief analysis of one of my pieces.
Metamorphosis is the third of a group of solo piano pieces called “Seasoning”.
The four pieces that has this work are based in different ways on four of the
pieces that are included in Tchaikovsky’s “Seasons”. I decided to use in each of my
pieces a different compositional style and for this one I chose a gestural
approach.
The compositional process of my piece was based on analyzing the gestures that
Tchaikovsky’s September has and transform or metamorphose them into a
modernist language. Now let’s examine every one of them.
Fig.
1
On the first five measures of Tchaikovsky’s piece we find two gestures: a figured
pedal note and the juxtaposition of two complementary rhythms. (Fig. 1). These
same two gestures, as it can be seen of Fig. 2, form also the first two units1 of my
piece.
Fig. 2
1
Since
no
barlines
have
been
used
on
the
piece,
I’m
going
to
refer
to
each
“happening”
in
the
Fig. 3
The next gesture to bring out from Tchaikovsky’s piece is the descending
successions of notes that start taking over both hands. The intensity and tension
is increased from here on until the end of the first section of the piece. Here it’s
shown in Fig. 4 the beginning of it.
Fig.
4
I represent that in my music with two different units. First, with a rapid
succession of descending glissandi (Fig. 5), which also work as a culmination of
the previous unit. Then, with descending scales, which grow up on speed and
volume, formed by minor 2nd clusters. This unit, whose beginning is shown on
Fig. 6, ends with a new and short statement of the first unit. This works as a
parallelism with Tchaikovsky’s piece, where his descending lines bring the music
to a new statement of the initial thematic material.
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
The second section of Tchaikovsky’s piece is totally contrasting with the first, in
the way that it keeps a long time in a piano dynamic and the sonorities are much
shorter.
The section begins with a second thematic idea mostly in legato (Fig. 7a), which is
accompanied by a contrasting, staccato texture. Then, this staccato texture takes
over and by means of both ascending and descending progressions brings the
music to the powerful second thematic element of this section (Fig. 7b).
Fig. 7a
Fig.
7b
The gesture that we see in Fig. 7a is represented by the first unit of the second
section of my piece, as shown in Fig. 8a. The transition until the second thematic
idea in Tchaikovsky’s piece is represented by means of ascending tremolos in my
music. This brings us to the climatic point of the second section of my
composition, where the elements shown in Fig. 8a are represented.
Fig. 8a
Fig. 9
Fig. 8b
Fig. 10