16 January 2015

Aside, to a pair of parakeets

It has been a few years since last Peter Lekx and I played The Mousetrap, so this task of rebuilding the score in Sibelius has been a great opportunity to relearn the guts of the piece, inside out.

Though I am the one who says it, it's a damned good piece.

The overall composition is an environment which makes the introduction of quotations from the literature, organic parts of the whole, and not gratuitous "tune-dropping." I'm deeply proud of that musical accomplishment. The music is not "quasi Shostakovich," it is through and through genuine Henning; however, it is certainly a composition which reflects lessons learnt at the knees of the Russian master.

For all the historical disparity of the musical quotations, the piece is a seamless whole. I felt that while rehearsing and performing it on both occasions, in Massachusetts and in Ohio; and I find this impression is amply confirmed by this recent re-immersion into the composition.

The violist here in the Boston area to whom I have recently sent the piece, has responded positively thus far. Watch This Space.

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