7 Piano Duets & Triets (inspired by music from around the world)
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SKU: A0.890696
Composed by John Pitts. African,Contemporary,Folk,World. Score. 150 pages. Intensely Pleasant Music #3142051. Published by Intensely Pleasant Music (A0.890696).Welcome to this collection of 5 duets and 2 triets.
These 7 piano pieces were written between 1995 and 2015 for performers in UK, France and Denmark. They have the connecting thread of each being inspired by music of a different country. Four of the pieces have roots in traditional music - Indonesian gamelan, North Indian sitar raags, African balaphon ensembles, and British folksong – and the other three were inspired by German organ music (J.S.Bach), American minimalism and Spanish waltz (although it doesn’t sound like it!).
Between them, they have been performed in festivals, concerts and international piano duo competitions in UK, Spain, France, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Estonia, Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and USA.
Most of the pieces are cheerful, vibrantly rhythmic and highly energetic, as well as requiring considerable dexterity.
ONE
"Changes for twenty nifty fingers" (1995) duet 3 minutes
This is the ‘simplest’ piece of the collection, and the oldest. I wrote it during my undergraduate years at Bristol University in response to a task set by my then composition tutor Wyndham Thomas. The given title "Changes" refers to the inspiration of the peeling of church bells – ringing the changes - where there is a simple ostinato pattern that undergoes a gradual metamorphosis. This piece starts with the skeleton of this short repeated phrase (in 14/8) which gradually fills out, and then moves through two enormously tricky sections of phasing - in which the two pianists have overlapping bars of different lengths (14 and 15 quavers). The duet finally builds to a dramatic climax in the third minute. So, this is a short minimalist piece, ultimately with its technical roots in American minimalism, although the material was more immediately inspired by the piano style of my older brothers, in particular my eldest brother Antony’s piano solo piece Dance of the Redeemed Creation - the style of which can be traced in many of my piano compositions.
Changes has been widely performed by the Kiev Piano Duo (Dmytro Tavanets and Oleksandra Zaytseva), and a recording (performed by Steven Kings and John Pitts) is available on CD "7 Airs & Fantasias and other piano music" from www.johnpitts.co.uk - or as a download from Hyperion/1equalmusic: www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_1EMIPM08
TWO
"Passacaglia" (2000-2012) duet 6 minutes
This piece also exists in versions for organ (my original version in 2000) and orchestra (performed by Bristol University Symphony Orchestra under the baton of John Pickard in 2001). The piano duet version was finally completed in 2012.
The theme is based on the ground bass from Bach’s stonking Passacaglia in C minor for organ. However, the implied harmonies of Bach’s origin
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