Ragamalika
Four pieces for solo piano
by Gerald Levinson
Chamber Music - Sheet Music

Chamber Music Piano

SKU: PR.140400910

Four pieces for solo piano. Composed by Gerald Levinson. Contemporary. Score. With Standard notation. Composed 2001. 24 pages. Duration 16 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #140-40091. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.140400910).

ISBN 9781491112359. UPC: 680160591275. 9 x 12 inches.

RAGAMALIKA (meaning “garland of ragas”) is a virtuosic practice in North Indian classical music, reflected most directly in the second of these pieces. The soloist departs from one principal raga (melodic mode) and whirls through a series of others. An influence of Balinese gamelan may be heard as well in the bell-like resonances and flowing textures of the first and fourth pieces, while the third, a study in opposed sonorities, is an homage to Debussy. The work was commissioned by pianist Marcantonio Barone, who has recorded RAGAMALIKA on the Albany label.
This set of four brief pieces was commissioned by Marcantonio Barone, for whom I had previously written Time and the Bell … , a large work for piano and ensemble. I had long been eager to explore his unique musicality and extraordinary sense of color in a solo work.Ragamalika (“garland of ragas”) is a virtuosic practice in North Indian classical music in which the soloist departs from the principal raga, or melodic mode, and whirls through a series of other, “foreign” ragas. These four pieces are all conceived in a fundamentally modal manner, broadly defined; each has its own basic melodic and harmonic coloration, influenced in varying degrees by actual or invented Indian ragas. Thus the whole set may be heard as a “garland of ragas.” An influence of Balinese gamelan may be heard as well in the bell-like resonances and steadily flowing textures of the first and fourth pieces. The second piece, a virtuoso perpetual-motion study, is a new version of a movement by the same name from Time and the Bell … , extensively rewritten to incorporate elements of the orchestral counterpoint and harmonic layering into the solo part, also including some entirely new passages. The title of the third piece is a double homage to Debussy, whose music has long been of formative importance in my whole conception of what music can be. The “opposed sonorities” often involve juxtapositions of black and white keys, complex combinations of resonances, and abrupt contrasts of speed, register, and character.RAGAMALIKA was first performed by Marcantonio Barone at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, March 2001. It is recorded by Mr. Barone on Albany Records, TROY 936.