Nocturne For Dani
Falling Fifths for Piano
by Dan Welcher
Chamber Music - Sheet Music

Chamber Music Piano

SKU: PR.160002210

Falling Fifths for Piano. Composed by Dan Welcher. Premiere: Gregory Allen, piano. Solo part. With Standard notation. Composed July 23 2004. 12 pages. Duration 7 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #160-00221. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.160002210).

ISBN 9781598061710. UPC: 680160570591. Key: G major.

Nocturne for Dani ("Falling Fifths") was written for the memorial concert celebrating the life of Danielle Martin, a well-loved pianist and teacher in Austin, Texas. Incorporating elements of Martin's beloved Schumann and Wagner, as well as her favorite interval, the falling fifth, friend and colleague Dan Welcher captures a lifetime of moods and memories within this emotionally diverse piece for piano. For the college-level or professional pianist. Duration: 7'.
Nocturne for Dani (“falling fifths”) was written for the memorial concert celebrating the life of Danielle Martin, pianist and teacher, who was murdered in her home in April of 2004.  Dani Martin was a vivacious, outgoing person who loved teaching and who loved music with an intensity I’ve not encountered very often.  Her musical gods were Schumann, Debussy, and Brahms, and she herself was a warrior princess – a passionate advocate for truth and beauty.  She was already on the faculty at the University of Texas when I joined that faculty in 1978, and we became fast friends.The story behind my Nocturne is one of nostalgia and heartbreak.  Gregory Allen, a lifelong friend of Dani’s and a colleague on the piano faculty, was talking about their early friendship.  “When Dani was nineteen, she told me that her favorite musical interval was the falling fifth.  The first piece I remember her pointing this out to me was Schumann’s “Kind in Einschlummern” (“Child Falling Asleep”), from KINDERSZENEN.  Whenever a falling fifth occurred, she would nod her head, just so… (and he demonstrated).  After that, if we were in a concert and she heard a falling fifth, she’d lean over to me, whisper “F.F.!!”, and nod her head.  Soon we were able to simply look at each other and nod when we heard one.”Taking Greg’s story as a jumping-off point, I wrote a seven minute piano piece that’s entirely about falling fifths, and which derives its central motive from the Schumann piece.  Framed in a fast-slow-fast-coda format, the piece begins with an agitated figure (falling fifths, in contrasting keys) that eventually spells out a slower theme above the figuration.  This grows and reaches a climax, after which the figuration pulls the music down from its high tessitura to the lower reaches of the keyboard.  The middle section, marked “Serene,” introduces a new melody, comprised of both falling and rising fifths.  This music is dreamy, free-flowing, and gentle, in contrast to the more nervous outer music.  At the end of the section, though, the agitated feeling returns, and leads to a transfigured recapitulation of the opening music – pianissimo this time, with low bass fifths anchoring the harmony.  The coda, based on the central slower music, reveals what has been dormant within the music all along: Schumann’s child, falling asleep.  But rather than simply quoting the great German master, I combine Robert’s tune with another German master’s sleep music: Brünnhilde’s Sleep motive from Die Walküre by Richard Wagner.  The two nineteenth century melodies complement each other perfectly (and I’d always suspected that Wagner borrowed his motive from Schumann in the first place), and the piece ends with the sadly chiming fifths, singing out own warrior princess to sleep surrounded by her Magic Fire.