Fantasia and Fugue on a Gregorian Theme, for two pianos (2002)
Duration: 13’
MP3 Player
Score excerpt
Premiere:
Transamerica Duo (Dr. Nancy Roldán and Dr. Noel Lester)
Friedberg Hall, Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore, MD
Spring 2003
Performers in audio recording:
Transamerica Duo (Dr. Nancy Roldán and Dr. Noel Lester)
Brodbeck Music Hall, Hood College, Frederick, MD
Spring 2007
Program Notes:
This piece is based on a “Requiem” theme I found in the Liber Usualis, a wonderful treasury of the prayers, chants and lessons used by Roman Catholic monks first published in 1896. The most singular thing about the music contained in this volume is that the music, when separated from the religious texts, can still stand quite well on its own. This theme is at first presented literally in the first movement, and is then developed, harmonized, and elaborated upon throughout the course of the movement, and is combined with various counter-themes of my own composition. In the second movement, I altered the even note values of the original chant to make the theme into a fast mixed-meter fugue subject, and developed it in the traditional fugue style (with expositions, episodes and middle entries). I then composed another fugue entirely of my own creation, and made the second movement into a large double fugue by superimposing the two themes at the end of the movement. Both movements give ample opportunity for the pianists to show off both their lyric and interpretive sensibilities and the technical “chops” required to play exciting, pyrotechnic piano music.
This piece is dedicated to Drs. Nancy Roldán and Noel Lester, with great admiration and appreciation.
— September 2003