Five Miniatures (2021)
clarinet, violin, cello
clarinet, violin, cello
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PROGRAM NOTE
This piece was begun with a determined rejection of two priorities very near and dear to my heart—melody and tonality—just to see what would happen. The result: I simply found new ways of being myself. Dearly beloved melody was still present, but with a different scope; trusty tonality still anchored the proceedings, but with new relationships.
More than anything, though, the Miniatures became an investigation of linearity for me. In the first miniature, Preludio, insistent vertical sonorities are interrupted by purely horizontal counterpoint. The horizontal lines occasionally cross paths, sporadically producing major triads, until the insistent material returns. The second miniature, Romanza, deals with the issue of accompaniment and pulse: slowly shifting lines intertwine to support a long, cantabile tune. A rustic Scherzo, the third miniature, interrupts the romance with driving dance rhythms, until the fourth miniature, a gentle waltz, calms the fracas into a chorale. This miniature, the Valzer–Corale, is my favorite: it’s based upon a fully-chromatic melody that spans three-and-a-half octaves and is not “inversely retrogradable.” (Pardon the jargon: that is to say, if the melody is played backwards and upside-down, it sounds the same as it does forwards, right-side-up.) The last miniature, for cohesion, is a Recapitulazione--a recap of everything just heard. At first, it’s identical to the Preludio. Then, the clarinet offers a fragment of the Romanza, which is interrupted by the Scherzo until the ’cello presents the Valzer tune. Everybody returns to the Preludio one last time before firmly proclaiming the Corale, with an exclamation point from the Scherzo.
—Jacob Beranek
This piece was begun with a determined rejection of two priorities very near and dear to my heart—melody and tonality—just to see what would happen. The result: I simply found new ways of being myself. Dearly beloved melody was still present, but with a different scope; trusty tonality still anchored the proceedings, but with new relationships.
More than anything, though, the Miniatures became an investigation of linearity for me. In the first miniature, Preludio, insistent vertical sonorities are interrupted by purely horizontal counterpoint. The horizontal lines occasionally cross paths, sporadically producing major triads, until the insistent material returns. The second miniature, Romanza, deals with the issue of accompaniment and pulse: slowly shifting lines intertwine to support a long, cantabile tune. A rustic Scherzo, the third miniature, interrupts the romance with driving dance rhythms, until the fourth miniature, a gentle waltz, calms the fracas into a chorale. This miniature, the Valzer–Corale, is my favorite: it’s based upon a fully-chromatic melody that spans three-and-a-half octaves and is not “inversely retrogradable.” (Pardon the jargon: that is to say, if the melody is played backwards and upside-down, it sounds the same as it does forwards, right-side-up.) The last miniature, for cohesion, is a Recapitulazione--a recap of everything just heard. At first, it’s identical to the Preludio. Then, the clarinet offers a fragment of the Romanza, which is interrupted by the Scherzo until the ’cello presents the Valzer tune. Everybody returns to the Preludio one last time before firmly proclaiming the Corale, with an exclamation point from the Scherzo.
—Jacob Beranek
