Program NotesLocation (grandparent | parent | this page): RodMer Arts Home Page | Rod's Music | For Barbara Program Notes
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The BasicsPiano
Cello (including some pizzicato)
9 minutes
1996 -- This piece is dedicated to the late Barbara Moes, a good friend and fellow Cobourger whom Merike and I had the good fortune to know for several years. Barbara played both classical and jazz piano (as well as painting and writing poetry) so it seemed appropriate that the piano part in this piece for her should contain both classical and popular elements. A few minor revisions were made in 1998.
The premiere performance was given at the Proctor House Museum in Brighton ON on Thursday July 18, 1996 with Janko Marjanovic (first cellist of the Northumberland Orchestra) playing cello and me (Rod Anderson) playing piano. The Proctor House was built in about 1850. Proctor made his money running steamers across Lake Ontario to Rochester, and loaned out the proceeds in mortgages. There's a legend that he foreclosed on a certain Mr. Nix, who was on his deathbed. Mr. Nix died and his family quickly gathered up the furniture and left. So Proctor, with no other assets to seize as security, took the body and sold it to a hospital. It's said that night a fireball was seen hovering over the Proctor House and ever since it's been haunted by the ghost of Mr. Nix. You won't see him in the photograph, for as you know, ghosts are invisible to cameras. But he was surely responsible for any wrong notes.
Here (on July 18/96) were Zephy and Mady telling me to break a leg before sending me off to the Proctor House. This was part of a program of cello solos and duets by Janko (and supported by Randy Mills on piano) to raise money for the Northumberland Orchestra. The sold-out house consisted of an audience of 120 (including Barbara Moes, to whom the 'For Barbara' piece was dedicated), at least an equal number of mosquitoes, but no signs of the ghost .
A second performance was given (again with Janko Marjanovic on cello and me on piano) at the Bamboo Club in Toronto on April 14, 1998 as part of the launch of Merike Lugus's new book of poetry Ophelia After Centuries of Trying.
Like all the MIDI files here, it is in General MIDI form. The General MIDI patches (on the 0-127 numbering system) are:
| Part | General MIDI patch | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| name | # | ||
| Piano | Acoustic Grand Piano | 0 | |
| Cello | Cello | 42 | |
| Cello Pizz | Pizzicato Strings | 45 | |
On my own synth I used the following patches:
| Part | Sound Module | Patch | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| name | # | |||
| Piano | Roland RD500 | Gr Piano A1 | 0 | |
| Cello | Roland JV880 | Stereo Cello from Orchestra Expansion Board (OEB) | 62 | |
| Cello Pizz | Roland JV880 | Pizzicato 2 from OEB | 76 | |
Structure notesOverall the piece has a compound ternary structure: [I-II-III-IV] - Episode - [I-II-III-IV]
Actually, the III section acts as a sort of glue - so in more detail the structure is:
. . . . . .Intro-I-II-III-IV-III-Episode-I-II-CC-III-IV-III-Coda
where "CC" is a cello cadenza. A sort of piano cadenza is also embedded within the Sections IV.
One of the central focuses is the tritone (C-F#) and, in particular, a chord F#-C-Ab-D-Bb (containing two tritones). The chord also occurs in different pitches F-B-G-C#-A and E-Bb-Gb-C-Ab - but the third is beginning to resemble the first, so there are really only two distinct versions.
Section I explores the tritone chords above. So does the more pop-oriented Section II. Section III is free of the tritones, but plays with a few brief chromatic progressions. IV begins with the tritones but wanders up and away from it all.
The Intro begins with the C-F# tritone and later presents the F#-C-Ab-D-Bb chord ("the chord"), works briefly through neighbouring tritones (D-Ab, E-Bb, F-B), and returns to the C-F# against the dominant in the bass.
Section I begins with the a C-G vs. C-F# alternation followed by an expanded version of "the chord" (this time F#-C-Ab-D-Eb-F#-Bb). A similar beginning is used at the start of Sections II and IV. "The chord" resolves into a suspension built on Ab and then moves into another version of "the chord" a semi-tone down (F-B-G-C#-A). Two measures later we visit the next lower form (E-Bb-F#-C-Ab) - which is almost identical to the initial chord. Thence through D#dim (over D) and G#dim (over G), finally returning to Cm.
Section II begins in an initially similar way and then shifts into a hesitant melody (m.21) which gradually becomes more settled and then develops into emphatic syncopation. "The chord" is used as the basis of the syncopation in mm. 33-34 (and similar ones later).
Section III is free of the tritone but plays with chromatic harmonies (including Gm-C#-Ab-C#-F#-C#-Fm-G+).
Section IV begins with the Section-I-type opening but then switches into C major and thence into a piano cadenza (mm.52-60), which finally ushers in (rather belatedly) the main theme of the piece - a cello melody beginning in m.61 against a high piano accompaniment.
In the later repetitions there are a few minor differences. The second visitation of Section II flirts with a juxtaposition of C major and C minor (mm. 98-101). The second visitation of Section III is much quieter than the first (the later repetitions are variations - one simpler, and the last with arpeggios).
The Episode, after a 3-bar intro, has two 8-bar phrases - the first with the piano carrying the main melody, and the second with the cello carrying it. While the key is G major, the harmonies (encouraged perhaps by the tritones) wander through G, Ab, B, E, B, G.
The Coda echoes the beginning of Section IV and finally ends with the tritone resolving into the C major chord (with added 2nd and 6th).
Well maybe none of this means anything. Who knows? Actually I stumbled on the double-tritone chord Bb-D-Ab-C-F# in Hindemith's String Quartet No. 3 (m.64) and then trying to remember it the next day got it upside down as F#-C-Ab-D-Bb ("the chord" used here). Out of such accidents things sometimes happen.
| Year | Title ... Instrumentation ...... Excerpts | Min: Sec |
Complete MP3 files (better sound)** file size |
MP3 file extracts (better sound)** file size |
Complete MIDI file (not as good sound but quick)** |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The complete piece: | |||||
| 1996-1998 | For Barbara ... piano & cello duet |
9:03 |  6.2 MB |
||
| How the MIDI file sounds depends, of course, on your playback mechanism. In general, the mp3 complete file is considerably better (in terms of piano timbre, cello sound, and cello pizzicato) compared to the usual embedded MIDI sound. In the embedded MIDI file the piano is often a little pingy and the cello is thin except on its very lowest string. [Of course, if you have a synth, you can download the MIDI file, set yout own patch preferences, rebalance the volumes, and play it on your own machine -- but that's a lot more work than downloading the complete mp3 file.] | |||||
| Short extracts: | |||||
| ...... Intro | 0:26 | 0.2 MB |
|||
| In this mp3 excerpt of the introduction section the piano timbre is quite a bit better (especially played through external speakers) than the usual embedded MIDI sound -- and especially the low cello sound coming in at the end is more realistic. | |||||
| ...... end Sec II + all Sec III | 0:40 | 0.4 MB |
|||
| In this excerpt of half Section II and all Section III the big improvement in the mp3 excerpt (over the usual embedded MIDI sound) is the cello pizzicato. | |||||
| ...... Sec IV piano cadenza | 0:23 | 0.2 MB |
|||
| Again, the piano timbre of this mp3 excerpt of the piano cadenza is quite a bit mellower (especially played through external speakers) than the usual embedded MIDI sound | |||||
| ...... Sec IV main theme | 0:40 | 0.4 MB |
|||
| In this mp3 excerpt from Section IV the plaintiff singing timbre of the cello in its higher registers comes through much more clearly (especially when played through external speakers) than on the usual embedded MIDI playback | |||||
| ...... For Barbara Episode | 0:47 | 0.5 MB |
|||
| In this mp3 excerpt from the "Episode" the lower cello sounds come out much more richly (especially when played through external speakers) and the piano is mellower than on the usual embedded MIDI playback | |||||
** If you have a high-speed connection, forget about the MIDI files and just use the MP3 files (better). If you have a dial-up connection, consider the faster (but not as good) MIDI file only if the MP3 files seem to be taking too long to play or download.
| Year | Title ... Instrumentation | Description | No. of score pages |
Score (pdf file) file size |
No. of text pages |
Text (rtf file) file size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996-1998 | For Barbara ... piano and cello duet |
Complete score * | 19 |  0.5 MB |
4 |  8 KB |
| * email me if you would like any part extractions | ||||||