related works
Red, white and blues : Dutch new blues pieces, for piano, 1996-2006, Volume 1
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Piano
Scoring:
pf
Drie joodse liederen : voor lage stem en piano, 1945 / tekst van Erwin Fischer, Sas Bunge
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and piano
Scoring:
low pf
Twee psalmen (121 en 133) : sopraan, piano, 1956 / Albert de Klerk
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and piano; Voice and organ
Scoring:
high pf/org
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and instrument(s); Voice and piano
Scoring:
sopr lyre-a/pf
composition
Satie and his sense of shoelaces : a mini music drama in the form of three songs, for tenor and piano, 1996, revision 2003 / on words by John Cage, Christina Viola Oorebeek
Other authors:
Cage, John
(Text writer/Librettist)
Oorebeek, Christina Viola
(Composer)
Contains:
Coming untied
Flat on the floor
Satie is touched
Description:
Program note (English): The text of these songs is borrowed from 'James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet', a fantastical prose piece by John Cage, most well known as one of the key figures in the musical history of the 20th century. Using his chance theory principles for determining key words used in the piece, he described imagined scenes in which some of his favorite artists play roles. Although the texts of the three songs are comprised of two non-consecutive verses, together they form a fantastical story, rich with musical associations. The central figures in the two verses are Erik Satie and Conlon Nancarrow, an American composer much admired by John Cage. Nancarrow has written music exclusively for player piano(s) and recently gained wide recognition as an important 20th century composer. Louise Nevelson, also mentioned, is a famous American sculptress. In the music of the three songs, I sought connections with the musical associations in the text in the work of Cage, Nancarrow and
Satie. In the second song - Flat on the floor - for example, the singer joins the pianist playing a quote from one of the piano studies by Nancarrow. Much of the melodic material refers to permutations on melodies from Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes by Satie. In the first song, 'Satie is having trouble', pitch material was adapted from the First String Quartet by Cage. - CHRISTINA VIOLA OOREBEEK