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Preludes
2003

piano 

duration 32' 

first performance: 
piano studio of Michael Lewin
Seully Hall, The Boston Conservatory / February 13, 2003

 SCORE
Twinkletoes
Neverness 
Nothing Will Stop 
" Moonlight Falls on my Flesh, a Breeze Circles my Wrist" 
The Walls of Bubastis 
"All Gone All Gone All Overgone . . . Ah!" 
Cold North Wind 
Vietnamese Boyfriend 
Oibscured Melkody 
Raindownriver 
The Four Susans 
Lowbrow/Flipside 

RECORDING

available at www//andyvores.bandcamp.com


digital

   compact disc
 

PROGRAM NOTE
This collection of twelve pieces was written as a direct counterpart to Debussy's first book of preludes. Each of these hommages takes as its starting point an opinion about its ancestor. Sometimes this leads to a reworking of the music, sometimes a retelling, sometimes a response to the atmosphere and temperature of the original. Always, however, there are multiple musical, literary, and technical connections between the two books–direct, paradoxical, or contrary.

Twinkletoes relates to Danseuses de Delphes (Dancers of Delphi) but here the dance is rooted in Broadway and funk 

Neverness is fleet and hazy and relates to Voiles (Veils/Sails) 

Nothing Will Stop relates to Le vent dans la plaine (The wind in the plain)and is a furious welter of crossed-hands 

" Moonlight Falls on my Flesh, a Breeze Circles my Wrist" relates to "Les sons et les parfums 
tournent dans l'air su soir" (The sounds and fragrances swirl through the evening air)but here the quotation (from Mark Strand) generates music of moonlit chilliness, not the sensuous warmth provoked by the Baudelaire quotation in the Debussy 

The Walls of Bubastis relates to Les collines d'Anacapri (The hills of Abnacapri) where the ancient Egyptian city dedicated to Bast, the Cat Goddess, is the exotic location 

"All Gone All Gone All Overgone . . . Ah!" relates to Des pas sur la neige (Footsteps in the snow) and is delicate and blank (the title is a quotation from Allen Ginsberg) 

Cold North Wind is quite opposite in feeling to Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Ouest (What the west wind has seen), being brittle and pointed

Vietnamese Boyfriend uses similar modal harmony to La fille aux cheveux de lin (The girl with the flaxen hair) to evoke an oriental as opposed to a bucolic Celtic image 

Oibscured Melkody relates to La sérénade interrompue (Interrupted serenade) but here it is mock Cuban and Mexican music which is interrupted instead of the idealized Spanish music of Debussy 

Raindownriver relates to La cathédrale engloutie (The submerged cathedral) and is full of the sounds of water accumulating 

The Four Susans plays off La danse de Puck (Puck's dance) although here Vivaldi makes an unexpected appearance 

Lastly, Lowbrow/Flipside recasts Minstrels (Minstrels) as a moody and hesitant jazzy adieu