Etudes Compositionnelles, Op. 38 (1975)

Description:

The Études Compositionnelles, written in 1974 for solo piano and orchestrated in 1975 for piano and orchestra, are a series of eight short musical pieces that address general issues of contemporary music composition.

The work is divided into two parts. In the first part (Études Nos. 1 to 5), the composer introduces the musical elements individually: rhythm, timbre, harmony, melody, and sound intensity or dynamics. The second part (Études Nos. 6 to 8), on the other hand, is entirely dedicated to the problem of musical form. Here, the form, with the contribution of the musical elements, is presented in three different aspects: first as a theme with variations; then as a juxtaposition of musical ideas developed according to serial technique; and finally as a free juxtaposition of thematic material, which culminates in concluding the entire work by referencing three musical themes borrowed from different works: the first from Stravinsky’s ballet Petrushka, the second from Olivier Messiaen’s The Angel of the Perfumes, and the third from a humorous Greek march – “Εγώ είμ’ εγώ, ‘βζωνάκι γοργόν” (“I am myself, a quick little Evzone”) – which the composer had used in an earlier work of his, the Eight Children’s Miniatures for Piano.

In the writing of the Études for piano and orchestra, Études Nos. 1 and 2 (for rhythm and timbre) and Nos. 3 and 4 (for harmony and melody) are played without an intermediate pause.

-This is a near-verbatim translation of Sicilianos’s Greek text.