Emily Howell - From Darkness, Light - 1. Prelude

Disc: From Darkness, Light Album: From Darkness, Light Name: 1. Prelude Track: 01 Author: Emily Howell Year: 2007 -------------------------------------------------- - Opus 1 - This six-movement for two pianos is built on a decidedly triadic base. However, the musical syntax no longer follows traditional tonal order. The six movements follow a prelude-fugue pairing and the work could have easily been titled Three Preludes and Fugues for Two Pianos. The first movement of From Darkness, Light reminds one of a Romantic variant of a Bach prelude from his Well-Tempered Clavier. This movement consists almost entirely of upward flowing sixteenth notes relentlessly progressing through a chromatic and triadic chord progression. The fugal second movement has a definite jazzy feel to it, probably achieved through a “blues-like“ chromaticism and a sense of syncopation achieved through on-beat sixteenth-note rests. The third movement begins softly with repeated thirty-second note fragments and slowly grows dynamically into a petulant cadential conclusion. The fourth movement (second fugue) includes an extraordinary length principal theme (thirteen measures in 4/4 meter). The fifth movement (third prelude) calls and responds between pianos in its first theme contrasted with a decidedly different middle section evoking a quasi-operatic drama. The final section of this movement returns to a variation of the initial material. The final movement (and final fugue) in some ways resembles the work’s initial fugue, having a “jazzy“ bent to it, with the work ending with a fast rush of sound. From Darkness, Light requires that the two pianists negotiate severely gymnastic technical demands while keeping within a tight ensemble performance.