Night fantasies

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Night Fantasies (German: "Nachtfantasien") is a composition for piano solo by Elliott Carter, completed in November 1980 and lasting around 20 minutes.

Emergence

The pianist Ursula Oppens and the pianists Charles Rosen , Gilbert Kalish and Paul Jacobs commissioned the work, Carter dedicated it to them. The American Music Center of New York made the order possible with a so-called matching grant . The New York State Council for the Arts , the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, and the Kaplan Fund contributed funding. Carter worked on Night Fantasies from November 1978 to April 1980 , the first major work for piano solo since his piano sonata of 1946.

Carter had a special relationship with the four clients. When composing the piano part for his orchestral concert (1968–1969), he had Paul Jacobs, the pianist of the New York Philharmonic, in mind. Charles Rosen had long been a masterful interpreter of Carter's music and had made the piano sonata (1946) his standard repertoire. Ursula Oppens interpreted Carter's works at many events and Gilbert Kalish gave the premiere of the duo for violin and piano.

Carter's 1001-page sketches for the piece are now in the possession of the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel. The majority of the sketches are made on paper with 24 staves measuring 13.5 × 21 inches. Carter typically cut each sheet in half to make two sheets of 13.5 by 10.5 inches. There are also 72 unlined sheets of 8.5 × 11 inches on which there are tempo modulations or other rhythmic notes. In addition, the Paul Sacher Foundation stores a handwritten draft of the entire piece, marked with Night Fantasies [/] Final Sketch , a pencil-made fair copy on parchment labeled 1st complete edition, April 14, 1980 correct [ed] April 21, ("first complete version, April 14, 1980, corrected on April 21") and a copy of bars 1–197 of the parchment version on thick cardboard with some repairs, mainly to the dynamics, which is labeled with Early draft of 1st Part ("Early draft of the first part").

character

In the foreword to the music edition, Carter describes Night Fantasies “as a piano piece with ever-changing moods that mimicked the fleeting thoughts and feelings that carry the mind through a period of nocturnal insomnia. The quiet, nocturnal evocation with which it begins and to which it sometimes returns is interrupted by a flighty sequence of short phrases that appear and disappear. This section is followed by many other parts of different character and length, which sometimes break in abruptly and at other times develop gently from what was previously past. The piece would culminate in a loud, obsessive, periodic repetition of an expressive chord which, dying, leads the work to its conclusion. "

“In this score, I wanted to capture the fanciful, changeable quality of our inner life at a time when it is not dominated by strong, directive intentions or desires - to capture the poetic moodiness that, in an earlier romantic context, I enjoy in the works of Robert Schumann like Kreiserliana, Carnaval and Davidsbündlertänze. "

“In these notes I wanted to capture the imaginative, mutable characters of our soul life at a time when it is not dominated by strong directed intentions or desires. I wanted to capture the poetic emotional fluctuations that I - in an earlier, romantic context - enjoyed in the works of Robert Schuhmann, such as Kreisleriana, Carnaval and Davidsbündlertänze. "

- Elliott Carter in the preface to the music edition

structure

Harmony

Carter's Night Fantasies is harmoniously based on a group of twelve-tone all-interval chords in which each of the twelve possible tones and - between the successive tones - each of the eleven possible intervals occurs exactly once.

rhythm

The higher-level rhythmic structure is determined by a polyrhythm that consists of two pulses. The faster pulse occurs approximately every 5.5 seconds, the slower one every 7 seconds. Both coincide only on beat 1 of measure 3 and - 20 minutes later - on the last sound of the piece in measure 516. This polyrhythm runs through the entire piece in a variety of time signatures and tempos.

First performances

  • Ursula Oppens: Bath International Music Festival, Bath , Great Britain, June 1980
  • Paul Jacobs: 92nd Street Y, Kaufmann Concert Hall, New York, USA, November 1981
  • Gilbert Kalish: Badenweiler Musiktage, Badenweiler , Germany, November 1982
  • Charles Rosen: Toronto , Canada, March 1981

Recordings

  • Eric Huebner: Eric Huebner plays Schumann, Carter, and Stravinsky, New Focus, 2015
  • Håkon Austbø : Wanted , Aurora ACD5071, 2012
  • Paul Jacobs: Elliott Carter: A Nonesuch Retrospective, Nonesuch 510893-2, 2009
  • Ursula Oppens: Oppens Plays Carter , Cedille, 2008
  • Pierre-Laurent Aimard : Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit; Carter: Night Fantasies , Warner Classics 2564 62160-2, 2005
  • Winston Choi: Elliott Carter: Complete Piano Works, l'empreinte digital ED 13164, 2003
  • Florence Millet : Elliott Carter: Night Fantasies; 90+, Pianovox PIA 501-2, 1998
  • Charles Rosen: Elliott Carter: The Complete Music for Piano, Bridge Records 9090, 1997 
  • Ursula Oppens: American Piano Music of Our Time, Music & Arts MUA 862, 1995
  • Stephen Drury: Contemporary Piano Music , Neuma 450-76, 1991
  • Ursula Oppens: Carter: Night Fantasies; Adams: Phrygian Gates, Music & Arts CD 604, 1989
  • Aleck Karis: Chopin, Carter, Schumann , Bridge Records BCD 9001, 1986
  • Paul Jacobs: Elliott Carter: Night Fantasies; Piano Sonata, Nonesuch 79047, 1983
  • Charles Rosen: Elliott Carter: Night Fantasies; Piano Sonata, Etcetera ETC 1008, 1983

reception

  • Charles Rosen called Night Fantasies "perhaps the most extraordinary great composition for a keyboard instrument that was written after Ravel's death."
  • Jeremy Grimshaw states that Night Fantasies has “... an unusual mutual energy between performer and composer, which is particularly evident in the recordings of the four dedicators. Carter knows these resources very well and uses them to the full. "
  • Composer and former Carter student David Schiff notes that “... works like Night Fantasies - although extremely difficult to learn and perform - are not extroverted show pieces, rather they appear to be intense acts of self-communication be."

literature

  • Elliot Carter: Night Fantasies. Hal Leonard, 1996, ISBN 978-0-79355255-9 .
  • John Link: The Composition of Elliott Carter's Night Fantasies. In:  Sonus,  14, no.2, 1994.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Elliott Carter: Night Fantasies . Associated Music Publishers Inc.- Hal Leonard, S. 2 .
  2. ↑ Mark Swed: 'Fantasies' for the wide-eyed . In: Los Angeles Times . April 10, 2008, ISSN  0458-3035 ( latimes.com [accessed January 15, 2018]).
  3. ↑ a b c d John Link: The Composition of Elliott Carter's Night Fantasies . Ed .: William Paterson University.
  4. ↑ a b c d Night Fantasies, for piano | Details | AllMusic. Retrieved January 15, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b Night Fantasies for piano (1980) | Compositions | Elliott Carter, composer. Retrieved January 15, 2018 (American English).