Miscellany from a Siskind

Program Notes – Weill Recital Hall, May 30, 2012

May 17, 2012 at 12:03 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Program Notes

Jeremy Siskind at Weill Hall

May 30, 2012

 

Such Harmonious Madness (world premiere)                                    Jeremy Siskind

 

1)   “Pourest thy full heart in profuse strains of unpremeditated art”

2)   “The pale purple even melts around thy flight”

3)   “The moon rains down its beams, and heaven is overflow’d”

4)   “Keen as are the arrows of that silver sphere”

5)   “Panted forth a rapture so divine”

 

Such Harmonious Madness was inspired by Miriam Gideon’s Of Shadows Numberless, which I performed in Weill Hall in February 2011. Just as Gideon’s suite draws inspiration for miniatures from phrases from Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale, my miniatures musically portray lines from another avian-themed romantic ode, Shelley’s Ode to a Skylark. Stylistically, the suite follows in the lineage of to Gideon’s pieces, Ravel’s Valses, and the preludes of Messaien and Debussy.

 

Études            (1913)                                                                                                Claude Debussy

 

Book 1

IV. Pour les sixtes

V. Pour les octaves

 

Book 2

I. Pour les degrés chromatiques

II. Pour les agréments

III. Pour les notes répétées

IV. Pour les sonorités opposées

V. Pour les arpèges composés

VI. Pour les accords

 

Debussy claims that he wrote his Études as a “warning” to students not to pursue careers as professional pianists unless they have “remarkable hands.” Yes, the pieces are remarkably difficult; but they offer much more than technical challenges! The Études include some of the most adventurous, wild, and haunting piano music Debussy ever wrote, and are – at turns – breathtakingly beautiful, fancifully surprising, and shockingly modern. A few words about each:

 

Pour les sixtes: The étude that introduced me to the collection, this remains one of my all-time favorite piano pieces. The sixths slink down the keyboard like the first ray of light delving into a sea of primordial darkness, coiling and uncoiling, before breaking into a lightning storm of repeated chords flashing over an insistent bass melody. This étude challenges the performer to achieve balance in hand and ear.

 

Pour les octaves: A regal dance that takes unusual harmonic turns, this étude invites the pianist to waltz across the piano with strength and elegance in equal measure.

 

Pour les degrés chromatiques: This exploration of half-steps demands swift  and precise movements in small spaces, imagining a nimble spider skittering across the keytops.

 

Pour les agréments: This étude focuses on ornaments, varying, elegant, and often elaborate, decorations of tones and chords. Debussy, who celebrated water in music the way Monet did in visual art, douses the piece in marine sounds – drippings, bubbles rising, rushing waves, and great seabeasts lurking in the deep. One can also hear hints of an absurdist orchestra – dainty pennywhistles, blatting brass, and regal timpani. 

 

Pour les notes répétées: The jubilant bouncing of the repeated note étude recalls an overambitious troop of jugglers, who – losing control – watch in horror as their wayward balls ricochet and scatter every which way. Perfection of repeated notes requires a close relationship with a piano, not only how a key descends but also how it rises.

 

Pour les sonorités opposées: The most unexpected étude of the collection, this is an aural exercise, requiring the pianist to musically validate the comingling of dissonant sounds. It begins as a heartbreaking dirge, presents a heroic martial theme in the middle, and marries the two in a pristine denouement. Debussy envisions an aural analogue to light’s pastelled refractions through a stained glass window.

 

Pour les arpèges composés: The penultimate étude is a delicate piece that challenges the pianist with unusual (and often uncomfortable) arpeggiated figures. The pianist must listen for the simple melodies floating over the chiaroscuro runs that relentlessly dribble up and down the piano.

 

Pour les accords: An exciting finale for the collection, this étude requires hundreds of leaps of faith, contortions of hand and body, and superhuman focus. With a contrasting middle section in an unmistakable ternary form, it is perhaps the most compositionally traditional of the group.

 

Black or White                                                                                    Michael Jackson

 

A lifelong fan of the “King of Pop,” I adopted “Black or White” as an unusual alternative to playing a traditional “blues” form. My arrangement weaves in an enthusiasm for Bach chorales.

 

More Mist Than Moon                                                                        Jeremy Siskind

 

The title of this piece is a line from Wallace Stevens’ poem “The Comedian As the Letter C.” The line begs the question – what’s the relationship between imagination and reality? Could it be that the world contains more mystery than solidity? More secrets than science? More music than silence?

           

Twilit Water, Vanished Music                                                            Jeremy Siskind

 

This title comes from a Seamus Heaney poem entitled “A New Song” and imagines the pastoral nostalgia that the line suggests.

 

The Inevitable Letdown                                                                        Jeremy Siskind

 

Whenever I have an exciting event in my life, I find myself saddened at it’s conclusion, because the anticipation is often more meaningful than the event itself. “The Inevitable Letdown” casts this feeling of disappointment as a burnt-out cabaret, smoke twisting to the ceiling, yellowing moonlight barely illuminating the worn-down regulars through the dirtied, splintering windows.

 

Too Young to Go Steady                                                                        Harold Adamson

 

Made famous by Nat Cole, “Too Young to Go Steady” has become one of my favorite ballads. The lyric presents a heartbroken youth who has been spurned because of his age; he bemoans, “She says I’m not ready / but then why am I feeling this way?” Tonight, I’m dedicating the piece to three important “young ladies” in my life – my piano teacher, Sophia Rosoff, and my two grandmothers, who have both travelled from the west coast to attend this performance.

 

Aubade                                                                                                Jeremy Siskind

 

I wrote “Aubade” after reading a poem entitled “Instantes” apocryphally credited to Jorge Luis Borges. The poem’s speaker is an eighty-year old man on his deathbed, who – although he’s lived a full life – wishes he had taken more chances. I encountered the poem around my 25^th birthday and – having something of a quarter-life crisis – was deeply moved by its carpe diem-style message, especially as I assumed it came from the Argentinean literary mastermind. An aubade is a song celebrating the coming of the sun.

 

Theme for a Sunrise                                                                                    Jeremy Siskind

 

A piece that I wrote while still in college, I recently revitalized “Theme for a Sunrise” with a lyric and a key change. The piece suggests the freshness and hope of a new day and celebrates the intercultural unity we may feel when considering how all of the world’s peoples are warmed by the same sun. 

Jeremy Does Something Bold

May 3, 2012 at 3:08 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

I’ve done something bold).

I’ve promised my two bandmates $1000 each to reserve 17 days of their time in July for a tour. I currently have 0 shows booked for which we’ve been promised a total of $0, which leaves me at -$2,000 for the trip so far!

What’s more, my band (piano-voice-woodwinds) isn’t suited for most jazz clubs. I’m planning to (apologies to Tennessee Williams) rely on the kindness of strangers. I’ll be booking house concerts all throughout the U.S., hopefully making money by asking for donations and selling CDs. I’ll be cold-calling music stores, piano tuners, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends, etc. in order to make it work. Hopefully, I’ll be meeting a lot of new people and having a lot of unexpected experiences, good and bad.

We’re planning to visit:

– Connecticut
– Rochester/Buffalo
– Detroit/Ann Arbor
– Chicago
– Wisconsin (Appleton? Green Bay? Milwaukee?)
– Minneapolis
– Indianapolis (Bloomington? Wabash?)
– Ohio (Columbus? Cleveland?)
– Pittsburgh

If you have friends in any of these places who might like to host a group of charming young people who play music that sounds like this, please let me know! They need to have a mostly-usable piano and they must be able/willing to invite 20-30 people. In return, they will get a night of music they will likely never forget.

Hopefully my bold move will play off…wish me luck!