“Argument" was
written in 1980 as an assignment for a piano pedagogy class with Dr. Susie
Francis Dempsey. We were to write a teaching piece and "give a
lesson" on it for the class. Oddly enough, this was the last piece I wrote
until 1990, when I began teaching in LaGrange. Maria Oliver Solomon gave the
first performance in LaGrange in the spring of 1991, if I recall correctly.
The two hands represent the two characters in the argument, passing short phrases back and forth between each other. Both hands are never in the same key, and rarely do they play together. In measures 5-8 and 21-24, they move apart, as two people may move away from each other in a heated discussion.
The piece is dry, accented, and brittle. Rhythm should be exact and metronomic, quarter note at 120. There is no melody per se, only rhythmic motives and "chords together and opposed” (Bartok).
All single eighth notes are detached, quarters held for full value. The left hand chord in measures 12 and 28 may be played with a flatted palm, rather than five fingers. If the hand cannot reach, no problem - if any notes have to be left out, better to leave out bottom ones than top ones.
Measures 15 and 16 exactly as written, with a sharp release on beat 1 of measure 16. Wind instrument players understand this concept better than pianists do.
The last two measures look very hard to play, but they are not. The right hand plays forearm clusters on the black keys, the left on white. Pitches are approximate. Start close to the top of the keyboard and alternate forearms down. The last "chord" is all on the white keys.
The argument does not come to blows; a door is slammed (final chord) as one of the protagonists leaves the room. Originally I had a double glissando here, but young hands had difficulty doing this. I changed it to clusters when Maria Oliver Solomon studied the piece, and in the end, this turned out to be the "hook" that people remember the piece by. I think it is a more effective ending than what was originally written.
The piece is full of crashing dissonances that young kids love to unleash themselves on, but is short enough that it does not become tiring to play or hear. As for the tone-cluster ending, it is "just enough" to take the piece over the edge and give it a "risqué" element.
The two hands represent the two characters in the argument, passing short phrases back and forth between each other. Both hands are never in the same key, and rarely do they play together. In measures 5-8 and 21-24, they move apart, as two people may move away from each other in a heated discussion.
The piece is dry, accented, and brittle. Rhythm should be exact and metronomic, quarter note at 120. There is no melody per se, only rhythmic motives and "chords together and opposed” (Bartok).
All single eighth notes are detached, quarters held for full value. The left hand chord in measures 12 and 28 may be played with a flatted palm, rather than five fingers. If the hand cannot reach, no problem - if any notes have to be left out, better to leave out bottom ones than top ones.
Measures 15 and 16 exactly as written, with a sharp release on beat 1 of measure 16. Wind instrument players understand this concept better than pianists do.
The last two measures look very hard to play, but they are not. The right hand plays forearm clusters on the black keys, the left on white. Pitches are approximate. Start close to the top of the keyboard and alternate forearms down. The last "chord" is all on the white keys.
The argument does not come to blows; a door is slammed (final chord) as one of the protagonists leaves the room. Originally I had a double glissando here, but young hands had difficulty doing this. I changed it to clusters when Maria Oliver Solomon studied the piece, and in the end, this turned out to be the "hook" that people remember the piece by. I think it is a more effective ending than what was originally written.
The piece is full of crashing dissonances that young kids love to unleash themselves on, but is short enough that it does not become tiring to play or hear. As for the tone-cluster ending, it is "just enough" to take the piece over the edge and give it a "risqué" element.
In the spring of 2005, a
student of Emily Moe performed this in recital in Chicago, Illinois, making
this the “farthest-away” performance of one of my pieces. Student Dylan Candelora performed it in the
spring of 2008, and I performed it in a recital in Roanoke, Alabama, in
September of 2008.
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