w17369
| Title | Three Pieces on "the Webern theme" |
| Contributors |
Derek Ball (composer) |
| Composition date | 2007 |
| Duration (mins) | 2 |
| Category | instrumental keyboard solo |
| Instrumentation | Pf |
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| Key signature | |
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| First performed | |
| Notes | |
| Programme Note | In September 2007 I started work on a short opera on the subject of the accidental shooting of Anton Webern in September 1945 just after the end of the War. I was in no doubt that the piece must make extensive use of serial techniques, and so I began by constructing a Webernesque note-row. This row became merely on of many, through a technique of constant gradual renewal of the row, hence the term "starting theme" used in the titles of these pieces. From Webern's starting row, I derived - by a process of backwards mutation - a starting row for the second character in the opera, Ray Bell, the American army cook whose blundering nervousness caused him to fire the fatal shot. By a repeat the same process I derived another starting row for the third character, Benno Mattel, Webern's wheeler-dealing son-in-law, arguably the more culpable cause of the tragedy. I wrote these 3 little piano pieces as an aside, and amusing exercise, during the early stages of writing the opera. None of the music appears in this form in the opera itself. |
This work is associated with the following collection items:
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