Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
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Petite Suite - (2019)
Les photos dans une salle d'attente
Dr. med. Jürgen Reitemeyer gewidmet
As the fine eye surgeon, Jürgen Reitemeyer, was at his magical work on my wife's behalf, I sat in his waiting room, the walls decorated with black and white photographs by the Parisian artist, Robert Doisneau (1912-1994) Of Doisneau, one reads: "When he died in April 1994, he left behind 450,000 negatives that tell an entertaining story of his time with a tender and observant eye, which must not hide the depth of his thought, his irreverent attitude toward power and authority, his relentlessly free-thinking mind." Atelier Robert Doisneau, 2014.
Surveying the photo attentively framed, while waiting, this little "exhibition" echoed the grandiose Pictures at an Exhibition of Mussorgsky, and I mulled over a number of pictures with musical thoughts in mind. For this a little gesture of the same tones acts to introduce segments of this little suite. Thereafter the first picture is characterized in a carousel waltz, haltingly at first, and thereafter whimsical.
Detail from Le Manege de Monsieur Barre
The next photo captures a working man hauling linked carnival horses, which for Parisian children must have been so adventuresome, but not for the working man removing them.
Detail from La cavalerie du Champs de Mars
After another small interlude of "waiting," a lyrical melody sings of romance over arpeggios of the diatonic major.
Detail of Le Baiser de l’Hôtel de Ville
With so many photos all in black and white, there is self-referential humor in Doisneau's various visual references to black and white, from a wedding dress and suit, as from a worker from his labor to the well-scrubbed hostess of the bar, and so on. Musical references then take the opportunities of dissonances as of harmonic minor and major thirds.
Detail from Café Noir et Blanc, Chez Gégène, avenue Galliéni, Joinville-le-Pont
To bring the suite to its close, a little fughetta with minor and major components is offered, along with "wedding bells" and jocularity.
7 pages, circa 9' 00" - an MP3 demo is here:
The score is available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this piano score.
