Triakontameron[1] is a suite of 30 pieces in six volumes for piano composed from 1919 to 1920 by Leopold Godowsky; each was written in a single day, and all are written in three-four time. The entire suite took Godowsky over five months (7 August 1919, Seattle - 20 January 1920, Chicago) to complete, with twenty being composed in Seattle, and the rest being composed intermittently between Los Angeles, New York, and the final piece in Chicago.[2] The pieces were not presented in order of composition.
The title was inspired by that of Boccaccio's Decameron. The work was written in a period of ten days, with the concept of the suite being a ten-day journey where ten people tell 100 stories.[2] Among the best-known excerpts of the suite are Alt Wien, Nocturnal Tangier, and Ethiopian Serenade.[3][4]
Music
- Volume I
- 1. Nocturnal Tangier (Seattle, 25 August 1919)
- 2. Sylvan Tyrol (Seattle, 7 August 1919)
- 3. Paradoxical Moods ((Seattle, 10 August 1919)
- 4. Rendezvous (New York, 5 February 1920)
- 5. Twilight Phantasms (Seattle, 12 August 1919)
- Volume II
- 6. The Pleading Troubadour (Seattle, 23 August 1919)
- 7. Yesteryear (Los Angeles, 13 October 1919)
- 8. A Watteau Paysage (Seattle, 10 August 1919)
- 9. Enchanted Glen (New York, 8 January 1920)
- 10. Resignation (New York, 14 January 1920)
- Volume III
- 11. Alt-Wien (Subtitled "Whose Yesterdays look backwards with a Smile through Tears") (Seattle, 8 August 1919) [also arranged for 2 pianos]
- 12. Ethiopian Serenade (Seattle, 22 August 1919)
- 13. Terpsichorean Vindobona (Seattle, 14 August 1919)
- 14. Whitecaps (Seattle, 24 August 1919)
- 15. The Temptress (Seattle, 11 August 1919)
- Volume IV
- 16. An Old Ballade (Seattle, 16 August 1919)
- 17. An American Idyll (Seattle, 27 August 1919)
- 18. Anachronisms (Seattle, 3 September 1919)
- 19. A Little Tango Rag (Seattle, 26 August 1919)
- 20. Whirling Dervishes (Los Angeles, 16 October 1919)
- Volume V
- 21. The Salon (Los Angeles, 27 October 1919)
- 22. An Epic (Chicago, 20 January 1920)
- 23. The Music-Box (Seattle, 31 August 1919)
- 24. Lullaby (Seattle, 17 August 1919)
- 25. Memories (Los Angeles, 18 October 1919)
- Volume VI
- 26. The Cuckoo Clock (Seattle, 28 August 1919)
- 27. Lament (Seattle, 19 August 1919)
- 28. Quixotic Errantry (Seattle, 18 August 1919)
- 29. Poëme Macabre (Los Angeles, 21 October 1919)
- 30. Requiem (1914/1918): Epilogue (Los Angeles, 24 October 1919)
References
- ^ "Works by Leopold Godowsky (1870 - 1938)". Rolf's Music Blog. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
- ^ a b "Triakontameron - Hyperion Records - CDs, MP3 and Lossless downloads". 2019-03-02. Archived from the original on 2019-03-02. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
- ^ Ewen 1959, p. 552.
- ^ "Review of Le festin d'Ésope and Other Works for Solo Piano". Notes. 60 (1): 290–295. 2003. ISSN 0027-4380. JSTOR 4487129.
Further Sources
- Ewen, David (1959). Encyclopedia of Concert Music. New York: Hill and Wang.
- Gornaya, I. N.; Kapustina, T. N. (June 26, 2023). "On the Genre Nature of Leopold Godowsky's Piano Cycle "Triacontameron"". Musical Journal of Northern Europe. 2 (10): 1–22.
- Saxe, L. A. (1957). "The Published Music of Leopold Godowsky". Notes. 14 (2). Music Library Association: 165–183. doi:10.2307/891677. JSTOR 891677.
External links
- Triakontameron: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
This page was last edited on 1 October 2023, at 22:20