RHAPSODIE ATOMIQUE (2008)
Dylan Schneider, piano
Not entirely sure how to proceed, in light of the starkly contrasted styles presented in the opening section, the pianist plays a chorale hymn (perhaps an arrangement of a dusty, old cowboy tune) in order to buy some time. The tranquility, however, is short-lived: intrusions of the opening begin to permeate this holy invocation of the boundless frontier, which is soon destabilized in favor of the fractured freneticism that begins the work. The busy-bodied textures of the first section now become further entangled in the business of one another. Blips of the “syncopated” music invade the particle music at nearly every opportunity, and each trespass arouses sentiments that range from melancholy to exasperation (not to mention a number of protests and grumbles along the way). By the end, the rival entities of the piece have negotiated a means of coexistence, a process that we hear unfold over the course of a vibrant finale, which walks a line between atomized chaos and a perverse rag.
Rhapsodie atomique was premiered on November 15, 2008, at a concert of the New Music Ensemble of the University of Chicago, with the composer at the piano. Subsequent performances included the 2012 Thailand International Composition Festival in Bangkok.
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Rhapsodie Atomique
for solo piano (2008)
Duration: 6 minutes
Premiere: November 15, 2008
Soloist: Dylan Schneider, piano
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Program Note:
Single notes surge across the keyboard like excited particles, in rhythms of twos and threes. Sometimes graceful and fluid, other times punchy and electric, the mechanistic texture of the opening resurfaces throughout the piece. Molecular attraction ensues, abruptly forcing the disjunct notes into stark chords. This gives rise to a passage with a pronounced “vertical” dimension, in which a lonely cantus firmus wanders among sharply stated simultaneities. A different kind of melody altogether infiltrates the music, surreptitiously laying the groundwork for a shameless coup—all set to the pace of a familiar, syncopated rhythm. It is this music that brings the opening section of the piece to a decisive close.
