Chamber Music Work of the Day, Installment 4:
"Fantasypiece"
for
Violoncello and Contrabass
(2001)
"Fantasypiece" is my best attempt at a quiet musical homage to my client, mentor, and friend, Daniel Pinkham (1923–2006). He was a famously multi-talented musician, and a delightful, ebullient man who it seemed always told you a new joke whenever he saw you; he really had a zest for life. I had the honor of editing a great many editions of his compositions and arrangements while I was Editor at ECS Publishing Group from 1998-2021, some of them even after his having passed away from leukemia.
When one is exposed to so much of any composer's music at such close range, one cannot help but to grasp the intent of the composer's musical language. This is true no matter who the composer is. I absorbed a lot of musical information during those years.
To distill the musical language of a composer as gifted Dan was down to the three words "wrong note harmonies" is a gross simplification of what is actually going on in Dan's enormous, elegantly-crafted catalog of titles. In any case, if it was one's intent to compose a quiet homage to a colleague, then one could not attempt to embody that then still-living person in one's music. Rather, the only choice was for me to channel the way Dan made me feel when I was in his presence into a melody filled with implied wrong note harmonies which became the basis of the musical language for "Fantasypiece".
To add another layer of complexity to the melody, its pitches also include letters from the names of the two musicians for whom I originally composed "Fantasypiece", violoncellist Emmanuel Feldman, and contrabassist Pascale Delache-Feldman, who were then known as The Axiom Duo, later renamed Cello e Basso. I am so fond of the Tango climax of this piece that I have used that melody in a number of other compositions of mine.
Follow the next URL to view and hear a high quality synthesized scrolling score music video of "Fantasypiece" on YouTube.
"Fantasypiece" is available for sale from the publisher, ECS Publishing Group, Catalog no. 8409 - two scores per order.
Chamber Music Work of the Day, Installment 4: "Fantasypiece" for
Violoncello and Contrabass (2001)
"Fantasypiece" is my best attempt at a quiet musical homage to my client, mentor, and friend, NEC's very own Daniel Pinkham (1923–2006). He was a famously multi-talented musician, and a delightful, ebullient man who it seemed always told you a new joke whenever he saw you; he really had a zest for life. I had the honor of editing a great many editions of his compositions and arrangements while I was Editor at ECS Publishing Group from 1998-2021, some of them even after his having passed away from leukemia.
When one is exposed to so much of any composer's music at such close range, one cannot help but to grasp the intent of the composer's musical language. This is true no matter who the composer is. I absorbed a lot of musical information during those years.
To distill the musical language of a composer as gifted Dan was down to the three words "wrong note harmonies" is a gross simplification of what is actually going on in Dan's enormous, elegantly-crafted catalog of titles. In any case, if it was one's intent to compose a quiet homage to a colleague, then one could not attempt to embody that then still-living person in one's music. Rather, the only choice was for me to channel the way Dan made me feel when I was in his presence into a melody filled with implied wrong note harmonies which became the basis of the musical language for "Fantasypiece".
To add another layer of complexity to the melody, its pitches also include letters from the names of the two musicians for whom I originally composed "Fantasypiece", violoncellist Emmanuel Feldman, and contrabassist Pascale Delache-Feldman, who were then known as The Axiom Duo, later renamed Cello e Basso. I am so fond of the Tango climax of this piece that I have used that melody in a number of other compositions of mine.
Follow the next URL to view and hear a high quality synthesized scrolling score music video of "Fantasypiece" on YouTube.
"Fantasypiece" is available for sale from the publisher, ECS Publishing Group, Catalog no. 8409 - two scores per order.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Stanley M. Hoffman, PhD
Biography Published in Grove Music Online (The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Oxford University Press)
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