Orchestral Composition of the Day, Installment 5:
Fantasypiece for Orchestra;
composed for violoncello and contrabass in 2001, arranged for orchestra in 2002;
duration: 12 minutes.
I have never said this outloud before other than long ago to the composer to whom I was speaking at the time but, in either version, 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.
As stated in the header, Fantasypiece for Orchestra is an arrangement of Fantasypiece for violoncello and contrabass. Anyone who knows anything about music composition and arranging knows what kinds of challenges are presented in seeking to take music which lies predominantly in the lower register, and imbue it with all the tone colors and upper registeral possibilities of an orchestra. The music in Fantasypiece still lies in the lower register a good deal of the time.
Those were the challenges I placed upon myself when I composed and arranged this piece: it is up to the listener to decide whether I succeeded. By the way, 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 for Orchestra on YouTube.
The full score and parts for Fantasypiece for Orchestra are available on rental from the publisher, ECS Publishing Group. Follow the next URL for rental contact information for their Rental Department.
Follow the next URL to purchase a copy of the full score of Fantasypiece for Orchestra from the publisher, Catalog No. 8410.
Follow the next URL to view and hear a high quality synthesized scrolling score music video of Fantasypiece for violoncello and contrabass on YouTube.
The duet version of Fantasypiece for violoncello and contrabass 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
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