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Piano Study #5 (for Just Fender Rhodes)

from CHANGE (ART 1023, 2002) by Larry Polansky

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(1977)

"Piano Study #5" is one of my earliest pieces, written for Fender Rhodes in a non-octave replicating, 13-limit just intonation. It is an improvisation in which the "prime-tonality" of the harmonic fabric slowly evolves (similar, in ways, to "Choir"). The score suggests that a folk tune be used as the basis for the improvisation through the different harmonies. I first performed it in 1977, and have performed it just a few times since. This is the first non-concert recording of the work.

The "score" and notes on the piece were published in "1/1, The Journal of the Just Intonation Network," 1985. For this new recording, the tune used is a Bahamian song, "When de Whale Get Strike," sung by David Pryor. The song was recorded by Alan Lomax in Nassau in 1935, and transcribed by Ruth Crawford Seeger for the book "Our Singing Country" (1941). "When de Whale Get Strike" is about the death of a comrade, and this recording is dedicated to the memory of my friend William Colvig, who was present at the work's premiere, and who loaned me a monochord to tune the piano.

When de whale get strike,
And de line run down,
De whale makes a flounder wid his tail;

And he upset de boat,
And I lost my darling man,
No more, no more greenland for you,
brave boys,
No more, no more greenland for you.

"Our Singing Country", MacMillan Company, 1941.

credits

from CHANGE (ART 1023, 2002), released August 9, 2002
Larry Polansky, retuned Fender Rhodes electric piano.

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Artifact Recordings San Francisco, California

ARTIFACT RECORDINGS is a project of Ubu, Incorporated, an artist-run, non-profit organization supporting experimental and electronic music based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our download and compact disk series is dedicated to representing a living experimental music tradition that continues to thrive in the cracks between the commercial, academic and classical music establishments. ... more

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