2nd movement

Song of orchestra and piano

This 2nd movement consists of 8 very clear sections which are usually played either by the
orchestra or the piano. They rarely play together very rarely. Apart from a flute that joints
the piano section, there are very clear cuts. The next section will usually start with material
that harmonically speaking, makes sense. So I think it could be seen as one long, as you said,
song of a singer in a nightclub. But a very nightmarish, gloomy and truly sad place. This 1 st
page 3rd system 1st bar motif is gut wrenching. To resolve into a beautiful, bluesy, G713
chord in the 4th system 2nd bar. So there is the drunken chromatic singing - which perhaps
should be played out of time ? I don’t know if it works. – and the sad, colorful sections where
the song tells of experienced sadness. Billy Holiday comes to mind, something like her
‘Strange Fruit’, a song about black people being hanged from the trees. It’s so beautiful, but
so incredibly sad, and then with her raw voice it works. Who knows, check it out.
The 8 sections of the piece are thematically linked in every way. There’s the basic model and
this always used as the starting point. All the following material is taken from a phrase that
has been played before and is now twisted in some new manner. But then we would have to
say, is it a variation form ? But that’s the thing, it isn’t, at least I think so, because if we look
at the entire thing, we see a large chunk that forms a big A, then variation, and then A is
repeated with a small twist. So ABA, song-form. Perhaps that explains its song like quality.
So as for the keys, I reckon the whole thing is too chromatic to give clear key centers apart
from one section that could be perceived in Eb. For myself it helps to see everything within
the key of C. A lot of chords seem to make sense as dominants for functions that I can
explain within C. Sometimes you just have to go with the logic he provides because a lot of
spots are impossible to fully understand within tonal harmony. But nevertheless the chords
do make sense in their own weird way.
Hereunder an overview of the different sections and their tonal centers (as far as we can
work out, so where there’s no indication I haven’t got a clue but use C as a starting point). If
there are two Capitals per section means that you’ll find both melodies either being played
simultaneously or played separately but woven into one section.
Section : Keys :
A
A1

A2

A3

A4 Eb
A5

A6

A1

A2’

And now per section some detailed explanation :

A1 20th page 1st system 1 bar

A1 consists of two clear starting points, the second being the bar in which the 1st bar is repeated,
transposed up a major second. The harmony takes a different route the second time and quickly the
melody follows until it dissolves the 4th system 2nd bar.

For myself, the melody is based on these notes, G Bb C or C#, Eb, D or Db(as we will see later on), C
Bb , and then its transposition a major second lower. And this material is in its core, octatonic, except
for the odd note that doesn’t fit within the octatonic scale. The part from the 2nd system 2nd bar up
until the 3rd system 1st bar, is all written, except for the passing E, in the octatonic scale of A B C D D#
F F# G# A.

A lot of the chords and sounds in this entire movement are based on these harmonic devices with
the addition of regular dominant chords that differ from the octatonic sounding melody/chords, but
they have a major resemblance and its easy to switch from one to the other.

I reckon it could be interesting to make the other voices shine occasionally because the whole thing
is so chromatic and polyphonic. But maybe not the first A is what I’m thinking now, so perhaps later.

A2 20th page 4th system 3rd bar

The first couple bars are identical to A1, but at the exact spot where the L.H. plays an ascending
diminished chord in 32nd notes, the melody changes on the very last note, the B. From this moment
on we have something very similar to what’s happened in A1 except for the fact that it’s a major 3rd
later than the original. The following section is largely based on octatonic chords until it dissolves on
a C#, where the viola’s play a D#, very nice !

This part sounds mystic to me, the gut wrenching octatonic thing happen, and it all fades away and is
taken away by force through the violas. Magnificent.

A3 21st page 2nd system 3rd bar

An orchestral section will dominate the following A’s. Notice how the violas and celli take over the
same chord, it’s all A7 #11, or in other words, C# diminished, or the octatonic scale of C# D# E F# G A
Bb C#. As I said, the entire movement is full of this scale, and because of its frequent use the melodic
material will resemble each other. If we look at the first line of the 2nd violins, we see G Bb C Eb Db,
not only does it fit within the octatonic scale, but it’s in the exact shape as the melody of the first two
bars. The added minor third, played by the violas don’t interfere at all with the original melody
because the entire thing still fits within the scale for reasons that I can explain but maybe is not very
relevant.
In the following bar the 1st violins take over with a down bow (!) and a motif that the piano has
played many times in the first A sections, but in a different transposition of course. The double
basses add the very frequently played diminished motif, beautiful. The whole thing climaxed on the
first bar of the following page in (har 27) an E7#11 but with an intensely wrong suspension, a 4-3.

A4 22nd page 1st system 2nd bar

This section follows after a big E7 dominant chord, which works as a dominant for both A and Eb,
because of the tritone substitution thing. The following section is one that I can understand within
Eb, finally resolving into Eb minor, for a brief moment, in the 2nd system 3rd bar. After that we’re back
in the jungle.

I reckon that the whole thing is build on the melody of the first couple bars but with an added twist.
So we see the shape, it’s bigger, it extends to a 7th instead of a 6th, but nevertheless it sounds very
much like the beginning. After 4 bars the 1st violins start another attempt at a similar shape but with
a continuation that resembles one that we’ve heard before, and we have. In the 2nd system 4th bar
we are back for a moment in our original melody/harmony , to go back the following bar, leaving the
just the 1st violins and the violas - maybe there should be just one violinist playing this line from 22nd
page 1st system 2nd bar ? just thinking out loud, don’t know whether it’ll work – to dissolve and allow
the piano to enter back into the game.

A5 22nd page 3rd system 3rd bar

He enters with an incredibly beautiful, dissonant sounding chord that we’ve heard many times in
different transpositions throughout the piece. Maybe the following section should be played as a
dream, a memory, not belong in this part of the composition because it is weird. The piano has one
say in the B part, apart from that, the orchestration is very clear :

A – Piano

B – Orchestra/Piano

A – Piano

When the flute joins a couple bars later, it’s playing in a high register in which the flute player will be
able to command control over the dynamics. Perhaps it should be played very quietly, before the
orchestra comes in with Forte and take over again.

Melodically speaking, everything onwards is a repetition of the previous with the exception of a
different chord or note here and there. Still a lot of octatonic happening.

A6 23rd page 2nd system 2nd bar

I think this is too short, this truly is a composition mistake, because the sections are getting
fragmented by now. So the tricky thing is that you will have to make it sound logical in the following
A1 and A2. In other words, I need to feel the aesthetics of A1 again to put the section into context, I
think.

This section is an exact replica apart from the last 2 bars in which he ends with a series of resolving
dominants.
I will not discuss the following A1 and A2 because they are exactly the same, apart from two crucial
things.

24th page 1st system 2nd bar : this line in the L.H. is written Mezzo Forte, and I think it should
dominate the sound the following four bars. Maybe from here on you can experiment with different
voices ?

25th page 3rd system 1st bar : The third F# A should sound like a bell, I reckon. It has to be sustained all
the way to the G#, perhaps you can hold the pedal all the way up until the final chord and play the
third portato or something ? Please let me know how you would fix the technical problem.