Sketches for Contredanse

There are three ironies related to this nine minute piece for ensemble.  First of all, I do not have any plan to write ‘contredanse’ so far. ‘Contredanse’, or’the fair’ (1912-13), which I saw in Museum Kampa in Prague, is one of the masterpieces of Czech painter František Kupka (1871-1957).  At the same exhibition were also a handful of sketches for ‘Contredanse’, all of which explored his method to distort real images, inspiring me to compose this piece.  But I did not attempt to transcribe any one specific sketch, which is the second irony. Rather, they influenced me to examine and develop several ways to distort musical passages, mostly with rhythm, but also with timbre, and contrapunctal technique.

There are two contrasting movements: the first is an experiment about liquid, ‘curvy’ rhythm; the second is about solid, ‘angular’ rhythm.  The third irony is that even though they are experiments in rhythm,  the audience will hardly sense the experiment; rather, they will focus on musical expression suggesting some strong images.  I would rather abstain from mentioning specific images, so that the audience might have the opportunity to guess or imagine their own images.