Upside Dances

ENS.2008.5 | 10′
Written for Timo Andres
Solo Piano

Score

1. Stumbling Dance

2. Running Dance

Performed by Timo Andres (piano)


Timo thought the movement order was Running Dance and then Stumbling Dance, which is pretty funny and maybe says something about our respective personalities and outlooks on life? Except that I would have thought it was the opposite…

At any rate, these two movements mirror one another and interlock, sharing musical ideas, so that the conclusion of Stumbling Dance reappears transformed at the opening of Running Dance, and the piece returns in the end to where it began.

Throughout, simple rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic cells revolve around one another like a Calder mobile, continuously changing their relationship to one another. Since there’s no fundamental version of any musical idea, everything is a variation of a variation, like different translations of a poem originally written in a language you can’t read.

As for the title, it means whatever you think it means.