Armando Bayolo (Unplanned) Obsolescence
for harpsichord and strings
Olibel Music
Armando Bayolo (Unplanned) Obsolescence
(Show Offs! Part I)
I. A Foot in Two Worlds (Moto Perpetuo) ................................................................1.
II. Spellbound Doubles ............................................................................................25.
III. Ligeti’s Clock ......................................................................................................41.
IV. The Myth of Return ...........................................................................................47.
Commissioned by the American Chamber Orchestra, Christopher Hisey, Music Director, and the Society for New Music in Syracuse, NY, Neva Pilgrim, Director, for harpsichordist Michael Delfín.
Written in the winter-spring, 2023 in St. Louis. Missouri
Duration: approx. 20 minutes
Instrumentation solo harpsichord (large, double manualed model recommended)
Strings (min. 11111)
Performance Note
For chamber performances with a single player per part, the gli altri sections should be ignored.
Program Note
(Unplanned) Obsolescence is the first piece in a cycle of four concertos titled, Show Offs! Its title is a reference to the history of the harpsichord as a solo instrument: the preferred keyboard instrument for ensemble playing of the late Baroque, it fell into disfavor with the introduction of the piano in the late 18th century (so much so that harpsichords were turned into fire wood at the Paris Conservatoire in the early 19th century). It came back into favor, however, in the 20th century with large concert instruments replacing the old Baroque models...which were then, in turn, replaced themselves by the old Baroque models.
(Unplanned) Obsolescence takes this history as its point of departure, but doesn’t comment on it in too much programmatic detail. Instead, it exploits the solo instrument and its relationship to the strings in various ways.
The first movement, “A Foot in Two Worlds (Moto Perpetuo)” is a running toccata typical of the Baroque, only its harmonic material is polytonal. Through the harpsichord’s multiple manuals, the soloist spends the majority of the movement with their hands divided between black keys and white keys. “Spellbound Doubles” is a set of free, continuous variations on a song I wrote in early 2023 to a poem by Emily Bronte, “Spellbound.” It’s possibly the most Baroque in form of the concerto’s four movements. It plays freely, however, with passing time, which often seems to stop in its unfolding. “Ligeti’s Clock” is a little process piece scherzo in the manner of the Hungarian composer Gyorgi Ligeti’s approach to minimalism. It’s a brief interlude on the way to the final movement, “The Myth of Return.” The melodies in this movement are the result of arranging and rearranging small cells of material in the manner of tiles in a mosaic. It attempts to unfold in something like a tripartite form, returning to its beginning, but unravels in the process. You can’t, after all, go home again.
(Unplanned) Obsolescence was written for harpsichordist Michael Delfín, a former student of mine whose brilliant trajectory I’ve been proud to follow and to whom the work is dedicated. It was cocommissioned by the American Chamber Orchestra, Christopher Hisey, Music Director, and the Society for New Music in Syracuse, NY, Neva Pilgrim, Artistic Director.
Bayolo St. Louis, Missouri
Armando
I.AFootinTwoWorlds(MotoPerpetuo) for Michael Delfín
(Unplanned)Obsolescence
Show Offs! Part I
ArmandoBayolo
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