BROWN
Forgotten Piece for One to Four Pianos
Full Score
EARLE BROWN Forgotten Piece
for One to Four Pianos (ca. 1954)
EDITION PETERS
L E I P ZI G · L ONDO N · NE W YOR K
Forgotten Piece is a fragment, the beginning of a piece that remained unfinished. Originally composed for four pianos, it was written in a similar style as Twenty-Five Pages (1953) and Four More (1956). Earle Brown rediscovered it in 1994, and gave it to pianist David Arden, who arranged it for one piano.
Actually, I just discovered it in my manuscripts, one day. It is written for four pianos. We did a concert for multiple pianos, in the early days, and I think I must have written it for that particular concert. But I never finished it, and I forgot about it. When David Arden said he wanted to record the complete piano works, it occurred to me that it was a very viable piece, and that he could make a version for the piano. What David has done is quite remarkable: he begins by playing Piano I through. Then he repeats it, this time adding Piano II, then he adds Piano III, then Piano IV. By now, he is playing all four parts with only two hands! He then reverses the process, ending up with Piano I alone.
I think it works really well!
Earle Brown, excerpt from an interview with John Yaffe, 1995
Depending on the chosen tempo, the two and a half staves of music per piano would be relatively brief if played by four pianos as written. Arden’s choice to play the material in the sequence described above represents a selection of four of the fifteen possible combinations: The bold numbers represent David Arden’s selections.
Based on Brown’s approval of Arden’s interpretation, a performance for four pianos may consist of any number of the fifteen possible combinations of parts, played in any order, at common tempos chosen by the pianists (defined by time per staff in seconds). This principle also applies to performances for one, two, or three pianos.
Arden’s arrangement is one version of the many possible permutations of the material.
FORGOTTEN PIECE (1954)
Earle Brown (1926–2002)
Edition Peters 11111
© 2007 by Henry Litolff’s Verlag Ltd & Co. KG, Leipzig
Earle Brown
Earle Brown was born in 1926 in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, and in spirit remained a New Englander throughout his life. A major force in contemporary music and a leading composer of the American avantgarde since the 1950s, he was associated with the experimental composers John Cage, Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff, who – together with Brown – came to be known as members of the New York School. Brown died in 2002 at his home in Rye, New York.
Earle Brown wurde 1926 in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, geboren und blieb im Geist ein Leben lang Neuengländer. Ab den 1950er Jahren war er eine treibende Kraft in der zeitgenössischen Musik und einer der führenden Komponisten der amerikanischen Avantgarde. Enge Verbindung unterhielt er zu den experimentellen Komponisten John Cage, Morton Feldman und Christian Wolff, mit denen gemeinsam er später der sogenannten New York School zugerechnet wurde. Brown starb 2002 in seinem Haus in Rye, New York.