Political Music

10/7/2013

3 Comments

 
It's been a while! Rameen asked me to jump back into it, and here I am.

I wanted to talk about a piece that I just studied in class, The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, by Frederic Rzewski. But there are a lot of things to discuss here before we dive in, so I'll do that.

This piece was written in 1979. It is extremely political in nature. Rzewski, a Marxist, wrote this piece to criticize the US's involvement in the Chilean coup. I'm foggy on most of the political details, as this is something that general history courses don't really cover, so we'll just leave it at that for the background of the piece.

The piece is a tour-de-force in piano writing - almost an hour of solo piano. It's a theme and variations... 36 variations, actually. The variations are broken into 6 groups of 6. The first five variations are the closest to the theme, and then the sixth variation is a summary variation ON THE PREVIOUS FIVE VARIATIONS. This goes on with sets 2-5. The sixth set is all variations of variations: the first five variations in that set summarize the material in the first five sets of variations, and then the very last variation summarizes that. So, variation 36 is a summary variation of the summary variations of the whole set of variations. Meta music!

The album I put on the Spotify playlist includes a rendition of the original song, which is handy.

I highly recommend you follow the score along with this piece. Here's the score:
http://vkgfx.com/scores/rzewski/rzewski_people.pdf

Compare what you see with what you hear. For example, Variation 1 is completely tonal. You wouldn't really easily recognize it by looking at it, but that is just the melody and bass line with wild registral variation. The second variation is much the same, with added suspensions. 

Also, try to keep the theme in mind through the wilder variations. Even when it becomes completely atonal, the theme often fits in there.

The entire piece weaves in and out of tonality. I won't go into the set theory behind it, but it's amazing how well-organized it is. I will say that much of the atonal variations, particularly in the 4th set, are based on a set that's created from alternating half steps and perfect fifths.

Also you get fun things like singing, whistling, slamming the lid, and other cool effects. Variation 5 is just one of the coolest things ever.

I could go on - for pages and pages - but I think, at this point, it's best if I just have you all listen to it and join in our conversation.

People other than Molly and Rameen - please join our conversation! The more the merrier. Let me know 
3 Comments
Rameen
10/13/2013 09:30:22 am

Wow, I just finished and I need to say, I loved this! I'll post more specific thoughts later on my favorite movements (I really liked the somewhat pentatonic movement - I think it was in the first set or two?), but for now, a few thoughts:

1. I loved listening to this with the score and catching little bits and pieces of the theme, especially when I got lost. Even in the atonal sections, there were brief moments where I thought, "Was that the theme?" It was a fun riddle to solve.

2. The mileage he got from just that one theme is really amazing.

3. I kept thinking, "that poor pianist!" This must be one of those "I know I can make it when I can play this!" pieces.

4. After a while, I started to confuse his versions of the theme with the theme itself, which was kind of funny to me, but which also speaks well to the memorability of the composer's melodies. Even the atonal stuff was pretty memorable.

5. Does literally each moment include the theme, or is it only most of them? I wasn't sure how far he went with it. Obviously it's not literally happening at every moment - there's some transitional material - but how about in every movement?

6. I have to wonder...would this piece be as fun if I didn't know that every movement included the theme, and if I weren't looking at the score as I listened to it? There's of course some really quality material in here, and I could definitely sit through it, but how much of its entertainment value would be lost without the "musical riddle" aspect to solve? Just a thought.

Again, I'll add more thoughts later, but for now, I just wanted to say that I really loved it. Maybe one of my favorite piano pieces ever.

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Michael link
10/14/2013 01:52:57 am

I just wanted to jump in and give a little quick info in regards to something Rameen said:

There are actually other themes in this. In the fifth set of variations - which is the one that is farthest from the theme - there are a few other folk and revolutionary songs quoted.

The pianist on this recording is the composer, Rzewski himself. There are other great recordings of this by other pianists, but I picked this one because he actually did all of the optional things in the score. Most other recordings I found left out one or more of the optional parts.

Each variation is based on the theme, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the theme is constantly present. In sets 1-4, the theme can essentially be laid on top of what's going on, as the metric layout is the same. Set 5 is more all over the place, and then 6 gets back to being regular.

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Molly
10/14/2013 02:09:37 am

Thanks for suggesting this piece, Michael. I enjoyed listening to it. Some stray thoughts:

-I really like the initial theme. And I like how it is harmonized when it's first persented, and again at the end. It would be really hard to listen to something like this if I didn't like that theme, but I expect I'll be humming it all day.

-I would love to hear this performed live, mostly because it is such a showpiece for the pianist. I'm picturing him (or her) all sweaty and grimacing.

-I definitely picked up on the whole, variation, variation, variation, now lets go back over what we just heard, pattern. I think it gives the whole thing a sense of cohesion. (of course, the theme gives it cohesion, but, you know...)

-If I was a pianist, all those clef changes would drive me bats.

Finally, here's a thought, that might be a little contrived, but whatever: I got kind of fixated on the word "United" from the title and how it is represented in the music. I think that there are definite moments in the score that represent the concept of t"he people united," like where you have nice, even pacing, and tonal (if jazzy) harmoy, versus the moments where there is octave displacement, stopping and starting of the tempo, and no real sense of musical line, where the music sounds more chaotic, and here the "people" are perhaps growing divided? I found myself wondering, as I was listening whether the piece would end with a sense of "unity" or chaotic division. I was pleased to find that unity won out.

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