Hommages and Prelude No. 1
Piano Solo - Digital Sheet Music

Piano Solo - Level 5 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1383996

Composed by David Fraser. 20th Century,21st Century,Classical,Romantic Period. Score. 178 pages. David Fraser #968350. Published by David Fraser (A0.1383996).

This volume contains five solo piano pieces expertly crafted and meticulously edited for accuracy. Advanced pianists will welcome the technical challenges and heights of musicality these works require. Music terminology for ‘Le Cygne noir’ and ‘L'océan’ are in French, with regard to the dedications of these pieces. All other works use conventional music terminology in Italian. 178 pages. ISMN 979-0-800277-00-9.

David Fraser wrote the first 41 measures of ‘Rhapsody No. 1’ in 1997 and subsequently completed this piece and all other works in this volume over the course of six months in 2019. When playing the original 41 measures of ‘Rhapsody No. 1’ in 2019, Fraser noted that the music had some resemblance to works by Sergei Rachmaninoff. This encouraged Fraser to compose the remainder of this piece in a manner reminiscent of Rachmaninoff and, consequently, author a suite of solo piano pieces as homages to some of his favorite composers. In Rachmaninoff’s famous ‘Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43’, variation 18, the composer uses an upside-down inversion of a small melody by Paganini. Similarly, Fraser uses a backwards inversion of a small melody from Rachmaninoff’s variation for the Rhapsody’s “Adagio” section, which starts on Page 3.

Le Cynge noir {The Black Swan} is the second piece Fraser authored, dedicated to his beloved piano composer, Maurice Ravel. In this piece, Fraser wrote in his own style while evoking images such as a swan gliding on a lake, peering at its reflection in the water, and taking flight into the clouds with its wings rustling in the wind. Fraser gleaned inspiration for this piece from Ravel’s song for voice and piano ‘Histoires naturelles - Le cygne’, set to a poem by Jules Renard. In addition, Fraser alternates between the keys of C-sharp major and A major as a depiction of the magical swan’s internal conflict in choosing to exist as a black or white swan.

Fraser’s third composition is ‘Sonata No.1 Gothic’, dedicated to Sergei Prokofiev, not as a representation of this genre of music, but in form. Specifically, Fraser uses a similar structure in Movement 1, starting at Measure 72 marked “più mosso e con abbandono”, to the notoriously difficult “colossale” section of Prokofiev’s ‘Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 16’, Movement 1. The sonata’s Movement 3 also follows a structure parallel to Movement 4 of Prokofiev’s aforementioned piano concerto, employing fiendishly challenging syncopated jumps in both hands. Written in ternary form, Movements 1 and 3 of Fraser’s sonata are in C minor; Movement 2 is in E-flat minor, instead of the expected relative or dominant key. This work has explosive sentiments of rage that elicit a sense of immensity and darkness, touching on the macabre yet maintaining an alluring nature. 

The fourth piece of this suite, ‘L'océan {The Ocean}’ dedicated to Claude Debussy, uses whole-tone scales throughout as lyrical motifs. The composition unfolds with the allusion of the sun glimmering on ocean waves, followed by the playfulness of eddies and gusts of wind. These themes merge into one another as the wind increases in ferocity, culminating in the start of a storm with sudden strikes of lightning preceded by the reverberation of thunder. The pitter-patter of rain on the water steadily evolves into a full tempest that engulfs the middle section of the piece. As the storm subsides and the ocean calms, night has fallen and the twinkling of stars in the firmament are reflecting upon the water. The piece ends with the return of the opening theme as the sun swiftly rises above the ocean on the horizon.

Prelude No. 1 L'adieu {The Farewell} offers rich and lush harmonies with an enticing melody. This piece was written in memoriam to Fraser's mother.