Stanley Friedman Paying the Piper for piccolo flute and harpsichord

About Paying the Piper

Juxtaposition of two incongruous musical ideas

Based on a synthetic nine-pitch scale and its augmented triad complement, the frenetic motivic development of the opening statement collides with the simple tonality of an innocuous neo-Rococo melody. The juxtaposition of these two incongruous musical ideas was inspired by the opening and closing of conservatory practice room doors. In one room, young musicians furiously try to master «modern music», with its unrelenting technical challenges and clashing dissonance. The disjunct scale patterns are subjected to many repetitions, often interrupted at irregular intervals. In another room, students rather self-consciously try to achieve an «authentic» early Classical style by relentlessly plumbing the shallows of a vacuous tune.