Andrew Toovey — Preludes and Schrott (2017) for piano

Andrew Toovey (b. 1962) — Preludes and Schrott (2017) for piano
Carson Cooman, piano

The composer writes: “‘Preludes and Schrott’ (2017) consists of 14 short pieces: 7 Preludes and 7 Schrott, each of 20 bars of 4/4 time signature with the last four bars repeated, all slow in tempo. Dedicated to Rob Roberts and Bob Goldsmith, the Preludes are all (except Prelude 6) semi-breve chords which tend to alternate between dissonant and consonant harmonies. [The chords in the preludes can also be re-ordered and repeated.] The Schrott pieces, in contrast, have simple melodic lines with chordal harmony as accompaniment. The word ‘Schrott’ is German for garbage or rubbish. The notion of simple melodic/harmonic pieces being rubbish and the choice to use the German word as opposed to an English equivalent potentially encapsulates the idea that prevails in parts of the German new music scene (that I have witnessed in various festivals of music in Germany) that any music that does not contain a high level of complexity is less culturally significant and therefore Schrott.”

English composer Andrew Toovey (b. 1962) was born in London and studied composition with Jonathan Harvey, Michael Finnissy, and briefly with Morton Feldman. He holds degrees from Surrey University, the University of Sussex, the University, of London, and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Toovey’s work embraces widely diverse influences, from music such as that by Feldman and Finnissy, or from the poetry of Artaud, Cummings, and Rilke, and reflects his passion for 20th-century visual art, especially that by Bacon, Beuys, Davies, Hayter, Klee, Miro, Newman, Rauschenberg, Riley, Rothko, and the Outsider Artists. It has been performed throughout the UK, Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the USA, and has featured at the Bergen, Brighton, Gaudeamus, Huddersfield and ISCM festivals and at the Darmstadt and Dartington International Summer Schools. It is also frequently broadcast, on BBC Radio 3 and by various European radio stations. Since 1982 he has written more than 100 pieces for orchestra, large ensemble, chamber groups and many solo instruments as well as opera.

0:00 | 1. Prelude 1
2:36 | 2. Schrott 1
4:23 | 3. Prelude 2
8:35 | 4. Schrott 2
10:31 | 5. Prelude 3
14:06 | 6. Schrott 3
15:46 | 7. Prelude 4
18:56 | 8. Schrott 4
20:25 | 9. Prelude 5
22:12 | 10. Schrott 5
24:19 | 11. Prelude 6
26:30 | 12. Schrott 6
28:40 | 13. Prelude 7
31:28 | 14. Schrott 7