Andrew Toovey - First Out (2016) for solo piano performed by Michael Finnissy

First Out (2016)
Performed by Michael Finnissy, First Out is dedicated to him on the occasion of his 70th Birthday (2016).

The piece, in three distinct sections, begins forcefully with 21 high clashing ffff! chords, venting the direct experience of loss through force and anger. Multiples of the number 7 (my ‘lucky’ number), in this case 21, are a regular and instinctive way of organising musical materials. There is no metronome indication as I felt the performer can decide exactly how long to let the semibreve chords resonate in the higher range of the piano. The next section is in immediate contrast, in that it is reflective and based on the music of Fredrick Chopin. I felt strongly about the idea of directly combining Chopin’s music with mine, so I chose 14 bars (Agitato section, modulation into B minor bars 88-101) of the left hand part of Chopin’s third Nocturne in B major to do this. I then added my own simple melodic line in the right hand in ascending and later descending crotchets that as this short section settles becomes minims.

The third, and final section, although also reflective in mood in contrast to the opening section of chromatically dissonant semibreve chords explores simple crotchet triadic chords (crotchet = 35bpm). It begins on a C major chord and gradually (over 59 triads) progresses to three chords, root C major, 2nd inversion F minor and 1st inversion Bb minor. Added to these chords is a simple melodic cell using the notes G, F and E. This is repeated 4 times and then a further 16 times with a short hiatus after 4 repeats to suggest a sentence structure rather than just continuous repetition. In this section of First Out the pianist is asked in the left hand to hold down a cluster of notes that enable the resonance to be more sustained and pick out the harmonic progression rather than cloud or fuse the pitches which the sustain pedal would do.

The title, First Out, was a friendly, almost ‘family’ LGBT café, just off Tottenham Court Road in London that I frequented for over twenty years, and is now gone and not replaced. I wanted to mark its existence, project a little anger (at the loss), nostalgia and pose the question are aspects of our lives really so integrated, accepted and normalised that such places are truly no longer needed?

The visual elements are a slow motion effect on an Anni Albers textile and photos of a watercolour by Paul Klee sometimes focused on different parts of the work.

[robertnettleship]

Wonderful piece :) 7 is my lucky number!