Music archive entry

• Number One
• Number Two
• Number Three
• Number Four
• Number Five

This piece was written at the request of the Repetitiousness Piano Duo Players in New York State. The five duos are intended to be performed in order, but could be performed singly.

The first duo works through an angular phrase to a crescendo, following which a restrained melody is played in the upper part while a range of keys are held depressed in the lower part. The melody disintegrates, and the angular phrase returns in savage form.

The second assembles a tune from fragments, then sets off to play and vary it with great jollity, only to descend into aggression.

The third begins with mildly dissonant isolated chords, which struggle to develop momentum and melodic movement, but then suddenly accelerate into an irregular but exuberant two part melody which rises through the registers, only to dissolve again into isolated chords.

The fourth consists of different series of chords in each hand, played with substantial silences between, rising to a crescendo where at last all four hands play together, and then falling away again.

The last begins with a sarcastic peg-legged shuffle, building slowly into defiant aggression which, just as it is getting comical, goes beyond and becomes too awful not to be taken seriously.