• John McCabe
  • Scrunch for Piano (Study No 8: Omaggio a Domenico Scarlatti) (2001)

  • Novello & Co Ltd (World)
  • piano
  • 6 min

Programme Note

John McCabe’s ongoing cycle of studies for piano are strikingly individual stand-alone works, some very substantial in length, composed variously throughout the career of a composer of one of the most significant œuvres of contemporary piano music by any living composer. The piano studies share with the sets by Chopin, Debussy and Ligeti their narrow scrutiny of a small set of pianistic or compositional problems.

I was delighted and honoured that, amongst such a fine collection of studies, Scrunch (Study No 8 – Omaggio a Domenico Scarlatti) and, more recently, Snowfall in Winter (Study No 9 – Hommage à Debussy) were written for me. I adore the quirkiness of Scrunch, a humour not unreminiscent of Haydn, along with stylistic elements derived from one of the other great keyboard composers, Scarlatti, in particular his Sonatas in A Minor (L429) and D Major (L206). Composed in 2000-2001 and described by the composer as essentially a jeu d’esprit, Scrunch is a dizzying toccata with jazzy rhythmic interplay. Its middle section contains a succession of oddly fanciful episodes, amounting to a thrilling experience for the performer and listener alike.

Programme Note © Copyright 2003 by Tamami Honma

Scores

Score Sample

Reviews

John McCabe's 'Scrunch (Study No. 8 - Omaggio a Domenico Scarlatti)' is a burst of eclectic energy that demands much of a pianist as it makes its way from a rollicking opening, through passages built on jazz rhythms, to dissections and reconstructions of certain harmonic moves one finds in Scarlatt's harpsichord sonatas.
Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
2nd July 2002

Discography

Tenebrae

Tenebrae
  • Label
    Metier
  • Catalogue Number
    CD92071
  • Soloist
    Tamami Honma (piano)