1. Eastern Oregon University
Department of Music
College of Arts and Sciences
presents:
Matt Cooper
Faculty Piano Recital
Friday, Jan. 13, 7:30 p.m.
Groth Recital Hall
“IMPROMPTUS AND FANTASIES”
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 903 J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Fifteen Improvisations Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
No. 3 in B minor
No. 13 in A minor
No. 7 in C Major
No. 15 in C Minor (Hommage à Édith Piaf)
Six Variations in D Major, Op. 76 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Intermission
Impromptu in F Minor, Op. 142 No. 1 Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Impromptu No. 3 in Ab Major, Op. 34 Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Reflets dans l’eau (Reflections in the Water) Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
From Images, Set One (1905)
L’Isle joyeuse (1904)
Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue dates from the early 1720s, during the period
when he lived in Köthen, and was originally written for the harpsichord. The Fantasia
opens with a brilliant toccata-like section, follows with a long series of arpeggiated
chords, and closes with an emotional recitative. The substantial Fugue is built on a
sprawling fugal subject which, like the Fantasia, uses many half-steps (hence,
“chromatic”).
Francis Poulenc’s music is eclectic, being influenced by Impressionist composers such as
Debussy as well as the music of the French cabaret. Poulenc recalled growing up
listening to the “adorable bad music” favored by his mother. In addition to solo piano
works, he composed opera, ballet, many French art songs, and concertos for the
2. harpsichord, piano, and organ. The third and seventh Improvisations date from the
early 1930s; the later two date from 1958 and 1959. No. 15, his very last piano
composition, is a tribute to the great French chanteuse Édith Piaf (1915-1963). Poulenc
said: “Do not analyze my music, love it!”
Beethoven wrote twenty-two sets of piano variations, the best known of which are the
monumental Diabelli Variations, Op. 120. He also included variations as movements in
several significant piano sonatas such as the “Appassionata” and two of his last three
sonatas (Op. 109 and 111). The lighthearted Variations in D Major date from 1809, and
are based on a Turkish March later used in his incidental music to The Ruins of Athens.
Schubert wrote two sets of four Impromptus, this being the first one of the second set,
composed in 1827. A substantial work in its own right, it exhibits the “heavenly length”
that composer Robert Schumann ascribed to Schubert’s work. It opens with a tragic,
minor-key theme--a theme which later recurs twice—and digresses into very distant
keys, sometimes suddenly alternating between minor and major. The effect of some of
these modulations is otherworldly.
Gabriel Fauré was a student of Camille Saint-Saens and an influence on the next
generation of French composers, many of whom were his students at the Paris
Conservatoire. An organist as well as pianist, he composed many French art songs as
well as a well-known Requiem. His piano music includes Barcarolles, Impromptus,
Preludes, and Nocturnes—all titles reminiscent of Chopin—and he may be considered a
link between Romanticism and the early modernism of composers such as his student
Maurice Ravel. The Opus 34 is the third of five Impromptus, and was composed in
1883.
Like much of Debussy’s music, “Reflections on the Water” (the first of three pieces from
the first set of Images) and “The Joyous Island” both have extra-musical associations—
in this case, with water. “Reflections” is said to describe the ripples surrounding a falling
pebble, whereas L’Isle joyeuse is associated with a painting known as A Pilgrimage to
Cythera by Antoine Watteau (1684-1721). The painting is a delicate depiction of
aristocratic revelers leaving for the “mist-shrouded island of love.” It also may refer to
Debussy’s sojourn on the real island of Jersey with Emma Bardac.
