Don Banks: Pezzo Dramatico (1956)

Abstract

"Don Banks's short piano piece Pezzo Dramatico was written after his period of study in Italy with Dallapiccola. Like so much of Banks's best music it successfully combines strongly differentiated ideas through the use of a closely worked thematic-motivic approach. As in the Horn Concerto (1965) and Tirade (1968) sudden dramatic contrasts, rhetorical rhythmic gestures, intense but thwarted lyricism and a formalised system of pitch control are found in Pezzo Dramatico. Yet even within such a varied and dramatic context the overall effect of the piece is taut, perhaps even repressed. Many works by Banks reveal his determination to forge a personal style whilst drawlng on the diverse elements of his musical background. His early experience in Australia as a jazz performer is in interesting contrast to the time he spent as a student working with Seiber in England and Dallapiccola. Both Seiber and Dallapiccola were strongly influenced by the serial language of Webern, yet they also brought aspects of personal styl to bear in their music, removing it to some extent from the somewhat bland 'international' style of many serial composers of the 1950. In works of the late 1960s like Intersections, Nexus, and Meeting Place Banks was to show his capacity for integrating jazz idioms into a musical context undoubtedly within the post-war European tradition. This talent for combining elements is already evident in an earlier work such as Pezzo Dramatico, although on a reduced and more selective scale. Whilst the work draws on ideas and habits of his teachers and the prevailing musical fashions of the 1950s it also shows individuality, especially in the determined way the piece revolves around a few distinctive motivic sources. The allusion to drama in the title is especially evident in the rapid alternation of moods. Loud and soft dynamics are closely juxtaposed; strident interruptions frequently cut through a prevailing quiet texture creating a significant degree of uncertainty for the listener. Likewise, the relative security of patterned rhythmic material is often upset by more jagged interjections of short motivic ideas. Strong contrasts are also evident in the writing for piano - extremes of range are used, clear melodic lines with accompanying chordal textures are pitted against linear writing. The piano's dual capacities as a percussive and a lyrical instrument are exploited. Yet in spite of this flow of contrasting material a clear sectionalisation is apparent in the work. The formal scheme suggests an arch shape. The first six bars contain three ideas which assume great importance in the work: a triplet figure (see Figure 58), a melodic semitone (see Figure 59), and a simple longshort rhythmic pattern (see Figure 60). The opening section also states the work's twelve tone row (see Figure 61 ). Banks handles the row freely, showing the influence of his mentor Dallapiccola in his propensity for allowing it to dissolve into its motivic constituents. The most important of the e is the semitone which occurs on three occasion in the row' original form. The second section, which contains dramatic alternations ofloud and soft textures, commences with a derivative of the triplet and the long-short pattern (see Figure 62). This figure is restated at the return of the B section (bar 85); the figure is motto-like and rather reminiscent of Messiaen' s piano music. The long-short patterns which predominate in this section are at times reversed as at bar 54, where the semitone figure is again stated (see Figure 63). Banks achieves moments of cadential repose through quiet arpeggiations of chords in the middle and end of the section, recalling similar figures in the opening six bars of the work. Marked Lento espressivo the middle section is, in contrast to the surrounding music, mostly quiet and slow. The lyrical quality of the writing here is never allowed fully to emerge into song. The semitone motive is given elegant melodic shape in a series of sequential passages drawn from Figure 59 (see Figure 64). Whilst the pitch material is drawn from a cell contained in the row's first four notes, the suggestion is of chromatic tonal harmony - lush and rich but avoiding resolution. The section is built through the addition of further melodic lines which thicken the texture and increase the intensity. References to earlier material are apparent, especially in the falling semitone figure at bars 71, 75, and 79 (see Figure 65) and in the interpolation of occasional loud fragments. The second B section is much shorter than the first, hence disturbing any notion of structural symmetry in the work. The material presented is a declamatory series of fragments from the earlier matching section, culminating in a jagged melodic figure at bar 97 (see Figure 66). The final six bars are a free retrograde of the opening section - each of the motivic features is again presented with sudden changes of dynamic and texture. The tone row's integrity is restored in the closing bars with a complete statement in reverse order. Rhetorical and declamatory are terms as appropriate to this brief piece by Banks as they are to much Italian music of the same period. The work of Dallapiccola, as well as younger compatriots such as Nono, Berlo and Maderna, shows similar inspiration to that in the works of Webern within an Italian tradition of almost song-like expressive lyricism and clearly delineated textures. To this, Banks brings his customary rhythmic tautness, resulting in a piece marked by clear and dramatic ideas, subjected to constant subtle transformation. The rhetorical content of the work comes from its frequent use of statement and interruption devices. The brevity of the piece is itself a rhetorical feature. Such a short piece, with a variety of strongly differentiated musical ideas and moods, creates a problem of unity for the composer. In the case of P ezzo Dramatico the solution to this problem is a high level of motivic integration." -- Andrew Schultz Show more