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  • John McCabe

  • Mosaic (Study No 6) (1980)

  • Novello & Co Ltd (World)

Commissioned by the Welsh Arts Council

First London performance at St John's Smith Square on 25/10/1980

  • piano
  • 14 min

Programme Note

Commissioned for the North Wales Music Festival with the aid of funds provided by the Welsh Arts Council and dedicated to William Mathias, this is the sixth in a series of separate concert pieces given the generic title "Study". Each work explores some aspect of compositional or pianistic technique (or both). In this case, the nature of the work was derived from the examples of Middle Eastern art I saw during a concert tour of the Middle East undertaken in 1979, especially the many beautiful mosaics. The nature of the music, therefore, derives from the idea of exploring various shapes, textures and colours by developing them and contrasting them (often by juxtaposition) in a mosaic-like manner. The work derives entirely from two basic ideas, the opening rather cluster-like gesture and a more lyrical theme, and from the pianistic point of view exploits a wide range of dynamics and colours. The piece lasts about 14 minutes.

© 1988 by John McCabe

Discography