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Matsudaira, Yoritsune : Souvenirs d'enfance pour piano

Work Overview

Music ID : 4461
Composition Year:1928 
Instrumentation:Piano Solo 
Genre:Various works
Copyright:Under Copyright Protection

Commentary (2)

Author : Hirano, Takatoshi

Last Updated: April 20, 2018
[Open]
Note: This article is automatically translated from the original Japanese text. The author of the original work did not supervise this translation.

Yorinori Matsudaira's first published piano work, a suite consisting of 10 short pieces. It originated from six pieces – "Lullaby," "Goldfish," "Music Box," "Frightful Dream," "Wooden Horse," and "March" – which were published in Ongaku Shincho around the 1930s. Five of these pieces were premiered by Matsudaira himself on the piano at the "Gathering of Emerging Composers" in 1930. When the work was compiled into three volumes of Zen-On Piano Pieces in 1971, "Soap Bubbles," composed in 1929, was added. In the 1991 Zen-On publication Yorinori Matsudaira: Piano Works, "Temari Song," "Play," and "Pierrot Tossing a Ball" were further added, bringing the total to 10 pieces. There are many differences between the 1991 edition and earlier editions. According to Matsudaira, the work was inspired by Goossens's Kaleidoscope, which he heard at a concert by Gil-Marchex. He also stated that he referenced the music of Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc, Tansman, and Stravinsky. Throughout the work, tonality is not clearly presented. A sense of unity is created by repeating simple melodic figures with various elaborations. The music is more understated than nostalgic. In "Goldfish," time signatures and bar lines are omitted, and in "March," parallel movement of chords is employed. These are techniques also observed in Matsudaira's later piano works.

Author : Hirano, Takatoshi

Last Updated: April 20, 2018
[Open]
Note: This article is automatically translated from the original Japanese text. The author of the original work did not supervise this translation.

Souvenirs d’enfance, the first piano piece composed by Yoritsune Matsudaira, is a piano suite consisting of ten pieces. ‘Berceuse’, ‘Poissons rouges (Goldfish)’, ‘Boîte à musique (Music Box)’, ‘Mauvais rêve (Bad Dream)’, ‘Cheval de bois (Rocking Horse)’, ‘March [sic] (March)’ were first published in a musical magazine Ongaku Shinchō around 1930. Five of these were premiered by the composer at a concert ‘Forum of Young Composers’ held in 1930. When these pieces were republished in three volumes as part of the Zen-On Piano Pieces, ‘Les bulles de savon (Soap Bubbles)’ (1929) was added, and ‘Chanson pour jouer à la balle (Song for Playing with a Ball)’, ‘Jeux (Play)’ and ‘Pierrot qui joue de la ball [sic] (Clown Playing with a Ball)’ were included in OEuvres pour piano (Piano Works) published by Zen-On in 1991. There are many differences between the edition of 1991 and the older versions. Matsudaira says it was the strong impression given by Eugene Goossens’s Kaleidoscope played by Henri Gil-Marchex that led him to compose this suite, and the music of Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc, Tansman and Stravinsky also inspired him. In each piece, tonality is not clearly established. Instead, the sense of unity is created by the same phrase repeated and gradually modified, which makes the music not so much nostalgic as placid and restrained. There are no bars and beats in ‘Poissons rouges’, and parallel harmony can be found in ‘March’, which techniques will be both used in Matsudaira’s later piano works.

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