Growl

19 July 2011
Marc Peloquin, piano
The Upright Pianos Brigade
Barbés
376 9th St., Park Slope, Brooklyn
7:00pm

Marc Peloquin

for Marc Peloquin, with thanks to Esther Landau

Growl was written over a period of two weeks in late June / early July 2011 for my good friend Marc Peloquin, who commissioned the work for a performance at Barbés in Park Slope, Brooklyn as part of a new concert series, The Upright Pianos Brigade, co-sponsored by Barbés and Concert Artists Guild.

Growl owes its title to flutist Esther Landau, who I met at the American Music Center’s 2011 Annual Meeting. While we discussed strange sources for texts, Esther told me of a collection she had made of bizarre subject lines from spam emails from the days before spam filters could stop all but the craftiest of Viagra ads, and promised to send it to me. One Facebook friend request later, and I had Esther’s list in hand. While I found all of the items on the list strangely evocative, I was most immediately moved by “Growl”, and knew then and there that I’d found the title and inspiration for Marc’s piece.

The piece is cast in a roughly ABA/fast-slow-fast form, and centers around two musical ideas: a driving left-hand ostinato and a 16-bar melodic line. As the piece opens, the ostinato immediately establishes itself, low and menacing, punctuated by snaps and snarls as it races forward. When we first hear the melodic line, it is soft and distant – almost creepy – and it immediately repeats itself, much louder and more violently. After a brief return to the opening of the piece, we have a moment of respite as the ostinato abruptly drops away, and time stands still for a moment before giving way to a peaceful, ethereal version of the melody. But peace doesn’t last long as the melody becomes increasingly dissonant and violent, culminating in a brutal, crashing cacophony that surges into a triumphal climax. As the grand chords ebb away, the ostinato begins to quietly re-insinuate itself back into the fabric of the piece, building slowly to a return to the opening material and a “screaming” version of the melodic line. Suddenly, the triumphal chords come thundering back, warring with the ostinato – each interrupting the other, clashing to a frenzied, crashing end.

Growl is dedicated to Marc Peloquin and Esther Landau.