Kārttikeya (Study No. 1) for solo piano by Jason Thorpe Buchanan

Having never written for solo piano, in December I began working on a piece initially conceived as one movement in a small set of works for solo piano. These works would serve as studies, for myself to develop aesthetics and explore new methods of generating material, as well as for the performer; perhaps as a departure from other works in the literature. After a trip to the Asian art museum in San Francisco, I was reminded of my interest in Indian culture and their systems of organization in music. I had already begun to sketch pitch material based on a 12-tone row, so I began to research their use of rhythmic cycles called desi-talas. Each of the 120 ancient talas have specific cultural, spiritual and emotional associations and are used for specific events and situations.

While visiting the museum and reading some Hindu mythology, I became intrigued by the idea of writing a series of character pieces based on Hindu deities. With this in mind, after some research I came across the story of Kārttikeya, a Hindu god of war and the eldest son of Shiva and Parvati. In mid-December I set out to write the first of this series utilizing several talas chosen for their close associations with this deity. Kārttikeya is usually depicted with six faces and twelve arms, and was born with the sole purpose of defeating the asura (demon) Taraka, thus restoring order to the universe.

In addition to choosing talas with characteristics to evoke the image of Kārttikeya, there are several structural elements that specifically use the number twelve. This work utilizes the 12-tone system, with a total of 12 permutations of the row. After writing the initial sketch with 12 recurring motivic gestures, I graphed them into 12 regions. Then, I revised the sketch so that without departing from relatively strict serialism, the entrances of these 12 recurring gestures would occur symmetrically throughout the work. With these studies, I look forward to my increased knowledge of Indian music and its utilization in my own works.

I finished the score yesterday, needless to say I don't have a recording as it has not been performed yet. I will post a recording after the premiere. If you are a pianist, I would gladly welcome anyone who is interested in performing it. If you do, send me a recording!!

I would greatly appreciate any feedback regarding the work. Thanks so much,

05014 - Karttikeya - Jason Thorpe Buchanan 01.15.09.pdf

It looks really interesting. Any chance you could post a recording?

It actually has not yet been performed, and I wouldn't dare post a finale synth representation as much of it is not interpreted properly by finale. Are there any pianists that might be willing to read through it and post a rough recording?

Thanks,

Hello Jason!

I took the time to record it. Don't expect it to be accurate as I was sight-reading it. The repeated notes are quite messed up too...

By the way, I recorded it on my digital piano, but when I transferred the file to the PC through a USB stick the sound was midified and I had to use garritan. It was the first time I recorded something so I don't really know why that happened...

Alexandros

Wow, thank you so much for doing that so quickly! For those of you listening, obviously since he was using the digital piano he was unable to perform the string dampening and also the resonance was much shorter than on a grand, so use your imaginations!

Thanks again, it is very much appreciated!

Here is a link to the video of the premiere:

YouTube - Ka?rttikeya (Study No. 1) by Jason Thorpe Buchanan - Cristina Vald

Hi Jason - this is a pretty cool piece and it works very well for the piano, despite what you said about never having written for the instrument. I like the percussive character invoked by the repeated, dampened notes. Incidentally though, the performer in the video did not observe the number of notes exactly - I guess taking them ad libitum is acceptable?

I think a program suite on Hindu deities is a super excellent idea! Why do you call the piece 'study' though? Also, one would note that this piece does not evoke the war-like character of the deity (god of war). Would you characterize this piece as utilizing functional harmonies? Seventh relationships, even their transpositions seem to be pervasive in this piece.

Yes, I spoke to her about the number of notes and we felt that the number is not as important as that it feel organic to her .The piece is generally open to some rhythmic interpretation (note that there is no meter signature either).

Regarding the title, I think of it more as a compositional study, as I have never worked with desi-talas before, and it also explores serialism. Additionally, its not a piano etude in the traditional sense, as a focus on a specific technique, but the gestures are very specific in the way the piano is treated.

I think that whether or not it evokes the character is subjective and will differ from person to person. If you read the story of Karttikeya, I get the sense of introspectiveness and also a sort of quiet despair. If you think of warriors before battle, I almost imagine a sort of meditative state with emotional outbursts that happen intermittently. It may or may not be what someone else would imagine, but I think that the piece evokes that idea. In other words, its not supposed to be a battle scene, but a look into the personality of this deity.

There are some functional harmonies present, but it is serial and the matrix is treated quite strictly. Any departures from strict serialism are made for specific artistic reasons. If you look at the matrix, there are many m2nds/M7ths present, so I think that is self-explanatory. I did however try to be very careful in how I treated each interval within the motivic gestures.

I hope this answers your questions, thanks for asking! I'd appreciate any other comments that any of you might have.

- Jason

I don't hear an original voice here, it sounds like very much like the middle of the 20th century, and you have a bunch of cliche motives which sound as if they were pulled directly from another piece, namely the repeated then slow figure, very very bartok, and the piece echoes schoenberg as well.

There are tidbits of yourself, but ultimately it feels like a composer getting away from tonal music simply to be different and taking cliche 'atonal elements' without really expressing your own voice. And there's much of the same rhythmic motion to the point where its very predictable, there are no bursts of energy to elucidate any kind of clear form.

Furthermore, your use of serialism/12 tone techniques is a bit dated (not to mention a bit pointless, why not choose the notes yourself instead of a relying on an arbitrary system), and to be honest I much rather listen to Schoenberg/Webern/Berg over this piece. Same with imitation Bach; I would rather listen to Bach. There is not enough of a personal vision here to warrant my interest.

That said, it does show compositional talent and an ear for color.

I dont think I like the piece. Too modern for my taste.

However I see you went to great lenghts to write the music. It's a neat score - and on that, I congradulate you!

You are a very good composer. I like the detail in the score! REALLY.... it's nice!

PS :D