Pauline Oliveros writes, "’Quintuplets Play Pen: For Ruth Crawford’ was composed in 2001 especially for Sarah Cahill after listening to her recording of pieces by Ruth Crawford Seeger. The piece was conceived mathematically using a 10 X 10 matrix of choices (- = half step or rest and + = whole step or play). The patterns derived remind me of Crawford's music-both her early work and her work with folk music." Pianist Sarah Cahill describes this work as "a playful polyrhythmic dance. There are three layers of counterpoint: a bass line which rings out with help from the sostenuto pedal (Crawford was very fond of this particular pedal); steady staccato quintuplets; and a delicate melody in sixteenth notes. There are fifteen distinct sections, of ten measures each. I think of their individual characters like members of a dysfunctional family. The closing is virtuosic and difficult, with a surprise ending. Pauline remarked that the piece creates a kind of play pen for the ten fingers. I had insisted on a notated piece, since I can't improvise (or won't), and this is the wonderful result. The work is one of a group commissioned by me from various composers in 2001 to honor the centennial of composer and folklorist Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953)." |
