This is splendid miniature, the texture is in the main theme surprisingly not very Medtneresque, but the harmony and the mode still gives me that typical irreplaceable Medtner mood!
~~~~~Composer biography~~~~~ Nikolai Medtner’s life is very well-documented, so we won’t give any information here. If you are interested in reading more about Medtner, his English Wikipedia page is a good place to start: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Medtner. (Please click "show more" to read program notes for this piece!) ~~~~~Program notes~~~~~ Medtner’s Skazka (Fairy Tale) in D minor, published in 1915, is the only Skazka by Medtner published without an opus number. The Skazka begins with an introductory section with a call and response sort of quality. The “call” is full-bodied and vocal in nature, while the “response” is subdued and mysterious. Both are characterized by the left and right hands playing the same notes, but somewhat offset from each other. The introduction leads to the main body of the piece, with a theme in F major, the relative major of D minor. The character of this section is bright and determined; the theme ventures into distant and uncertain harmonies, but soon returns to the key of F major. Upon this return, the theme ventures into distant harmonies again, with passages full of chromaticism. Eventually, Medtner brings back the call and response from the introduction. The response becomes more and more intense, leading to a series of dark D minor arpeggios. At the end, an especially dissonant chord, punctuated by a trill, melts into a cadence in D minor.
Perfection
This is splendid miniature, the texture is in the main theme surprisingly not very Medtneresque, but the harmony and the mode still gives me that typical irreplaceable Medtner mood!
~~~~~Composer biography~~~~~
Nikolai Medtner’s life is very well-documented, so we won’t give any information here. If you are interested in reading more about Medtner, his English Wikipedia page is a good place to start: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Medtner. (Please click "show more" to read program notes for this piece!)
~~~~~Program notes~~~~~
Medtner’s Skazka (Fairy Tale) in D minor, published in 1915, is the only Skazka by Medtner published without an opus number.
The Skazka begins with an introductory section with a call and response sort of quality. The “call” is full-bodied and vocal in nature, while the “response” is subdued and mysterious. Both are characterized by the left and right hands playing the same notes, but somewhat offset from each other.
The introduction leads to the main body of the piece, with a theme in F major, the relative major of D minor. The character of this section is bright and determined; the theme ventures into distant and uncertain harmonies, but soon returns to the key of F major. Upon this return, the theme ventures into distant harmonies again, with passages full of chromaticism. Eventually, Medtner brings back the call and response from the introduction. The response becomes more and more intense, leading to a series of dark D minor arpeggios. At the end, an especially dissonant chord, punctuated by a trill, melts into a cadence in D minor.