Perspectives
1952

Duration

3'30"

Publisher

B. Schott

Instrumentation Notes

piano

Program Notes

“THREE PIECES” for Piano (1951); “PERSPECTIVES” for Piano (1952) and “MUSIC FOR VIOLIN, CELLO AND PIANO” (1952)…all composed in Denver, Colo., are works which use 12 tone pitch rows and “serially” composed rhythmic groups. This juxtaposing of tone rows and rhythmic figurations and their virtually infinite possibilities of integral extension and variation was first suggested to me in my studies of Schillinger techniques but is also similar in concept to old techniques of “iso-rhythm(mic)” composition. I later discovered that Schillinger’s “rhythmic groups” are what Olivier Messiaen called “cellules”…as the word suggests, cells, subject to subdivision, multiplication, expansion, permutation, etc. Apart from these rather technical procedures I composed form, dynamics, melodic trajectories and densities very subjectively and spontaneously. My subjective personality tends to avoid the rather “dark” qualities of much 12 tone music of the time.
—Earle Brown

Audio Samples

Perspectives

Selected Performances

April 28, 1954 • Carl Fischer Concert Hall, New York, NY

Soloist: David TudorNew York Premiere

June 27, 1953 • Black Mountain College, North Carolina

Soloist: David Tudor

June 27, 1953 • Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut

Soloist: David Tudor

March 22, 1953 • University of Illinois Arts Festival, Urbana Illinois

Soloist: David TudorWorld Premiere

Sample Page

Perspectives sample page

Recordings

Music for Piano(s) 1951 – 1995 (released 1996)

New Albion

Performed by David Arden

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Earle Brown Music Foundation