Programme Note
METAPHYSICAL STUDIES for Piano Solo (2022) – John Metcalf
The word Study is, of course, frequently used as a title for pieces of music, especially when there are particular technical or musical challenges. These three short pieces follow in that tradition. Listen (look out) for the crossing of the player’s hands in No. 1, for the challenge of maintaining the rapt stillness and concentration of the walking and gently rocking bass in No. 3, and most of all for the use of pedal notes and special pedalling effects throughout. These are generally used to create a bell-like ‘halo’ of sound and an impressionistic ‘wash’ of harmonic colouring.
And, as the title suggests, these are more than purely technical exercises, written as they were for a special concert organised by Lampeter Music Club to celebrate the bicentenary of St. David’s College Lampeter, Wales’ oldest university and an important theological college. Appropriately, the most prominent pedal notes in the piece are D and A – the first two letters of the name David. There are also a number of references to religious and spiritual observance and practice such as the slow chorale-like introduction to No. 1 leading into a moto perpetuo which suggests to me pilgrimage and journeying. The piece is predominantly in slow tempi with the notable exception of No. 2 which is a brief, fleeting presto section. The heart of the work is the slightly more extended final study, mesmeric and meditative in nature, which quotes the accompaniment figure from the slow movement of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony at the outset.
The three Studies are:
No. 1 Lento : Allegretto
No. 2 Scherzo
No. 3 Adagio
Metaphysical Studies was commissioned by Lampeter Music Club for the Bicentenary Celebrations of the founding in 1822 of Coleg Dewi Sant/ St. David’s College Lampeter and was first performed in a concert at the College by Robin Green (piano) on the 24th July 2022.
Note by the composer
Welsh Version
Astudiaethau Metaffisegol
Defnyddir y gair Astudiaeth yn ami fel teitl ar gyfer darnau o gerddoriaeth, yn enwedig pan fo heriau technegol neu gerddorol penodol. Mae’r tri darn byr hyn yn dilyn yn y traddodiad hwnnw. Gwrandewch (gwiliwch) am groesi dwylo’r chwaraewr yn Rhif 1, am yr her o gynnal llonyddwch a chanolbwyntio’r bas cerdded sy’n siglo’n ysgafn yn Rhif 3, ac yn bennaf oll ar gyfer defnyddio nodau pedal ac effeithiau pedlo arbennig drwyddi draw. Defnyddir y rhain yn gyffredinol i greu ‘halo’ o sain sy’n debyg i gloch, a llif argraffiadol o liw harmonig.
Ac, fel y mae’r teitl yn ei awgrymu, mae’r rhain yn fwy nag ymarferion technegol yn unig, Ysgrifennwyd ar gyfer cyngerdd arbennig a drefnwyd gan Glwb Cerdd Llanbedr Pont Steffan i ddathlu daucanmlwyddiant Coleg Dewi Sant Llanbedr Pont Steffan, prifysgol hynaf Cymru a choleg diwinyddol pwysig. Yn briodol, y nodau pedal amlycaf yn y darn yw D ac A – dwy lythyren gyntaf yr enw David. Ceir hefyd nifer o gyfeiriadau at ddefodau ac arferion crefyddol ac ysbrydol megis y cyflwyniad araf, tebyg i gorâl, i Rhif 1 yn arwain at moto perpetuo sy’n awgrymu i mi bererindod a theithio. Mae’r darn yn bennaf mewn tempi araf gyda’r eithriad nodedig Rhif 2 sy’n adran presto byr, di-baid. Calon y gwaith yw’r astudiaeth derfynol ychydig yn fwy estynedig, mesmerig a myfyriol ei natur, sy’n dyfynnu ffigur y cyfeiliant o symudiad araf Pumed Symffoni Mahler ar y cychwyn.