Gabriel Erkoreka

Dos Zortzikos

Forces or Category: Solo piano

for solo piano
This consists of two pieces, played in an order the performer chooses. The number five, closely related to the nature of the zortziko, a Basque dance in 5/8, has been applied to several musical parameters such as repetition of pitches, superposition of five separate layers, fragments of pentatonic scales and the metrical structure. The piece explores extensively the percussive and resonant nature of the piano.

Dos Zortzikos

Gabriel Erkoreka

Description

Programme Notes:

Dos Zortzikos consists of two pieces. In performance, the order of these is chosen by the player. According to this chosen order, the listener will be confronted with two very different musical experiences, since the degree of activity of the work as a whole, has been designed in a palindromic way - from its centre outwards.
The number five, so closely related to the nature of the zortziko (a Basque dance in 5/8), has been applied to several musical parameters and certain aspects of the work: repetition of pitches, superposition of five separate layers, fragments of pentatonic scales and specially, the metrical structure. Above all, the intention has been to make an exhaustive use of the rhythmic patterns associated with the zortziko, offering two radically opposed treatments of the piano, and exploring both its percussive and resonant nature.
© 2004 Gabriel Erkoreka
Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press

Dos Zortzikos

Gabriel Erkoreka

Composer Information