Uploaded October 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
INVENTIONS No. 5 and No. 6
from Evolving Cycle of Two-Part Modal Inventions for Piano (1964)
Eric Huebner, piano
“…’Evolving Cycle of Two-Part Modal Inventions’ alternates spare percussive textures with onslaughts of brittle fury. Pianist Walter Pate effectively brought out the emotion contained within the hard edges.”
– Ed Roberts, The Washington Post
Composer's note:
These are the last two inventions of a cycle consisting of a one-part invention followed by three two-part pairs. The first of each pair is rather slow and in a more-or-less minor mode, while the second is faster and in a more-or-less major mode.
The aim of the cycle is to use the Baroque two-part invention to explore the expressive potential of Romanian folk music, while tending to achieve a gradual transition to a contemporary type of keyboard composition.
Invention No. 5 is based on the Phrygian mode (E F G A B C D) and explores the use of wide intervals and prolonged rests, the latter already anticipated in the Introductory One-Part Invention.
Invention No. 6, the strictest and freest of all, is based on an elliptical tone-semitone mode with the minor third missing: E F G# A# B C# D. The piece is structured by using all forms and transpositions of a “modal twelve-tone row” which, being placed within a seven-tone scale, uses one of the tones (G#) four times and another (A#) three times: G# A# B G# A# G# D G# A# C# F E . While this structuring secures the formal cohesion and the modal character of the piece, the frequent use of disjointed intervals, contrasting dynamics, repetitive or fragmented patterns, and all ranges of the keyboard tends toward an apparent improvisational expression and a freeing of the traditional “invention.”
composers.com
INVENTIONS No. 5 and No. 6
from Evolving Cycle of Two-Part Modal Inventions for Piano (1964)
Eric Huebner, piano
“…’Evolving Cycle of Two-Part Modal Inventions’ alternates spare percussive textures with onslaughts of brittle fury. Pianist Walter Pate effectively brought out the emotion contained within the hard edges.”
– Ed Roberts, The Washington Post
Composer's note:
These are the last two inventions of a cycle consisting of a one-part invention followed by three two-part pairs. The first of each pair is rather slow and in a more-or-less minor mode, while the second is faster and in a more-or-less major mode.
The aim of the cycle is to use the Baroque two-part invention to explore the expressive potential of Romanian folk music, while tending to achieve a gradual transition to a contemporary type of keyboard composition.
Invention No. 5 is based on the Phrygian mode (E F G A B C D) and explores the use of wide intervals and prolonged rests, the latter already anticipated in the Introductory One-Part Invention.
Invention No. 6, the strictest and freest of all, is based on an elliptical tone-semitone mode with the minor third missing: E F G# A# B C# D. The piece is structured by using all forms and transpositions of a “modal twelve-tone row” which, being placed within a seven-tone scale, uses one of the tones (G#) four times and another (A#) three times: G# A# B G# A# G# D G# A# C# F E . While this structuring secures the formal cohesion and the modal character of the piece, the frequent use of disjointed intervals, contrasting dynamics, repetitive or fragmented patterns, and all ranges of the keyboard tends toward an apparent improvisational expression and a freeing of the traditional “invention.”
composers.com
