Recomposing Vredenburg's 'Eighteen Little Keyboard Pieces'
The dutch composer Max Vredenburg (1904-1976), pupil of Paul Dukas and possibly of Albert Roussel, wrote the 'Achttien Kleine Klavierstukken' ('Eighteen Little Keyboard Pieces'), where he shows an astonishing craftmanship as a pedagogical composer.
Very interesting in the 'Eighteen Little Keyboard Pieces' is a form of bitonality: in each piece Vredenburg combines two sets of five-note rows, which are varied creatively.
In this section, I use more or less a method of simulated composition and will recompose pieces of Vredenburg's 'Eighteen Little Keyboard Pieces'. Simulated composition is a very useful analytical tool, for it uncovers principles of the creative process that really matter; principles which get lost in a purely disintegrated analysis.
| ELKP | Topic | View PDF | Download MP3 (Right mouse click > Save link as) |
| 1. no. 5 | inversion, voice exchange, speeding up | View PDF | Download MP3 |
| 2. no. 7 | prolonging an interval | View PDF | Download MP3 |
| 3. no. 10 | accompaniment | View PDF | Download MP3 |
| 4. no. 14 | heterophony, voice leading | View PDF | Download MP3 |
| 5. no. 17 | rhythmic augmentation, diminution; ostinato | View PDF | Download MP3 |