Includes score and parts.
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Review from Percussive Notes:
Meyer Kupferman was a self-taught composer and faculty member at Sarah Lawrence College, most often composing works using 12-tone techniques or jazz concepts from the 1930s and later. “Little Fantasia” is a work for piano and four percussionists that has been reintroduced and edited by Ron Coulter to hopefully bring this work to the public. It was most likely composed in the 1940s when a young Kupferman was gaining steam as a composer prior to his appointment at Sarah Lawrence and the premiere of his opera at Tanglewood which kick-started his career.
“Little Fantasia” is predominantly a work for piano soloist with percussion accompaniment. After a brief introduction, the piano kicks in using a tone row starting off like an altered scale in jazz with added chromaticism. While the percussion instruments carry the brunt of rhythmic stability, the piano is free to play fast-paced and syncopated sixteenth-note gestures around the foundational layer. The percussion parts never stray much from basic quarter notes or repeating eighth notes, and the biggest challenge for the players would be to find the right sounds for the work. The timpani never move away from B and F, maintaining the tritone from the beginning of the piece to the end.
From a historical perspective, the use of percussion demonstrates the impact of the early composers for percussion ensemble. Although no recordings exist nor is any performance history known at the present, the timbres chosen evoke a Futurist compositional style from the percussion, with repeating ostinato patterns, abrasive metallic instruments struck with brass or iron, and aggressive cacophonic chords combined with the piano. One could imagine the flurry of the hustle and traffic of New York City against the soundscape of construction machinery that would lead to this piece.
—Matthew Geiger
A recording including this piece is on The Percussion Art Ensemble, ORIGINS2: Forgotten Percussion Works, Vol. 2, available for purchase here.
