W.

Jay Sydeman “Overturino”

Background

Overturino for Piano and Percussion is a light and lively composition; it brings the
music of Prokofiev to mind. The snare drum is restrained, adding slashes of
rhythmic color to the piano part which in itself is quite colorful, an unusual and
quite charming way to open a program, or maybe close it as encore piece in a
recital.

W.Jay Sydeman uncanny ability to throw in the whole avant-garde machinery can
be felt in his overturino. The music is light and lively and at the same time
beautified with different musical element; one significant musical element in
Overturino is the rhythmic color of the snare drum, change of time signature
within five sections (labeled A-E) of the composition.

Overturino for Piano and Percussion was first performed as overture, opening the
2003 Composers’ Cooperative contribution to the Music in the Mountains Festival
in Grass Valley, CA.

STYLE & HISTORY

W.Jay Sydeman incorporate elements of concert overture for piano and snare
drum with a lively and idiosyncratic features based on the style of overtures
to romantic operas, established in the 19th century as an independent, one-
movement work, which took either the classical sonata form or the free form of
a symphonic poem.

Overturino is an independent instrumental work, use to introduction

a musical work (Opera, Recital, Concert e.t.c).

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

Oveturino is a duet between the solo piano and an accompanying snare drum; it
combines drums techniques and solo piano in waltz style. Waltz is dance music in
triple meter, often written in time. A waltz typically sounds one chord per
measure, and the accompaniment style particularly associated with the waltz is to
play the root of the chord on the first beat, the upper notes on the second and
third beats.

Here is some of the compositional techniques use for the snare drum part:

1. Ostinato: Ostinato" is a repeated pattern in music. It can be built on a

melody or just a rhythm (on a drum, for example). The first 11 measure of
overturino plays a repeated pattern (Fig. ii). A new pattern take over at
section B (Fig. iii)

Fig.ii
Fig.iii

2. Syncopation: The composer used syncopation techniques at the B and c

section of the music. He placed slight accent to the weak beat of some bars
within measure 20-32 (Fig. iv)

Fig. iv

Dynamics: The composer use different expressions, adding soft and lively slashes
of rhythmic color to the piano. E.g pp (Very soft), P (Soft), tr (Trill) e.t.c.
Fig.v
The Piano composition left hand clef was changed 6 times from treble clef to bass
clef (bar 1, bar 4, bar 20, bar 51, bar 56 and bar 61). Fig. vi

HARMONIC ANALYSIS
Overturino is atonal in nature, though the music is written on the key signature C
major but the composter employs compositional techniques called chromaticism
(A compositional techniques interspersing the primary diatonic pitches and chords
with another pitches of the chromatic scale). Example: The start with a C minor
flatted 7th chord (C, Eflat, G, Bflat). Fig vii

The atonality of the music makes it not to follow a chord progression. The music is
dominated with the following chords:

C minor Flatted 7th

B minor added 9th

D Major

Dflat 7th with flated 5th

D minor
A minor with a flatted 12th

RHYTHMIC ANALYSIS

Overturino is begins with 3/4 time signature, the music changes time signature 26
times. The composer makes us of four different time signatures (3/4 time
signature, 2/4 time signature, Common time signature and 6/8 time signature)
throughout the music. The table below shows the bars at which the music change
time signature.
No. Time Signature Bars
1 2/4 1-6
2 Common time 7
3 2/4 8-18
4 3/4 19
5 Common time 20
6 3/4 21-24
7 2/4 25-28
8 3/4 29-30
9 2/4 31
10 3/4 32
11 2/4 33
12 6/8 34
13 2/4 35-36
14 3/4 37-42
15 Common time 43
16 2/4 44
17 Common time 45
18 2/4 46
19 Common time 47
20 3/4 48
21 2/4 49
22 3/4 50
23 2/4 51-54
24 3/4 55
25 Common time 56
26 3/4 57-60
27 2/4 61-64

The longest musical note in the composition is a semibreve while the shortest is
semiquaver.