So the day after I decide to start posting my midi junk, Sibley dumps a huge batch of scores on me. All by Rebikov. Well, they also posted a bunch of transcriptions of, I think, Algerian traditional music, but I’ve exempted that from midification because it amounted to maybe an hour’s worth of monophonic stuff that makes no sense on the piano.

Also, Sibley’s publication dates on these items seem generally to be wrong, so the following are my determinations based on the plate numbers in the scores.

In addition to my standing disclaimer about sight-reading, I also wasn’t particularly on the ball when I made these. I could go back now that I feel more alert and improve them, but why? I would think of these more as, like, tiny lo-res pictures of obscure art that I took with a camera-phone and am posting here in the hopes that people might be intrigued by what they discern through the fuzz, in which case they can seek out art books or go the museum themselves. My camera-phone was a little blurrier than usual today.

Also, I was just listening to a couple of these and it seems like something funny happens with the pedal every now and then, where it comes in a second later than I played it and loses the note it’s supposed to hold. I don’t think that happens that often when I’m playing. I’m not sure what’s causing that but I’ll look into it.

scores posted 5/25/06:

Vladimir Rebikov:
Conte de la Princesse et du Roi des grenouilles, Op. 36 (1906) bad midi (7:38)

Dans le bosquet de roses, Op.33 No. 6 (1914) bad midi (1:38)

Souvenir, Op.33 No. 5 (1914) bad midi (2:17)

Trois miniatures, Op.33 (1905) bad midi (4:19)

Feuilles d’automne, Op. 29 (1904) bad midi (7:05)

Scènes bucoliques, Op. 28 (1904) bad midi (7:06)

Dans leur Pays, Op. 27 (1904) bad midi (8:14)

Aspirer et Atteindre: 3me tableau musical-psychologique, Op. 25 (1903) bad midi (16:55)

Chansons du coeur: 2me tableau musical-psychologique, Op. 24 (1903) bad midi (17:53)

A la brume, Op. 23 (1904) bad midi (7:46)

Ésclavage et Liberté: tableau musical psychologique, Op. 22 (1903) bad midi (17:39)

Here’s a bit of the Grove article about Rebikov (1866-1920):

Rebikov’s artistic strivings find parallels with contemporary trends in the symbolist movement; this is demonstrated by his use of sources from the literature and art popular in those years. … At the end of 1900 Rebikov came forward with his manifesto on ‘musical psychography’, which he based on Tolstoy’s thesis that ‘music is the shorthand of the feelings’. According to this principle, his musical language achieved a great deal of freedom from the pre-established norms. From around this time he became increasingly experimental; this elicited conflicting reactions from his contemporaries. Rebikov was among the pioneers of whole-tone music in Europe, and frequently made use of parallel chordal movement and quartal harmonies.

Taken as a whole, his work strikes me as fundamentally unsatisfying, but there are nonetheless many intriguing aspects. A careful selection from the short pieces could probably create a lovely album of oddities. Op.36 was truly bizarro, but I genuinely enjoyed at least one movement apiece from Opp. 23, 27, 28, 29, and 33. To my ears, he does “gentle” far better than “troubled.” It’s all fairly uneasy (and romantic/psychologique), under which circumstances a lighter touch goes farther.

The three big “tableaux” are sort of like Tod und Verklärung filtered through Rimsky-Korsakov (and, mildly, Scriabin). They’re much too broad in expression to pull off anything particularly psychologically nuanced, though the forms are quirky enough that it’s clear they’re trying. And it’s not as though Strauss really did this well either, for all his fame. The most damning thing about these pieces is that they play like orchestral reductions but don’t seem ever to have been scored for orchestra – they’re just awkward (and occasionally impossible), unpianistic, pseudo-symphonic writing. And what’s gloriously vulgar in a romantic orchestra is downright silly on a piano. Given Rebikov’s pointedly peculiar later works, also apparently arising from his interest in musical experimentation and in psychology, I’m sort of surprised that the seemingly adventurous conceptions behind these pieces didn’t give rise to something less, um, bland. Of course, we’re moving backward through his output; every successive piece seems more conservative, which doesn’t reflect well on the composer. Maybe if I knew his earlier work I’d see Op. 22 as a breakthrough.