Rage Over Lost Time
Preamble to «Alla ingharese quasi un capriccio, Op.129» by Ludwig van Beethoven
Première video performance of Rage Over Lost Time (2020), by HereNowHear, with visual effects by False Azure Records.
Instrumentation
Two pianos
Duration
4 minutes
Commissioned by the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards, for HereNowHear’s RAGE (Vented) project
Première
17 December 2020
Beethoven and Pianos: Off the Beaten Path Festival
Virtual première on Music at Cornell YouTube channel
Dedication
To Andrew Zhou, in friendship
Score samples
Published recording
Introductory remarks
“[Angus’] contribution, Rage Over Lost Time, felt like something of a visit to a consignment store: old, worn bric-a-brac stack on yellowing shelves, paint peeling, springs and hinges rusty and irreparable, fluorescent light contrasting with clouds of dust illuminated by golden hour sun. Lee asked us to spend most of our time “inside” the piano, striking its innards with cimbalom mallets, rubber balls, and plastic hammers, plucking and muting strings with our fingers, and otherwise alienating the instrument from any semblance of its traditional self. A brief fragment of the Beethoven is played at the miniature’s conclusion, conventional piano sound now so foreign that, in this context, a G major triad feels like a crude vulgarity.“
Ryan MacEvoy McCullough,
Liner notes to the album sedgeflowers | MANTRA
“When trying to think of a program, Lee found it difficult to say more; he simply knew he wanted to write a prelude to Beethoven’s work. The lexicon of sounds is drawn from a battery of objects used inside the piano […]. The work is as intimate as it is lonely […]. In the end a fragment of Beethoven emerges from the fog.“
Andrew Zhou,
Programme notes for the piece for RAGE (Vented)
Further reading