Tenement Rhapsody For Two Pianos Chamber Music - Sheet Music

SKU: PR.110418110

ISBN 9781491134733. UPC: 680160624676. 9 x 12 inches.

Harberg’s TENEMENT RHAPSODY brings both the percussive and the expressive potential of two pianos to life in a work depicting her experience living in New York City. Subway is a jagged, jazzy dance full of virtuosic and contrapuntal interplay. At Home offers the emotional center with melodic and lush materials. At Play features a humorous energy inspired by life behind the composer’s apartment door as her 14-month-old explored his universe with eager eyes and the swagger of a drunken sailor.
TENEMENT RHAPSODY evokes three pictures of what New York City is to me. The first movement, Subway, is a jagged, jazzy dance in which the instruments bicker, bump into each other, and compete to be heard over one another. True to the piece’s character, the ideas came to me while jostling my way onto the subway at Union Square Station during a Winter rush hour.The second and third movements were inspired by life behind the door of our Lower East Side tenement apartment building. At Home offers the emotional center of the piece with its melodic and lush materials; and At Play features a diatonic passacaglia line, layered throughout the movement with playfully contrasting materials. The spirit of this final movement was inspired by life behind my apartment door, as I watched my 14-month-old baby exploring his universe with eager eyes and the swagger of a drunken sailor.TENEMENT RHAPSODY was commissioned by the New York State Music Teachers Association and is dedicated to Zelma Bodzin.