Horse And Rider: 15 Short Pieces For Piano
Horse and Rider is a collection of 15 short pieces (stories) for piano composed by John Lambert Harman. The pieces are the result of the writing ‘Music Methods Framework’, and Harman’s interest in art. The collection illustrates his earlier style of composition, and demonstrates his gift for melodic invention.
Titles
1. Horse and rider I 2. Beyond madness - the bells 3. The mystery of life 4. Jamaican fisherman 5. Little Annie 6. To know is to reason 7. Show me your hands 8. Horse and rider II 9. The man walked to Rome 10. Where the wind blows 11. Fountains and very green grass 12. Behind the undertaker's door 13. In the country 14. Clean the mirror - ode to the mind 15. Horse and rider III
The titles of the pieces are important, and Lambert Harman uses them to add meaning to the repeated rhythms and simple melodic statements. This creates a pictorial juxtaposition with the already existing musical template: ‘the pieces make use of melodic lines whose allusions are grounded in the narrative suggested by their title’.
The pieces reveal many influences, with Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky Lutoslawski, Mozart and Sartie being among them, as well as jazz music.
Image: Wassily Kandinsky Lyrisches (Lyrical), 1911
1430 (MK) Courtesy of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. From the estate of: M. Tak van Poortvliet 1936 / photographer: Studio Trom
