Last Breath: Articulation Studyfor piano 4 hands[9:00]Material. These are the hexachords from Flipidodes - grouped half in expanding / half in contracting order, with the groups then juxtaposed through an exhaustion of prime/inversion combinations.
Pattern. Each 2-bar phrase presents 6 voices, the pattern of whose outer two is always the same, while that of the inner four is never so. Slurred accents highlight the inner rhythmic state, which shifts at each 12th measure. At that point the barline is doubled -- or thickened, if the number of such highlights (0 to 8) per phrase is due to increase.
Tempo. Overall this consists in a multi-stage ritenuto. Its decrement, 4 metronome units per phrase, is constant. Time-signature changes aim simply to keep note values suggestive of their currently sounding durations.
Performance. Tenuto is meant to call, not for connection, but for minimal detachment. Rests, notated for convenience as full-bar values, are to be shortened by half.
Title. This followed upon the music -- its tempo disintegration, evoking an image of my 11-year-old brother's death in 1955.