ZOFO Piano Duet
Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi
Saturday, February 10th, 2024 at 3:00 PM
at the Berkeley Piano Club, 2724 Haste St, Berkeley
Echoes of Gamelan (Preview)
Balinese Ceremonial Music: transcribed by Colin McPhee for two pianos, arranged for one-piano four hands by Eva-Maria Zimmermann
Claude Debussy: Sirènes from Three Nocturnes arranged for one-piano four hands by Keisuke Nakagoshi
Leopold Godowsky: In the Kraton from Java Suite arranged for one-piano four hands by Keisuke Nakagoshi
Brian Baumbusch: Prisms for Gene Davis, excerpt for one-piano four hands (2021)
Ni Nyoman Srayamurtikanti: Speech Delay for Gender Wayang (Balinese shadow-puppet theater instruments), arranged for one-piano four hands by Brian Baumbusch
ZOFO, is shorthand for 20-finger orchestra (ZO=20 and FO=finger orchestra)
Echoes of Gamelan explores the influence of gamelan music on western composers, as well as how our music perception changes depending on the context. Colin McPhee’s transcriptions of Balinese ceremonial music are interwoven with pieces by Godowsky, Debussy, Holst, Baumbusch and Srayamurtikanti. This juxtaposition prompts us to listen to each piece from outside the western tradition and to experience compositional time differently. Debussy heard gamelan music for the first time at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris. This exposure made a huge impact on his development and by extension on many composers to come. The program closes with a transcription of Balinese composer Srayamurtikanti’s Speech Delay. Originally written for Balinese shadow-puppet theater instruments, this piece was inspired by her language-deficient sister and how she nevertheless managed to communicate vividly with everyone. Just as Debussy did with Western classical music more than a hundred years ago, Srayamurtikanti is exploring the outer reaches of traditional gamelan music.