ReTournai: Toccata a quatre (1977)

Mixed Chamber – 5 min.
Publisher: Lauren Keiser Music Publishing

[fl. / tbn. / mar. / pno.]

Audio

Score (Free Download)

Program Note

The anonymous 14th-century Tournai Mass is the earliest known polyphonic cycle of the Ordinary of the Mass. ReTournai (1977) revisits the first 11 chords of the Agnus Dei of this Mass, a fascinating example of early functional chromatic harmony that includes in this short phrase chords as distantly related and F# minor and Bb major. The first four melodic notes are F-E-F#-G, sort of a twisted version of the famous B-A-C-H motive. In ReTournai this material is juxtaposed and superimposed on a percolating toccata whose principal obsession is the way tempo shifts when fast notes of equal value are collected in groups of 3’s and 4’s.