Riley, Terry

A fifty-minute work in four movements for the Paul Dresher Ensemble with Terry Riley as piano soloist, Banana Humberto takes the form of a chamber concerto and was written specifically for the performance capabilities of the Dresher Ensemble with guest soloist Tracy Silverman on electric viola. The first movement is the most classical in form and content opening with a piano solo that leads to the opening theme. After variations on the opening them the driving secondary subject is introduced and then combined with the opening theme. There follows more secondary themes that lead into the spacious Chorale from which the movement derives its name. Then follows a piano cadenza that leads to the eastern sounding coda, which concludes the movement. The Maze is a labyrinthine movement based on polymetric patterns that float over a 17 beat rhythmic cycle, scored in an open way to allow the ensemble choices on how to assemble the flow of the music. Goodbye Goodtimes Blues for Millennium s Child is Riley’s one Millennium piece, feeling fortunate to be one of those having a foot in both the 20th and 21st centuries... The inspiration was to create an old time blues tune, reminiscent of the music of the 20s and 30s that gives way to a more hard core version of 21st century blues showing how this old American Raga is capable of so many expressions as it crosses over this imaginary time marker. This movement is open to large sections of improvisation. Danzero, a made-up name for a movement with south American flavoring. It is the concluding movement containing shifting rhythms and tempos combining the tunefulness of Brazilian Choros superimposed on compound and polyrhythmic structures. Toward the end of the movement there are many improvised solos over the Latin groove that impels the highly energized ending.