Piano Solo 1995
I – Andantino con moto
II – Moderato non troppo
III – Andantino
As sentimentality can’t be taken seriously, clearly the title “Três Momentos Sentimentais” possesses a humoristic value...
On the other hand, there are few things that should be taken as seriously and more cautiously approached as true humour, for it is indispensable that we do not take it for blunt nonsense or foolishness. In fact, the German Kitsch concept is crucial in the definition of a kind of aesthetical value that circles the edge of a so-called bad tastewithout ever reaching it.
Charlie Chaplin or, in many ways, the very Gustav Mahler authored masterpieces that frequently –and very assumingly- tour the Kitsch frontiers.
For this, Mahler was punished with a musicological ostracism that lasted for many decades until he was properly recognised. Nowadays, no one aspires to recollect those times or those judgements towards the Austrian composer, though they still echoed in the late sixties...
These three little piano pieces - whose melodies I partially used in Works for other ensembles - constitute a very discrete and modest homage to Kitsch, and very especially, to the kind of sentimental effects Chaplin always resorted to in his films without any fear of slithering into lack of taste.
And, playing these pages, one must not indeed dread exposure as sentimental !