claudio righetti: Carl Orff Competition 2019 Metamorphosis

The two themes by Mozart and Orff, so far in time, blend together through counterpoint and harmonic procedures from the first page, where the theme of the Fantasia is proposed in the form of a canon at the fifth in the soprano, and in retrograde inversion in the bass. The piece proceeds with Mozart style harmonic resolutions, slightly modified, and with a series of broken chords in the pedal. Orff's theme, which is announced in its entirety in a ‘ribattuto’ in triplets, is then expanded to generate new melodic and harmonic structures, consistent with the generator chord. The theme of Mozart's Fantasia is quoted several times in the pedal part. In the Andante, the pitches of Orff’s chord generate a fugato that leads to the ‘Maestoso concitato’, where harmonies from the Fantasia are further developed on a dominant pedal. The following ‘Allegro moderato’ is prepared by a solo of Rohrflote and Blockflote that, after a downward arpeggio, proposes a soprano ostinato built with the initial themes and with quotes by Mozart’s themes in the pedal. After a short solo (bar 80) of the pedal - that features the theme of Fantasia in retrograde form - the Allegro moderato materials return and the piece ends with the F sharp from which the movement originated.