(T'ang Quarter) / Scarlatti - Cage (Melvyn Tan) at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music

The Music of Pictures

Since music is always never quite tangible in its description of things, composers have sometimes sought to conjoin their works with another art form - usually with poetry - and in this case, pictures- both still and moving. The T'ang Quartet will perform 2 such compositions, both extremely contrasting in styles, content and purpose. The first, Ned Rorem's 4th quartet, was inspired by 10 of Picasso's portraits. They will also play music composed to Buster Keaton's Haunted House, by Baudime Jam, one of France's best known composers for cine concerts.

Scarlatti Sonatas (selection)
Cage Sonatas and Interludes

This half of the concert is dedicated to two widely different styles of keyboard sound, contrasting the refined and elegant eighteenth-century sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti with the twentieth-century hybrid inventions of John Cage. One of Cage's finest achievements, his Sonatas and Interludes are performed on a 'prepared' piano whose strings are fitted with odd items including bolts, screws and erasers, to create a wide variety of timbres.

Cage's groundbreaking soundscape is framed by the very traditional sonata structure of which Scarlatti was an early master. Singapore-born British pianist Melvyn Tan is acclaimed for his performances of piano works from the early to the modern.