The Music of LUBOMYR MELNYK
Continuous Music for Piano
- The Remnants Of A Man - for 2 pianos
-The Fountain - for 2 pianos
- NICHE - Improvisation: solo piano

”One of our era's fabulous pianists ….!”

Remnants Of A Man was composed in 1985. It is dedicated to the Ordinary Man – and subtitled: ” after War, after Love, after Toil, after Life”
In ” The Fountain ”, also from 1985, we ”see” and hear the sparkle of water as it bubbles forth from a fountain in some quiet corner of a town --- and there to its edges comes a flock of birds, that linger for awhile, then gently leave us in the quiet dusk, where far-off bells toll the evening's rest ….
The NICHE -Improvisation presented here uses as a starting point, the opening phrases from the piece -NICHE / NOURISH - (full performance with 2 pianos is also recorded and released on a separate cd).

The Music of LUBOMYR MELNYK
Continuous Music for Piano
-The Remnants Of A Man - for 2 pianos
-The Fountain - for 2 pianos
- NICHE - Improvisation: solo piano

There are few pianists in the instrument's history who have introduced something so new and astounding as Lubomyr Melnyk. After the somewhat miraculous development of the piano technique --- in itself a glorious achievement --- in the 17 th century, little has happened with the instrument … until now, when this composer/pianist began his devotional work with Continuous Music – inspired by the new modes of composition introduced to the West by people such as Terry Riley and Steve Reich in the 1960's. Melnyk has developed this Continuous form into a special piano technique, with specific and highly-demanding capacíties in the pianist. It can be noted here that Menlyk, because of this technique, is probably the world's fastest pianist – achieving super-sonic speeds of over 19 notes per second in each hand! But all that is secondary, the real essence of this music is the creation of magical landscapes, where the listener becomes immersed in a pure and energetic dimension of sound!
One of the special characteristics or specialities of Continuous Music is TWO-piano work --- because this music then flourishes as a double-sided image in the mind, creating a mysterious and delightful effect of space and sound. You can see this very clearly in both these works.

The Remnants Of A Man was composed in 1985. It is dedicated to the Ordinary Man – and sub-titled: ” after War, after Love, after Toil, after Life”. The concept behind this work is essentially the ”futility” of Love --- that Man (understand here, the male person) is tortured and devastated all life long, by the Beauty of woman. Hence, the pain of man's love towards women --- unavoidable, and relentless, and perhaps wonderful in its un-fulfillment.
The music contains, somewhere in the latter volcanic arpeggiated sections, a direct melodic reference to Ludvig van Beethoven --- a short phrase from his 9 th symphony that comes with his strong forceful steps, then dissipates into the mists of time … Melnyk chose this phrase to do homage to Beethoven and his unhappy life.
This recording was digitally made at Glashuset, in Stockholm in 1985.

In ” The Fountain ”, also from 1985, we see and hear the sparkle of water as it bubbles forth in some quiet corner of a town --- and there to the edges of this fountain comes a flock of birds, that linger for awhile, then gently leave us in the quiet dusk, where far-off bells toll the evening's rest …
The Fountain, although a classic example of the Continuous Mode, is also somewhat unusual for Melnyk´s piano music, since in practise ALL of his work is performed with the sustain pedal down the entire time – but not here! The Fountain actually opens up for the first half of the piece with totally ”dry” sound – no pedal at all! The pedal does appear later on though, as the birds begin to arrive (arpeggiation begins ….)
This recording, from March 14,1985 , was made on Hi-Fi analog master tapes. (Please see final notes regarding Sound at the end of this insert.)

The NICHE -Improvisation presented here uses, as its starting point, the opening phrases from the piece -NICHE / NOURISH - (A full performance of this much larger work -- with 2 pianos -- is available on a separate CD). This music is also typically ”Continuous” just like The Fountain , but it is more sparkling and lighter in its tone character. Moreover, you can now hear what a Solo piano sounds like when done in the ”Continuous Mode”!
This performance was recorded on April 10 / 01.

Note: A very important feature of Continuous Music is the stream of overtones that build up as the piano sings. This overtone layer is totally lost in the Cd process, since digital sound disregards all (99%) of the frequencies above (ca.) 13,000-14,000 Htz, and then synthetically falsifies them into a ”dead-plane”. For this reason, we recommend those who care for Hi.Fi sound to contact BANDURA Records regarding high-end cassette issues and LP's.

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