Mr. Paul Schoenfeld and his Peccadilloes
When I first heard these pieces in our piano repertoire class for contemporary music, I was immediately fascinated with the unique spirit in them. They are colorful, each with unique characters, and very refreshing to the ear. After obtaining the score and beginning to learn the many notes, I began, in March 2018, to work with Prof Schoenfeld his office at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Prof. Schoenfeld is a petite man, with a soft voice and an introspective character. Entering his office, I sensed a humorous, unconventional spirit. There is a skeleton ghost covered in a black costume and a dinosaur sitting on top of the piano.
The music of Schoenfeld is tonal. He uses conventional forms in a unique and new way, which breaks with tradition. In his own words, the Peccadilloes is like having the guilty pleasure of indulging in a whole tub of ice cream.
After I played the Allemande, he told me that he wrote this piece for a girl who loved the music of J.S. Bach. “This music is about love, like hugging and holding a loved one.” He said to me. I tried it again but still did not quite get the character. So, Mr. Schoenfeld said, “Play, as if you are talking, or singing, to a loved one.” As I was trying, he commented “So much better, that’s it.” In later sessions he told me that the girl was a music student from Taiwan. They loved each other, however she had to return to her home to get married to another person the family had chosen for her upon graduating.
The Fughetta is a short piece with a jazzy spirit. The off-beat emphasis in the subject creates a certain kind of momentum, which knits the piece together. The Rag has a ghostly character. The articulation of a tenuto over a staccato is that of Bartok. Mr. Schoenfeld told me that even though he teaches composition at the UM, he really has learned to compose from Bach, Beethoven, Ravel and Bartok, among others.
He did a lot of improvisation when he was younger. He would improvise based on the style of a composer, such as Beethoven, among others. When asked how he does it, he said it is easier to do when by himself. He would go to a room and turn off the light and just let the music play spontaneously. When he is writing music he is not thinking analytically as a music theorist.
The Waltz has a graceful, uplifting character. The middle lyrical section is influenced by the Forlane from Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin.
The Shuffles is a ghostly elegy. It has two different parts, a rhythmical one with much precision, and an expressive one that is more romantic. In the rhythmical part, rather than emphasizing the downbeat of the quarter notes, he wants the shorter eighth notes to have a stronger emphasis (like the way the Hungarian language is spoken—where his ancestors come from). This is his favorite piece in the whole set.
The Boogie has a typical trait of a boogie-woogie base, with mostly symmetrical 4-8 bar phrases. In the beginning L.H. introduction, instead of 4 bars he extended it to 5 bars before the R.H. music comes in (part of being mischievous).
Mr. Schoenfeld is Jewish in ethnicity. His family left Hungary before WWII. His grandfather was the head of a gang in Detroit. He has two pictures of prisoners hanging on his office wall, along with pictures of composers like Ravel. One picture is of his grandfather, another of his uncle. He said in a humorous way, that if one does not do well in composition, one goes to jail. He grew up in an unhappy family, so music and piano were his way of coping. When he was younger, he used to think that music gives meaning to life. He said he used to perform to get applause. Then he realized that he was the same the day after each performance. He is not the type of composer who promotes his own music and tries to get as many people to perform it as possible. However, I am deeply touched by his humility, his generosity in guiding me to an understanding of his music, and his way of relating to music. He told me that he is truly grateful for all his teachers in his life. So, passing his knowledge on to students is his way of showing gratitude. He sent me home with his solo 3 Intermezzos and chamber music of Four Music Videos.
Please enjoy the performance of the whole set generously and kindly prepared and recorded by Dr. Mike Matesky in his fantastic studio at Bothell, WA.
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