| After the 1920s, the interest for composing a set of twenty-four preludes in all major and minor keys noticeably declined. For three decades between Dmitri Shostakovich's preludes in 1932--33 and Richard Cummings's in 1961, there were only two sets in all major and minor keys written and published. Besides the twenty-four preludes (Op. 38, 1943) by another Russian composer, Dmitri Kabalevsky, the lesser-known British composer-pianist York Bowen (1884--1961), who composed his Twenty-four Preludes in All Major and Minor Keys, Op. 102, from 1938--50, continued this long tradition of preludes in all keys from Hummel and Chopin.;Reputed for being "the finest pianist since Anton Rubinstein," Bowen enjoyed his long teaching career at the Royal Academy of Music from 1909 to 1959 (two years before his death). Praised as "the most remarkable of the young British composers" by Camille Saint-Saens, Bowen was also a prolific composer and made numerous contributions to the piano repertoire. Some even referred to Bowen as "the English Rachmaninov" for his pianistic writing and rich harmonic style.;The largest collection of Bowen's character pieces, the Preludes, represents a culmination and synthesis of post-Romanticism, Impressionism, and Russian virtuosity. The work was highly praised during Bowen's lifetime. Pianist, composer, and music critic Kaikhosru Sorabji (1892--1988) wrote in his book Mi Contra Fa that the work is "not only the finest English piano music written in our time but the finest writing pianistically considered, and [Bowen] is I believe the first and only great English master of the instrument.";Bowen's rich and deep expressiveness attracted more performances of his Preludes after the release of the recording York Bowen Piano Music in 1996. This document presents a theoretical study of Bowen's Twenty-four Preludes in All Major and Minor Keys, Op. 102, for a better understanding of his "rich and inventive" harmony and music style. By focusing on his largest and most diverse collection, this analytical document will explore many of Bowen's stylistic traits in depth. My study will concentrate on Bowen's ingenious use of rich harmonization, which perpetuates the late Romantic school of Liszt and Wagner (chromatic voice-leading and distant keys), and complements Romantic expression with Impressionistic features (whole-tone scales, parallel chord successions, modal inflections, and some tonally ambiguous successions).;Bowen's Preludes are part of a long tradition of preludes in all keys by several composers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including Hummel, Chopin, Cui, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, and Shostakovich. As in many of these preludes, Bowen develops and projects a single mood in each of his preludes, while sometimes showing the influence of other composers' styles. Critics and even some more perceptive analysts are often guilty of dwelling on the derivativeness of composers with conservative aesthetics like Bowen. The variety of emotional content, diversity of pianistic styles, sophistication of ideas, skillful integration of musical elements, and blending of traditional and contemporary harmony, make York Bowen's Preludes worthy of study and performance. |
