''Petroushskates'' is a

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

composition by the American composer Joan Tower. The work was composed in 1980 for the tenth anniversary of the

Da Capo Chamber Players The Da Capo Chamber Players are an American contemporary music "Pierrot ensemble," founded in 1970. Winners of the Naumburg Award in 1973, its founding members included composer/pianist Joan Tower, violinist Joel Lester (former dean of Mannes Colle ...

. It is scored for a Pierrot ensemble:

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

, violin, cello, and piano.

Composition

''Petroushskates'' is composed of one short

movement Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

with a duration of roughly five minutes. The work was partially inspired by "The Shrovetide Fair" scene from

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

's ballet '' Petrushka'' as well as by the movements of ice skating, about which Tower wrote in the score program note: "While watching the figure skating event at the recent winter Olympics, I became fascinated with the way the curving, twirling, and jumping figure are woven around a singular continuous flowing action. Combining these two ideas creates a kind of carnival on ice – a possible subtitle for this piece." The title is thus an amalgam of "Petrushka" and "skates."

Reception

John Henken of the '' Los Angeles Times'' praised the work, writing, "Joan Tower's ''Petroushskates'' ..relies on ostinatos and a recycled harmonic and motivic framework, here of specific identity. But her quintet for mixed ensemble has great motor energy and effectively transmutes its materials into some vivacious chamber pop." It was also praised by ''

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

'', which said of the piece, "''Petroushskates'' (1980) has long been a calling-card for Joan Tower, but its synthesis of minimalist figuration with a harmonic style owing more to Stravinsky than just surface allusions is an engaging one."

References

{{italic title Compositions by Joan Tower 1980 compositions Chamber music compositions