Ronaldo Miranda's solo and four-hand piano works: The evolution of language towards musical eclecticism

• Main Author: Duarte, Vitor
• Other Authors: Zumbro, Nicholas
• Language: en_US
• Published: The University of Arizona. 2002
• Subjects: Music.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/280012

This study attempts to demonstrate that despite the stylistic eclecticism evident in the works for piano solo and four-hands by Ronaldo Miranda, his music is grounded upon a strong preference for Classical forms. Out of his seven pieces four piano solo, five are available in addition to his two pieces for piano four-hands. Miranda's eclecticism is apparent in the high diversity of musical experiments and language found in his output. His piano pieces are dispersed within the four periods subdividing his works. Tonal, atonal and neotonal are terms that the composer himself uses to describe his music. This evolution is seen in his solo piano works from the early language of his tonal Suite #3 (1973), to the atonal pieces "Prologo, discurso e reflexao" (1980) and "Toccata" (1982), the neotonal language of his virtuoso "Estrela Brilhante" (1984), leading to the free atonalism of "Tres Micro-Pecas" (2001). Also included in this study are the "Tango" (1993), which was conceived out of the octatonic scale, and the tonal "Variacoes Serias" (1998) for piano four hands. In addition, this research demonstrates that Miranda reached a very distinctive musical style and is turning out to be among the leading active figures in contemporary Brazilian music. Even though Gerard Behague described the term "eclectic" as a phenomenon that occurred in Latin American composers during the last decades of the twentieth century, it does not appear that Miranda consciously intended to write "nationalistic" music. Instead, his pieces seem to capture the essence of Brazilian national music without resorting to direct use of folk material.