Sunday, January 17, 2021

"House of Four Doors (Part 1)"

Yester-day, I learned the right channel harpsichord in a section (starting at ~2:33) of "House of Four Doors (Part 1)."  I'd figured out the cello part for this section a little over a year ago.


I neglected to take note of which specific harpsichord sound I used on my keyboard, but it was one of the Italian harpsichords, either A or B.  For the cello part, I used the mellotron cello sound, although the staccato notes at the end don't really come off that way.

I noticed a small feature in this harpsichord part, and I wanted to make a recording to help point it out, rather than simply posting the notation.  This part is rather sparse, and the notation alone could make it seem like I'd figured out only part of it.


In the second measure, there's a figure that alternates between notes of a static pitch (D) and progressively lower notes (C#, B, A).  I think this is a somewhat common figure in baroque music.  The piece I always refer to in writing about this is Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565.  Here's a similar figure in the pedal part:

[source]

It seems that this particular section of "House of Four Doors (Part 1)" is intended to have a baroque feel.  It's evident in the instruments used (cello and two harpsichords), but this specific figure indicates a deeper level of the pastiche.