Excellent composer who unfortunately died young.
Just began working on the Barcarolle from his Fantasy Pieces. For some reason, the last few days I've wanted to do nothing but work on it, but it kind of revived my pre-recital hand problem of a few weeks ago. Fantastic piece.
Also love the piano sonata (especially the second movement) and the Pleasure Dome of Kubla Kahn.
I find him very eclectic, although some of his works are "impressionist" like the White Peacock, I think it impossible to describe his output as a whole as such. To me it often casts a glance towards the German romanticism of Griffes' teacher Humperdinck, or Russians like Rimsky-Korsakov, especially when he's at his most "exotic". His harmonies and uses of exotic scales are strongly influenced by Debussy and other impressionists, though Griffes is not afraid of mild bitonality. Later works like the piano sonata strike me as more neoclassical, with some of the rhythmic bite and thinner textures of Stravinsky.
Just began working on the Barcarolle from his Fantasy Pieces. For some reason, the last few days I've wanted to do nothing but work on it, but it kind of revived my pre-recital hand problem of a few weeks ago. Fantastic piece.
Also love the piano sonata (especially the second movement) and the Pleasure Dome of Kubla Kahn.
I find him very eclectic, although some of his works are "impressionist" like the White Peacock, I think it impossible to describe his output as a whole as such. To me it often casts a glance towards the German romanticism of Griffes' teacher Humperdinck, or Russians like Rimsky-Korsakov, especially when he's at his most "exotic". His harmonies and uses of exotic scales are strongly influenced by Debussy and other impressionists, though Griffes is not afraid of mild bitonality. Later works like the piano sonata strike me as more neoclassical, with some of the rhythmic bite and thinner textures of Stravinsky.
