Musiques Bizarres for piccolo and piano or CD  (2009).

Musiques Bizarres was the title of a souvenir booklet of non-western music presented at the 1889 Paris Exposition. Each movement of the work is based on the music heard at the pavilion of a different country. Le Gamelang depicts the orchestra of gongs and bells commonly found in Indonesia. The second movement is based on a Persian dance. Hare-Samé is Japanese. La Nouba des Tirailleurs Algériens is from North Africa. The final movement is from Romania. The music of the gamelan is used as “traveling music” to bridge the gaps between the other movements. It is the music that one would hear walking between the various exhibits.

The version of Musiques Bizarres for piccolo and piano was intended as a work for students or amateurs. Both parts are relatively simple and the piece is easy to put together. The version for piccolo and CD fills out the texture in the accompaniment making it more complex and colorful. Visitors to the fair were especially struck by the wonderful and unusual timbres of the non-western instruments. The sounds on the CD represent my attempt to create a sound world similar to the one at the exposition.

Musiques Bizarres, James Thompson, piccolo, IV, Hare-Samé (excerpt).