Caroline Mallonée: PANGRAMS (2008)

A pangram is a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet: 

The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.

Pangrams for piano is a collection of 44 short pieces

of exactly eighty-eight notes.

As a pangram is useful to test a typewriter or to view all the letters in a particular font, Pangrams are a way to test a piano and to reveal its idiosyncrasies.

Some of the pieces are runs up or down the keyboard– short patterns repeated at different pitch levels.  There are patterns of twenty-two notes repeated four times, patterns of eleven notes repeated eight times, patterns of eight repeated eleven times, patterns of ten repeated nine times (with two rests), patterns of nine notes repeated ten times (with two rests) and so on. 

By Jove, each Pangram in my quirky, showy collection utilizes every note of the keyboard exactly once!


A guide to Pangrams:


1.m. 1How pianists warm up.

2.m. 18[18x5] transposed down an octave plus a tritone.

3.m. 24[12x7] transposed up an octave.  Inspired by Throwing Mountains.

4.m. 40Through-composed.

5.m. 46[8x11] transposed down a minor sixth.

Chromatically fills in a major triad.

6.m. 53Whole-tone scales.  Accelerando through metric modulation.

7. m. 60Four triads:  D-flat major, e-flat minor, G major, a minor. 

I’ve been told this sounds like Tchaikovsky.

8.m. 71[22x4] transposed up one octave plus a minor seventh.

9.m. 84Through-composed.  Imitative. 

10.m. 101[11x8] transposed down a major seventh.  At two different speeds.

11.m. 107[22x4] transposed up one octave plus a minor seventh.

12.m. 111[(4+8)x7]  a pattern of four transposed up one octave plus a pattern

of eight transposed down one octave. 

13. m. 118I don’t remember.

14.m. 125Black notes and white notes.

15.m. 139[22x4] Octatonic patterns are transposed up an octave plus

a minor seventh.  They are out of order, however. 

16. m. 150[16x5]  transposed up an octave plus a major third.

17.m. 160[17x5] transposed down an octave plus a fourth. 

At two different speeds. 

18. m. 167[16x5]  transposed up an octave plus a major third.

Accelerando through metric modulation.

19. m. 175Contrary motion.

20. m. 180[29x3] Three different speeds. 

21. m. 193Through-composed.

22.m. 208[(6x2)x7] A six note set is transposed up a minor second.

Both appear in every octave.

23.m. 218Black notes and white notes.

24.m. 222Whole-tone scales.

25.m. 228[22x4] transposed up one octave plus a minor seventh.

26.m. 240Canon at four different speeds, in four different registers. 

Two of the voices are inverted. 

Homage to Conlon Nancarrow.

27.m. 261[(6+4)x9] a pattern of six transposed up one octave plus a pattern

of four transposed down one octave.

28.m. 267[17x5] transposed up an octave plus a fourth. 

At two different speeds.

See Pangram #17.

29.m. 274[(6x2)x7] A six-note set is transposed down a minor second.

Both appear in every octave.

See Pangram #22.

30.m. 285[22x4]  A chorale is heard in three registers. 

The bottom register is used for bass support. 

31.m. 296[17x5] transposed up an octave plus a fourth. 

32.m. 305Chromatic scales converge.

33.m. 307Black note clusters and white note clusters.

34.m. 312[11x8] transposed up a major seventh.  At two different speeds.

See Pangram #10.

35.m. 319Whole-tone and chromatic scalar patterns.

36.m. 328Converging chromatic scales.  Second half is through-composed.

37.m. 340Through-composed.

38.m. 356[29x3] A chorale in three registers.

39.m. 368[16x5] transposed down an octave plus a major third.

See Pangram #16.

40.m. 374[18x5] transposed up an octave plus a tritone.

41. m. 379[8x11] transposed up a minor sixth. 

Chromatically fills in a major triad.

See Pangram #5.

42. m. 385[(4+8)x7] a pattern of four transposed up one octave plus a pattern

of eight transposed up one octave.

See Pangram #12.

43. m. 391[11x8] transposed down a major seventh.

See Pangram #10.

44.  m. 399White notes.  Black notes.  Reverberation. The only way to end it.

Pangrams was written in 2008 for pianist Eric Huebner.