Schtick
Instrumentation: piano 4 hands, playback
Duration: 7:15
Written in: 2009
When one said “stukki” in Old High German more than a 1,000 years ago, one was often concerned with food since the meaning of the word was “fragment” or “crust”. “Stukki” became the Middle High German word “Stücke” (like the current German word, “Stück” [“piece”]), which was transformed in Yiddish to “shtik” or “schtick”, and then transplanted to America. This is show business jargon and refers to a comedian’s gimmick or routine.
The harmony for Schtick is derived from Schumann’s name (SCHA [E-flat, C, B, A], used in Carnaval, for example) and my own. It becomes the harmonic “gimmick” for each of the movements, as referenced in the their titles (“SCHAMiCHAS”). The third movement is the culmination of the act. Previous materials are brought back, sometimes verbatim, often altered, and they are accompanied by a laugh track. Suddenly, a contemporary music concert has been transformed into a comedy club. Thus, the music is cast in a new light, and what sounded agitated or dark in the previous movements now becomes humorous.