RICERCARES INTERVÁLICOS (Benavides) Score (PDF) for Piano (2025)

I.              Cuartas (Adagio misterioso)
II.           Segundas (Moderato agitato)
III.         Sextas (Andante espressivo)
IV.          Terceras (Allegretto scherzando)
V.            Séptimas (Largo solenne)
VI.          Quintas (Andante tranquilo)

Program Notes for RICERCARES INTERVÁLICOS

Ricercares interválicos (Intervallic Ricercars) explore the creative possibilities of intervals, with each movement bound by a single interval type (second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh). I’ve always loved imaginative constraints that challenge my creativity, like a puzzle to be solved.

When I was a budding composer, I was given an assignment that has always stayed with me: write a piece using only a single interval. In undergrad we were tasked with choosing an interval type that would then be used to justify every single choice in a piece. Every pitch needed to be approached or left by that interval, and all harmonic construction needed to be created using it. It’s unbelievably frustrating at first, and then freeing.

Though we complained about the restrictions, inevitably all of us would turn in works that were inspired and distinct. To this day I still give my composition students this assignment, and without fail I am blown away by their new and inventive creations. I want them to understand that part of being creative is goal setting and dogged solution finding. This semester I decided to do “the assignment” at the same time as my composition class at the USC Thornton School of Music. They were only required to do a single interval but, wanting to lead by example I decided to do a whole new set.

Composers have been inspired to study motifs, pitch class sets, scales, harmonies, intervals, and themes since the beginning. Ricercar means “to seek” or “to study” from the Italian verb ricercare. Famous examples include works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Domenico Gabrielli, and Girolamo Frescobaldi, however my favorite is that by György Ligeti, his Musica ricercata for solo piano. Numbered I-XI (1-11), each movement uses a growing pitch class set from two pitches to three and so on. The works are stunning, with his Six Bagatelles for wind quintet being directly derived from this set.

My set is arranged in complementary interval order at the midway point. Starting with fourths, seconds, and sixths, it reverses into thirds, sevenths, and fifths. Not wanting the player to make any major assumptions aside from the interval itself, I opted to use traditional Italian tempo markings (Adagio misterioso, Moderato agitato, Andante espressivo) and Spanish for movement titles. The miniatures use a variety of styles from fast (IV. Terceras) to slow (V. Séptimas), rhythmic (II. Segundas) to lyrical (III. Sextas). They open with a free-flowing study on fourths (I. Cuartas), and close with my favorite, an uncharacteristically long rumination, a fantasia, on the perfect fifth (VI. Quintas), an interval that is full of possibility and natural beauty.

Many thanks to some of my first music professors at Santa Clara University who gave me this idea, derived from their time teaching at the Walden School: Patricia Plude, Dr. Pamela Quist, and Dr. Teresa McCollough, I think about those lessons all the time. I am eternally inspired by my students who do this assignment year after year and teach me new possibilities about intervals. Thank you to South Dakota State University for supporting this commission and my biggest and warmest thanks to pianist Mark Stevens for reaching out and asking me to write a work that challenged both him and me. May we always seek out something new with every new creative endeavor.

-        Nicolás Lell Benavides
www.nicolasbenavides.com