Paul Schoenfield (b.
1947) is one of the premiere American composers of the late twentieth
and early twenty-first centuries. His "Café Music"
is representative of his output in its eclecticism and reliance on
popular musical idioms. Regarding the origins of his piano trio, Schoenfield
has written: "The idea of composing Café Music first came
to me in 1985 after sitting in one night for the pianist of the house
at Murray's Restaurant in Minneapolis. My intention was to write a
kind of high-class, dinner-music music which could be played at a
restaurant, but might also, just barely find its way into a concert
hall."
"Café Music" (1985-6) features diverse popular American
musical styles in each of its three movements and seems particularly
indebted to African-American culture. The first movement is a tribute
to ragtime and swing, full of jaunty dotted rhythms and short riffs
for each instrument. The second movement recalls the Blues in its
mournful introspection and passionate middle section. The last movement
is a flashy Presto, which suggests the sort of instrumental virtuosity
of the great jazz players, along with references to ragtime and dixieland.
For all its derivations from older musical idioms, though, Schoenfield's
"Café Music" reveals its late twentieth-century origins
in its zany dissonance and complex, quirky rhythms.
