Mephisto by Cameron Bright

The TCU Percussion Ensemble I, under the direction of Brian A. West, performs the world premiere of "Mephisto" by Cameron Bright live on 4-9-22. Posted with permission.

Mephisto (2022) – Cameron Bright
Mephisto, short for Mephistopheles, is a demon frequently encountered in German folklore and most famously appears in the legend of Faust. In one iteration of this legend by Nikolaus Lenau, Mephistopheles and Faust encounter a village inn where people are playing music and dancing. They enter the inn, and Mephistopheles takes the fiddle and “draws from it indescribably seductive and intoxicating strains”, and the patrons, including Faust, “waltz with mad abandon”. Frans Liszt famously wrote his Mephisto Waltzes based on this version of the legend between 1859 and 1862. Mephisto (2021) takes this same inspiration, and is my interpretation of the question: what would it be like if the devil made you dance? The piece is set to have a disjunct, but still present groove throughout, containing phrases where players play simultaneous differing time signatures and tonal centers.

Видео Mephisto by Cameron Bright канала TCUPercussion