Rumpelstiltsken. Philippa Duke Schuyler.

Rumpelstiltsken (1955) was inspired from a character in Grimm's Fairy Tales. In the story, a miller brags to the king that his daughter can spin straw into gold. The king thus locks her in a room, orders her to spin straw into gold, and threatens to execute her if she doesn't do it by the next morning. When she falls into despair, an imp appears and offers to spin gold for her, as long as she returns the favor by giving him her first child. When her child is born, however, she refuses to give the child away. The imp agrees to release her from the favor only if she guesses his name within three days. On the last night, she wanders into the woods, looking for the imp, and finds him celebrating and singing “Rumpelstiltsken,” his own name. The next day, she guesses the name correctly. The imp gets so angry that he stomps a big hole in the floor, falls in, and disappears forever. In this piece, the perpetual motion of the theme can be heard over and over, imitating the sound of spinning gold. In the middle section, a trumpet call and the arpeggiated left-hand broken chords escort the listener into the woods. Finally, towards the end, two angry, climactic glissandi contrast with a disappearing, sudden end. 

In this advanced piece, the pianist is challenged to play many fast passages in different articulations. Though the two hands are mostly in parallel motion, the fast tempo still requires the pianist to execute the technique cleanly. For the passages with long legato phrases, it is easy to sound “choppy” due to its chordal writing. Therefore, showcasing the melodic shape with smooth attacks is critical to create effective and contrasting ideas from the staccato sections. Moreover, the dramatic change and large range of dynamics suggest the pianist to explore the potential of the instrument. Rumpelstiltsken is a wonderful and effective piece to program in any concert.

From the age of four, Philippa Duke Schuyler (1931-1967) spent her youth competing and touring both nationally and internationally as a pianist. Of mixed heritage, Schuyler faced racism and discrimination. At age 30, she began exclusively performing outside of the US, and also simultaneously began a journalism career. Over the next few years, she wrote articles and musical compositions based on her travels. At age 35, she unfortunately died on a volunteer mission to rescue orphans from a war zone.

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• Photo: Philippa Schuyler. Wikimedia Commons.