The view into the composerÕs workshop aside, Eadem Mutato Resurgo [Òalthough changed, I rise again the sameÓ] is a rich composition in a three-part structure where the slower-moving outer sections are strongly related. In point of fact, the Latin title itself is appropriate in more than one sense, for not only is the term affiliated with the 17th-century Swiss mathematician Jakob Bernoulli, and specifically with BernoulliÕs fixation on the geometrical shape known as the Òmiraculous spiral,Ó but the term is also directly borne out in DangerfieldÕs music via the varied (i.e. ÒchangedÓ) retrograde relationship of the compositionÕs last several measures with those of its opening.
Much of what holds this six-minute work together is attributable to its treatment of pitch, and more specifically to the manner in which a particular interval class, I.C. 2, saturates vertical and horizontal relationships alike. At times the specific size of the interval is expressed as a minor second, while at others it is unfolded either in inverted form (as a major seventh), or as some compound equivalent such as a ninth. Further, the interval governs both contiguous and non-contiguous motives such that its use binds together the three distinct registral strataÑhigh, low, and middleÑestablished at the head of Eadem Mutato Resurgo.
The projection of each registral stratum, however, is not uniform throughout, for in the longer and rhythmically animated middle portion of the composition one stratum often merges into the next quite purposefully, for here greater weight is given over to melodic concerns. A wonderful transitional moment takes hold near the midpoint of the work, following a marked climactic gesture, where a repeated chordÑinitially comprised of five pitches related by semitoneÑboth closes off one section, and facilitates the virtual resurgo that leads to the close of this piano etude.
-Gregory Marion, University of Saskatchewan
