Although a distinctive compositions in its own right, Tryglyph is clearly a companion piece of Eadem Mutato Resurgo. The degree to which three distinct registral strata are marked out in this later piano etude is compelling, for what unfolds at the extreme higher and lower edges is mediated to a considerable degree by all that transpires in the rather active middle layer.
In point of fact, the intricacies heard in the middle layer of Tryglyph give rise to a curious ÒreversalÓ between what in most musical contexts represents stable (or consonant) and what represents non-stable (or dissonant) intervals; by way of example, large swatches of the functional bass line are governed by what are generally held to be consonant intervals: namely, vertical tenths. And yet it is the more ÒgrittyÓ gestures of the uppermost stratum, where on numerous occasions two rhythmically identical lines express I.C. 2, which oddly assumes a stable role, and this at the expense of the bass tenths.
Driven forward by the combination of rhythmic energy and carefully measured change in dynamic gradations, Tryglyph ultimately collapses upon itself, with a drawn out mid-register melodic incipit protruding through the sustaining highest and the lowest two pitches of the piano as these later notes begin to decay.
-Gregory Marion, University of Saskatchewan
