Piano Music of Francisco Mignone

Although Mignone wrote a large number of pieces for piano solo, his preference had always been for the orchestra, and for solo song. In his works for the piano the search for orchestral colour and texture is clearly evident in his use of ornamentation, spaced chords and explorations at the extreme ends of the keyboard. His focus on piano composition tended to be sporadic, producing many pieces in the 1940s, almost nothing in the 50s and early 60s, and eventually a return to larger forms, in particular the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sonatas. His works for piano solo fall into some natural groupings, the four sonatinas and four sonatas, more than thirty waltzes, and the the nine Lendas sertanejas. Of the remaining pieces two-thirds are written in a predominantly 19th century European language, and the remainder reflect the influence of Brazilian folklore, in rhythm and form. Adrian Farmer