(These notes were found in Moondog's papers)
SYNCHRONY
in three movements
These pieces was written with the Kronos Quartet in mind. One may get a hint through the title ...Each of the three movements, marked: ALLEGRO ANDANTE ALLEGRO, is written in a form which Louis Hardin calls n o v a, meaning a nine-part double Canon.
The work can be played by as few as four on up to as many as nine players, in six different stock arrangements.
SYNCHRONY, like all of Louis Hardin's music is tonal. He wrote the piece in three days, one movement a day.
The first and third movement are in a Minor, the second mov. is in A Flat Major, the two keys having the note C in common.
The key change from A Minor to A Flat Major back to a Minor affords the work an unusual effect: The music has a slight jazz feel to it and was meant to be accompanied by a bass drum with soft felt mallet, though it can be played without percussion.
Hardin calls his jazz 'ZAJAZ', jazz in two directions, like a Janus-head showing two faces. One is looking backwards into the past, represented by classical technics of composing and the other face turned towards the future which is characterized by a new kind of combining old and new elements of music, like the European Canon combined with the Plain Indian tomtom beat, the ALLEGRO being their running beat and the ANDANTE their walking beat.