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Cyril Scott (1879-1970) was an English composer, writer and poet. A late Romantic composer, Scott's style was strongly influenced by Impressionism. Many of his early piano works were considered harmonically adventurous for their time. While Scott is best remembered for the exotic piano piece, Lotus Land, there apparently has been a recent resurgence of interest in his larger body of works which include symphonies, operas, concertos, overtures, oratorios and chamber works.

Composed in 1908, Danse Negre is only two minutes long and a tad more challenging than it sounds. I purchased the score back in 1958, and it has taken me 60 years to get around to learning it.

https://youtu.be/aj9B1tHdqGo

Hi, Carey! Well, that's the most effective piece I've ever heard from the pen of Cyril Scott -- as you mentioned above, I've always associated him more with hazy, impressionistic music, festooned with lush chords abounding in flatted 9th and 11ths. This had a very genial, quicksilver quality more reminiscent of Poulenc or Ibert than Debussy. Considering that he wrote it 1908 rather than 20 - 30 years later, it's really quite prescient, and thoroughly charming throughout. Your fluid, clean playing served this music just perfectly -- thanks for sharing this rarity!

Thanks Tim.

Scott was a multi-talented man who lived a long and productive life. Apparently he was no slouch as a pianist either, having performed the Rach 3 at one point in his career.

Here's an interesting retrospective written by Scott's son, Desmond Cyril Scott, in 2005.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Oct05/Scott_Scott.htm

Hi Carey!

Congratulations for a very brilliant performance of this tricky little piece! As a pianist I can clearly recognize the tremendous difficulty to achieve the required lightness and innocence, and you even seem to enjoy this challenge

Best regards

Tony (Felix)

Thank you Felix. It was definitely a challenge to get the piece to this point, but well worth the effort. Speaking of the required lightness and innocence, my favorite part of the piece is the short "PP subito" passage (from 0:54 to 1:00) that is played entirely on the black keys.

In my initial post I mentioned that I purchased the score for Danse Negre 60 years ago (age 11). My piano teacher at the time, Lyman Gandee, had me purchase THREE pieces by Cyril Scott, "Danse Negre," "Lotus Land" and" Lento." I'd never heard of Cyril Scott before, but I quickly became intrigued by his work.

I paid Mr. Gandee $3 for a 30 minute weekly lesson in our local music store. Lyman was a very down to earth, unassuming man who would sometimes smoke cigars during our lessons. I was aware that he was a studio musician with connections in the radio business in Los Angeles, but beyond that I knew little about his background. That pretty much was the case until recently when an internet search turned up some rather amazing discoveries. Not only did Lyman provide backup for Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra on numerous occasions, but he also played all of the piano music for the 1954 film, The Glenn Miller Story, and throughout the 1930s and 40's he was a member of the Kay Keyser Band. The Band was featured in a 1940 film, "You'll Find Out." which marked the only time Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Bela Lugosi appeared in the same movie. Lyman is heard playing piano throughout the film (he was about 30 at the time), and he is highlighted in THIS sequence (44:06) accompanying the song, "I'd Know you Anywhere,." which interestingly enough was nominated for an Academy Award for best song of 1940.

https://youtu.be/G5P6gfiCaGI?t=2645

I studied primarily classical repertoire with Lyman, but when I had to stop lessons because our family was moving to another city, he gave me a signed, handwritten copy of his arrangement of "In the Mood" - which I still have.

Thanks for bearing with me on this (personal) trip down memory lane. I'm hoping that Lyman would approve of my interpretation of Danse Negre.