Leo Ornstein - Suicide in an Airplane, SO 6

“Suicide in an Airplane” is one of American composer Leo Ornstein’s most distinctive and iconoclastic pieces. Written around or after the conclusion of World War One, the piece is said to be inspired by a story of an airman dooming himself to a fiery death by deliberately crashing his own plane to the ground. The heavily mechanical piece is among his early works that were broadly labeled as “Futurist”. Much of the piece consists of an ominous tremolo in the low registers that emulates the sound of an engine motor. The main melody in the right hand contains cold, piercing, blocks of cacophonous sevenths, creating an atmosphere of tension and anxiety. Once the suspenseful escalation reaches a brutal climax, making heavy use of all registers of the piano, the original themes return and fade away. Date: 1918 or 1919 Catalogue: Severo Ornstein 6 Performer: Daniele Lombardi on piano Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purpose