Explorations in Ternary Form: a conversation with Pietro Beltrani

Pietro Beltrani is a pianist, composer, and arranger based in Italy. He graduated from the Conservatorio Rossini with full marks and honors, and later obtained a diploma at the International Piano Academy "Incontri col Maestro" in Imola, studying with Franco Scala and Piero Rattalino. Being awarded over 20 prizes in national piano competitions, he has played in all the most important Italian halls and theaters. In 2021, he released his classical debut album with Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and founded the Beltrani Modern Piano Trio. His discography ranges from classical music to jazz, and original compositions that bridge these two worlds.

In 2022, Pietro released Textures, an album containing 4 original preludes that he wrote between 2016 and 2021. These miniatures exhibit a fascinating breadth of musical influence, craftily curating post-romantic tone clusters and blazing bebop lines in between the nostalgia-laden melodic sensibility of a Ghibli film score. I spoke to Pietro about his approach to harmony, opposing ideologies of musicians in classical and jazz, unexplored avenues in musical innovation, and the importance of melody.


Can you tell me a bit on how these preludes came to be?

For many years I thought of myself as a jazz composer, because that was the musical style in which I felt I had something new to say. Perhaps because of my musical education, it’s hard to think of myself as a composer in the classical sense of the word without feeling intimidated by the great composers of the past. How can one even begin to replicate the superhuman abilities of Mozart, Chopin or Debussy? But over the last few years, my musical life – that was mostly tied up in jazz – took a turn to classical music again. I released my first classical album with Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in 2021, and subsequently released 2 albums with music by Poulenc and Rachmaninoff’s complete piano transcriptions.

During this time I started to consider composing more structured music, containing elements of classical form. The prelude was the first form I could think of, because of the expressive freedom it allows. The first three preludes have an ABA form (in which the first and third sections are the same, like in an Impromptu or Nocturne), with the fourth prelude being the exception having an AABA form. The first prelude I wrote was No. 4 (Lugo, 8.15 AM) in 2016. It was inspired by summer days in Lugo, where the town is sometimes completely empty in the morning due to most people leaving for holidays during that period. I have worked on and off on the first prelude since 2017, finally finishing it in 2020. And the second and third preludes were composed simultaneously in 2021, with the latter being my favorite. The sub-title of the third prelude (Dreaming is not forbidden) refers to all the people who stopped moving around and living their lives during the COVID-19 lockdown. Dreaming seemed to me the only thing that was still possible to do. 

Upon reading through these four preludes, I was often surprised by your approach to harmony in terms of density. Most notably in the Lento section of Prelude 1 – with its recurring 8-note clusters – , but also scattered throughout the second, third and fourth Preludes as single-hand 5-note clusters. Stylistically, these voicings inject a kind of tonal ambiguity that seems to stem more from early 20th-century classical music than the lineage of jazz. As a composer and improviser, to what degree do you think your harmonic vocabulary is owed to your exposure to classical literature, as opposed to jazz?

The easy answer is that I have always played classical and jazz together ever since I was young, so it has always been natural for me to put everything I learned from classical music in my jazz playing. If you are a jazz pianist coming from classical studies, it’s like your fingers are in a way forced to-, and instinctively reach for adjacent keys while playing, so it’s easier to then consider 10-note clusters as jazz voicings. Many jazz teachers are dogmatic about jazz harmony and drill students not to play too many notes. But I feel having this many notes in a chord can heighten its expressive qualities. Sometimes it also just depends on how the hands instinctively move themselves on the piano or how you feel the music.

I think Keith Jarrett said that whenever he worked on classical repertoire, he generally didn’t like to bounce back and forth between classical and jazz. Do you have a similar approach of predominantly working on either classical or jazz for stretches of time?

Very few have tried to cross over between classical and jazz over the last 70 years. From the ‘50s on classical pianists were only interpreters, and their role was completely opposite to that of the jazz pianist. The former had to strongly defend the tradition, while the latter had to continuously find new ways of playing and composing. These two schools of thought practically never met before the 21st century. Today their ideologies are similar: both try to innovate with the help of tradition. So it’s more common to find musicians who are great in both. But the road is still long. Too many young musicians still think that jazz improvisation and classical interpretation could never meet, and that a musician has to specialize in only one field. I think that a good musician today has to not only play both, but also use his jazz knowledge to find new ways of classical interpretation, and use his classical experience at the service of jazz composing. 

Going back to Prelude 1, I’ve encountered similar chord textures in Clare Fischer’s arrangements, who – presumably – had a larger than average hand span. Right from the opening chords of Prelude 1, it’s fairly obvious you were dealt a similar hand in life (pun intended). It raises an interesting question of how physiology not only informs one’s approach to the keyboard as a player, but subsequently also to one’s harmonic inclinations as a composer. What are your thoughts on that?

This will seem surprising, but my hands aren’t that big. I remember a time where it was difficult for me to reach a 10th, even up to ten years ago. But my hands are very flexible, and over time adapted to the repertoire I have been playing. I’ve studied so much of Rachmaninoff’s music, that this has seemed to open up my mind and hands to new possibilities. So today it’s quite easy for me to reach an 11th. I do think one’s physiology greatly influences their composing. At the same time, Scriabin’s music is full of large chord textures despite having smaller hands himself.

Do you use technical exercises at all, or do you work on technique through repertoire?

I think that working on repertoire trumps any technical exercise, but I did discover Brahms’ 51 exercises last year. Very useful! 

There is a lot of impressionistic parallelism to be found throughout these pieces. In terms of harmonic approach, are stylistic conventions important to you at all? Would you alter your voicings to more traditional fourth structures when using parallelism over a modal jazz tune? Is that sort of consideration different when composing as opposed to improvising?

I believe that conventions are very important in composition, but less so in improvisation. Many musical choices are made for different reasons during improvisation – often reactive to what's happening around you – and that’s why they can be justified more easily. 

The octatonic minor ninth patterns in mm. 37–38 and mm. 41–42 of Prelude 2 made me think of the first time I heard Tigran Hamasyan’s atonal flourishes at the end of Fides Tua. I really think minor ninths don’t get the love they deserve. Do you ever use them as left-hand voicings like Paul Bley? They can be quite visceral in that lower-mid range of the piano!

Wow, I actually never thought about these things in my music! If we think about the complete chord of mm. 37–38, we have minor ninths outlining Bº and Bbº chords over a C#7(#9). Imagine all these notes played together! I do think minor ninths represent a still unexplored avenue in musical innovation. 

If you had to pick one, what is your all-time favorite chord voicing?

I think these 4 preludes strike a beautiful balance between sound (texture) and content (harmony/melody). I know you have a soft spot for Ennio Morricone’s work, and therefore must love melody. Do you sometimes feel melody has fallen out of favor? A lot of modern music seems to favor texture above melody.

Yes, melody is unfortunately not the most important thing for many modern composers. I hear a lot of new music – both jazz and classical – in which melody is sacrificed for texture, arrangement, and sonics. It seems that we have forgotten the importance of a recognizable melody, which is ultimately what all the great music of the past and present has in common. I’d sacrifice harmonic complexity for a good melody any day!

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Find out more about Pietro’s work through his website, instagram, youtube, or spotify.