Duration: 12 - 18 minutes

The composer shares his comments about this work below:

"Toronto (sevenths) was one of my earliest pieces for accordion, written while I was a student at California Institute of the Arts. The piece is made up exclusively of dominant-seventh-type chords, each with a "foreign" tone added to it, acting as an agent provocateur: to me, it always sounds as though a "house-bouncer" for the 7th chord is trying to toss the uninvited tone out on its ear. At the time (1972), I was interested in both extended accordion techniques, and pyscho-acoustical phenomena. Toronto (sevenths) has both. I use what I call a "split-register" technique, whereby one register switch is engaged totally, and a second only partially, thus setting up a coruscating texture of beating tones. In addition, I use the techniques of key crescendi, achieved by gradually pressing a finger down on a key; and key diminuendi, created by gradually lifting a finger from a key. These techniques add even more beating to the texture through amplitude modulation, the same phenomenon which produces the "tremolo" sound on the vibraphone.

Toronto (sevenths) is deceptively difficult: Although the score is comprised entirely of long tones, it is to be played solely on the right hand keyboard, even though there can be as many as 6, 7 or even 8 tones at a time. This is achieved by using sides of the fingers as well as the fingertips, and unorthodox hand positions."

Guy Klucevsek