ABSTRACT
This chapter argues an exploration of Smalley's initial contact with serialism and the ways in which he adapted it to his emerging expressive needs. This necessitates discussing some apprentice works in a little detail before moving on to the works with which he first came to attention. At first sight Piano Piece I seems a step backwards from the de la Mare songs. In contrast with 'The Horseman', it is difficult to find a rationale for the various departures from serial 'propriety'. Piano Piece I is reworked for piano and accordion in The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo, composed in July and August 1964. Such recycling is, as we shall see, one of the most prominent characteristics of Smalley's output. Recycling represents a significant departure from the aesthetics of Darmstadt serialism, which normally demanded that each work was created anew. Smalley's relationship with constructivism in 1965 was apparently rather more comfortable.
