Month: June 2017

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Improvisation: Evening

And I have begun another series of evening improvisations.  This series will focus on one particular idea: the timbre of an individual stop.  The original Evening Improvisations, a series of (hopefully) avant-garde experimentations on my part, was trying to explore instruments in interesting ways.  What it lacks, in my opinion, is a more precise and exacting exploration.

There was one improv that I posted that used particular stops for their timbral qualities.  I really liked this as an experiment and I thought it would be interesting to explore it further.  So here is my second series of Evening Improvisations and I have taken it to the next level: each improv coming in this series will only involve one stop.

The only thing I think I want to explain about the improv is that it centers around the pitch E flat. There are some really excellent moments throughout and it being under 4 minutes makes it listenable.

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Composition: Piano

The fifth piece in these (free!) piano interludes is perhaps the most obvious in its form: namely, ternary.  I never had the chance to use this in a classroom setting but I am really happy with the B middle section, which is a two voice fugue.  I wrote this fugue for this piece because I had attempted to write an easy fugue for another work (TBA) and I eventually scrapped it.  But I love fugal writing and I find two voices in particular to be challenging as much has to be filled in by the listener.

That being said, I love the contrast between a more aesthetically driven section and something contrapuntal.  Franck, Beethoven, my favorite of the romantics often used counterpoint as an element of contrast.  There is even an interview with Philip Glass where he admits the study of Bach helped him understand voicing.  Maybe the next set of free works I write will be a variety of fugues or some other forms of counterpoint.

Download the score here.

Enjoy!