Soundbites
2017-11-27
A suite of five impressionist miniatures for piano.
Written in November 2017, as my final project for a composition class. All five miniatures contain themes from previous electronic tracks of mine, adapted and improved for piano. The movements are:
- Palpitations
- Idle Skies
- Atlantis
- North Park Jazz
- Outlook
Trivia
- The five miniatures here are each based on one (or sometimes two) of my previously-written electronic tracks. Their names are a reflection of this, while their initials (PIANO) reflect the nature of the piece as a piano adaptation:
- Palpitations: based on Pulse and Future Funk
- Idle Skies: based on Stargazing and Wanderlust
- Atlantis: based on Deep Sea Serenity
- North Park Jazz: based on South Street Swing
- Outlook: based on Perspective
- The first four movements each end on an unresolved chord, which is then resolved with the beginning of the next movement. Only the final movement, Outlook, ends resolved.
- In the aforementioned composition class in which this was composed, one exercise that we were given was to write a tonal piece that, through modulation and accidentals, achieved "full chromaticism", meaning each of the 12 notes in the chromatic scale occurred at least once. Inspired by this, I wrote this piece such that each of the five miniatures likewise achieved full chromaticism. (Yes, even Outlook.)
- The movements were written in the following order: Palpitations, Atlantis, North Park Jazz, Idle Skies, Outlook.
- The only time I've written for the middle (sostenuto) pedal is in North Park Jazz, to hold the A, E, and B beginning at 7:37 - and of course later at 8:33.