It has been several months since I completed my Well-Tempered Quarantine – a set of 12 preludes and fugues inspired by JS Bach. And finished making videos of my performances and commentaries on same. Since then I’ve been at work on the admin and fundraising side of several large projects. They all respond to major issues of our day, because what creative artist would not be moved to respond to climate crisis, racial injustice, an epic pandemic loss of life? I hope that at least one will be ready to announce soon!
Read more →Having completed two large works this past summer and fall – an hour-plus music drama, and a half-hour chamber work for strings and percussion – I am back to composing preludes and fugues for my Well-Tempered Quarantine. The first set of six pairs, which have been widely viewed on my YouTube channel, explored six different types of tonality. In my new set, I’m exploring different keyboard textures, and then trying to learn to play the things. I expect to start posting new videos with short introductions soon!
Read more →In June, I completed my set of new preludes and fugues, The Well-Tempered Quarantine. The six pairs are an homage of course to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. I even performed them, with introductory commentaries, for my YouTube channel. Working at small scale in highly contrapuntal music was an exacting regimen, and a thrilling one. And now, in late summer, I am applying all that refreshed craft to an hour-long work for the stage. I’m writing for a mixed ensemble of ten players, one voice, and dancers. It’s all quite exciting in my mind’s ear and eye – but as yet I’m not announcing the title or scenario. The search for a producing partner is on, and I wouldn’t want to jinx it, especially as companies struggle
Read more →A few weeks ago, before the Corona Virus had an official name or threatened New York City, I started composing Preludes and Fugues. I have several large projects holding their fire for a little while, and wanted to keep working. I decided to respond to the Well Tempered music of Bach I play almost daily on the piano. I have many times started and abandoned little fugues purely as mental calisthenics, but this time, I decided actually to compose; and as Bach did, to write in different tonalities and styles across many small pieces. It’s absolutely exhilarating, not only because each one is done fairly quickly, but also because my attention is drawn to the tiniest details. Three pairs in, under virtual lockdown, I feel
Read more →It can take a little while to answer the simple question, what are you working on right now? On the drafting table now is a quintet in an emerging series joining a string quartet with a very different instrument. The first two were Korean traditional instruments – Mudang for p’iri and string quartet, Nonghyun for gayageum and string quartet. Now, it’s a piece for percussion and string quartet. And not marimba, but unpitched (like drums) and slightly pitched (like pieces of wood and empty bottles) instruments. These pieces challenge me to stretch the quartet in new directions, and challenge players to realize the sounds I imagine. The music so far is both mystical and earthy – income ways a continuation of my fascination with the
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