Composed for Jenny Q. Chai for premiere at the Leo Brouwer Festival in Havana, October 2014.

JQC

piano solo / 7 min.

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Program Note

JUMP was inspired by the proclivities of the artist who would premiere it, pianist Jenny Q. Chai. I wanted to make contact in some way with the more avant-garde works of her repertory, but to infuse gestures of that sound world with my own meaning.  The opening rhythmic idea came to me simultaneously as a pitch and as a percussive effect, tapping on the piano frame.  The title, initially suggested by that opening  ricochet gesture, turned out to refer to jumping around the keyboard, jumping among disparate ideas, jumping from keyboard to piano frame for tapping and slapping, and even making a jump from this bewildering world to a more contemplative space.