Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Préludes Book II

Préludes Book II was started in November, 2011 and finished in August, 2012. The book is published and © by CF Peters, Edition 68329b. All the préludes in Book II are titled Mind the Gap because why not?

So far only #15 has been performed (update: since I wrote that, Yukiko Sekino has performed #16, #17, and #19, and Sarah Bob has done #18 many times and recorded it). Until others have been performed and recorded, all of them except #17 are represented here by Finale MIDI. #17 is represented by John Mackey's Disklavier.

#11 Mind the Gap (Swift, not too heavy). The opening came from a lick I improvised while teaching a composition lesson.



#12 Mind the Gap (Fast and wild). In a way, a response to, and drastic recomposition of my own Sliding Scales by slowing down and speeding back up in the middle instead of just getting harder and harder.



#13 Mind the Gap (Poco ubriaco). Ubriaco is Italian for drunk. 'Nuf said. If you like drunk fugatos, you should probably look elsewhere, but there's one in this piece, too.



#14 Mind the Gap (Vivo). To Amy Briggs. A recasting and reframing of the stride piano material from the cadenza of my second piano concerto.



#15 Mind the Gap (Dirty and intense; cattivoculo; mikronomically). For Geoffrey Burleson.  Taking off on the beginning of the finale of my own Mikronomicon.



#16 Mind the Gap (Sostenuto). A pair of fughettas on material that speeds up.



#17 (a prime number) Mind the Gap (Cazzo presto). To John Mackey. Video made by John on his disklavier. During the performance, you'll see John playing with his cat Loki in the reflections. Also, look here.



Here Yukiko Sekino runs through at Brandeis, no MIDI needed.




#18 Mind the Gap (Crisply and stridely). For Sarah Bob. A recomposing and recasting of some material from my own Stolen Moments, whose pianist Sarah was in BMOP's recording of the piece. This is Sarah's recording on Avie Records.



#19 Mind the Gap (Of two minds). To Augusta Read Thomas. The intrusive repeated-note motive turned out to be very much like a fanfare motive in a Gusty piece, so I dedicated the piece to her.



#20 Mind the Gap (With precision, grodiness, and wild eyes). Yet another variant of the Davy broken octaves thing.