Préludes Book 7

The seventh book of piano préludes was begun in October, 2016 and finished in January, 2017. In this book, every title is the name of a color.

Maroon (#61) is about repeated notes exploding into chords. Here is the crapfest MIDI.

 

Ivory (#62) is about scales and arpeggios just goin' up and down.

Azure (#63) is layered on top of an ostinato offbeat repeated note. Here is the crapfest MIDI.

 

Sepia (#64) is a study on a rising funk lick. This is Holly Roadfeldt's premiere of it in January, 2021.

Holly Roadfeldt, pianist · David Rakowski: Prelude #64 "Sepia" (2016)

 
Periwinkle (#65) is about upbeat rising arpeggio figures decorating a tune in slow notes.

Slate (#66) is a study on two-note warbling figures that diminish in volume. Here is Steve Gosling's premiere of it.



Cerulean (#67) is about another R&B lick and the sixteenth notes that swallow it whole. Here is Holly Roadfeldt's excellent premiere.

Holly Roadfeldt, pianist · David Rakowski: Prelude #67 "Cerulean" (2017), World Premiere Recording

Canary (#68) is a fractured madcap waltz that sounds suspiciously Second Viennese. Here is Maria Paola Parrini's premiere of it in Cleveland.

Emerald (#69) is the obligatory prélude-Davy-can-play, and is a slow one (duh) based on a left-hand ostinato.

Bronze (#70), being numbered a multiple of 14, is music ripped from the first movement of my second piano concerto. With practice, I could probably play this one, too.

Piano Concerto No. 2

The second piano concerto was written for Amy Briggs, and commissioned by BMOP with funds from the Jebediah Foundation. It was written in the spring of 2011 at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France.

The piece is also on a YouTube compilation album here.

Stolen Moments

Stolen Moments was originally written for string quartet, woodwind quintet and piano and commissioned by the Kaufman Center (Merkin Hall). It was written mostly at Civitella Ranieri in 2008. I arranged it for chamber orchestra (double woodwind quintet, strings and piano) in 2010 for the US Marine Chamber Orchestra, who premiered that version in May, 2011. Boston Modern Orchestra Project recorded it, thusly. The whole piece is also on a YouTube compilation album here.

The first movement assigns characteristic material to each group and then mixes and matches them at the end. That's Sarah Bob on piano.


The second movement sorta kinda channels spirituals and call-and-response.


The third movement is a deconstructed tango.


The fourth movement starts bebop, does a fugato, then a gigue, and then combines aspects of all the movements.