The eighth book of piano préludes was begun in May, 2017. It is in progress. Each title is the name of a spice.
#71 Paprika is a prélude on a syncopated falling figure, and was written for Talia Amar.
#72 Mustard is a prélude on broken octaves in both hands, sometimes with extra notes, culminating in competing strands of parallel fifths at the end. Here is the crapfest MIDI.
#73 White Pepper takes off on the texture of the B-flat major prélude in WTC 1. Here's the rather wooden MIDI.
#74 Asafetida is about triplet upbeat figures to repeated notes that are approximately at the tempo of my walks around the lakes at Yaddo. Helen O'Leary suggested the title.
#75 Cayenne develops an uneven repeated note figure in octaves that uses swing eighths. Sometimes it feels jazzy, sometimes not.
#76 Jalapeño is about uneven rising lines that eventually incorporate and combine with repeated notes.
#77 Salt is only B-flats. It can be played a half step higher or lower, or a major second higher. In the last case, the name becomes Sea Salt.
#78 Coarse Ground Black Pepper develops a falling figure and uneven repeated notes. Here is the crappola MIDI.
#79 Black Garlic is about flourishes that spawn chords via finger-pedaling. No crap midi offered here, since the finger pedaling doesn't happen in it.
#80 Oregano is the slow one of the book that I can play. L.H. plays dyads in quarter notes, R.H plays dyads in dotted quarters, and eventually a minor thirdy melody emerges on top. The MIDI sounds awful as it always does in slow piano pieces.
