Solitudes (2020)

Instrumentation: Piano Solo

Difficulty: Advanced

Duration: 8’

Performance Materials (PDF format): $20.00

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Solitudes was written as an exercise in stylistic imitation; the two movement work aims to capture compositional techniques from John Adams and George Crumb, two of my personal favorite composers.

Movement 1, “Andromeda Fragments” was my attempt at portraying the vast solitude of the night sky; stars which are lightyears away but appear cluttered and vibrant from our viewpoint. Each individual note in the movement represents a star and each gesture is a constellation. The gestures begin far apart but gradually move closer together, shifting into the kaleidoscopic image of the night sky we see from earth.

The second movement, “Seafarer” is the polar opposite of the first - whereas “Andromeda Fragments” has a lot of notes, “Seafarer” has very few. I am fascinated by - nay - obsessed with the deep sea, in all its unexplored beauty and darkness. While composing “Seafarer,” I envisioned myself suspended above the abyssal plain, completely motionless and surrounded by nothing but water. In this movement, I make use of several Crumb-esque extended techniques inside the piano.

Audio below: Mathew Lanning, Piano