Untitled Art (2020)

General Information

Movements:
I. (sensual)
II. (lilting)
III. (melancholy and nostalgic)
IV. (youthful and energetic)
V. (languorous and hypnotic)
VI. (rapid and flowing)

Written: February 2018 – June 2020
Duration: ca. 16’
Instrumentation: pf solo

Performance History

June 12, 2020: Benjamin Beckman (piano) virtually on the 2020 fresh inc. festival’s virtual salon concert (Digital Premiere)
April 2, 2021: Eric Aaron (piano) virtually for University of Maryland recital [I and III]
June 14, 2021: Eric Aaron (piano) virtually on the 2021 fresh inc. festival’s virtual salon concert [I and III]

Perusal Copy

~ This score below is intended for perusal purposes only, and may not be used for performance. To obtain performance materials, please click here. Thank you! ~

Program Note

Untitled Art is a set of six short pieces - miniatures, perhaps - for solo piano. Each miniature was written in a span of two to three days in a sudden burst of compositional energy, though the entire set took over two years to complete. Specifically, I tended to write pieces in this set when I should have been working on another project with an oncoming deadline but decided to procrastinate.

The six pieces can be performed consecutively - there is certainly a larger arch form between the 'movements' of the piece - but each short movement can also stand alone individually on a concert program. Each movement has its own emotional landscape, but the overarching theme between them is an exploration of jazz and popular piano performance techniques and their application to material in a classical idiom. Patterned ostinatos, slammed chords, and heavy basslines are all features of popular genres I particularly enjoy, and with Untitled Art I hoped to create a crossover of genres in a work for solo piano.