Works for piano

Debussyan chacarera (2010) joins the delicateness of Debussy’s harmonies and the strength of Argentine dances in a manic and subtle work for the concert pianist. In 2009, I was contacted by Natalia González Figueroa, a pianist from Buenos Aires who wanted to commission me a work related to Argentine classical music. She was broadening the repertoire linked to the musical nationalism of her country, which followed the European one thanks to Argentine composers such as Alberto Williams and Alberto Ginastera. In my case, as a European composer who spent some time in Buenos Aires, I decided to combine the musical traditions of both continents in this new piece.

In Debussyan chacarera, I associated the realm of duration with the New World. I was born and raised in Europe to a European family and, since my childhood, many world musical traditions have been known to me. As European expatriates, some members of my family moved around the world and spent some years in countries like the United States and cities like Buenos Aires before returning to Europe. Thus, my classical music education was enriched with the teachings of my mother, a sociologist and classical pianist. Among other world dances, the Argentine chacarera has always fascinated me by its lively character and the use of syncopation and vertical hemiola. Similarly, I was captivated by the Argentine baguala, a slow chant based on the pitches of a major triad chord.

When composing at my piano Debussyan chacarera, the music of Debussy and my relationship with France came to my mind. Paris was the first city I moved to after leaving Stockholm, my native place. And then I spent years of my childhood traveling between Switzerland and France, where part of my family comes from. My father, a diplomat and journalist, worked at the Palace of Nations, the home of the United Nations Office at Geneva. When my mother and I visited him, the three of us used to walk through the Ariana Park and admire the Celestial Sphere, created by American sculptor Paul Manship. By contemplating this work of art, among Indian peacocks and close to Peace Avenue, I understood that I was, first of all, an earthling and a citizen of the world. That is why it was natural for me to fill the rhythm of a chacarera with the harmony of Debussy, whose works I listened to during my childhood and performed during my studies (hence this piece’s title).

Commissioned by and dedicated to Natalia González Figueroa, my work Debussyan chacarera was premiered by her in Buenos Aires (Argentina), on 16 May 2011, at the Arévalo Auditorium of the CPCECABA. Since its premiere, this piece has also been programmed at festivals like Piano City Milano (Italy) and performed in European cities such as London (United Kingdom), Marseille (France), Rome, Milan and Florence (Italy), Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia (Spain), etc. Debussyan chacarera was included on the CD Homeland (2018), performed and released by Natalia González Figueroa (Argentina).

Dr. Jan Emanuel Abras, Ph.D. (born 1 February 1975 in Stockholm, Sweden)

www.janemanuelabras.com

For Anna, who provokes all these sonorous images.

INTRODUCTION & WORK INSIGHTS BY ANNA-MARIA MAAK

Before composing his first piano concerto, Sef Albertz created a version of the Chaconne in D minor BWV 1004 by Johann Sebastian Bach in a first-ever version for piano and strings. The PIANO CONCERTO followed in a very natural way; it was like a kind of consequence for him. Thus, the two works have structural and harmonic parallels and are dramaturgically suited to be performed together as part of a concert evening. 

With a conciliatory background, this work is a joyful reunion of elements which, on the one hand, come from completely different systems of thought and worlds of feelings and yet, on the other, merge very organically into one unity. So Baroque formulas are mixed with Ibero-American musical structures, or patterns from the most recently urban culture coexist with folk elements. In the same way, harmonic developments, including textures of jazz, world music and classical romantic music become convincing in an own new context. Finally, it has been possible to create a symbiosis - a fusion - of different styles, which as a whole reflects the composer's own voice.

The PIANO CONCERTO also involves the use of extended techniques, where instrumentalists must clap, snap with fingers, rubbing hands, playing "Col Legno Battuto", stamp on the floor, tapping on the wood of the instrument or use the flat of the hands and forearm to produce a tone cluster, etc. 

The PIANO CONCERTO is intended to be chamber music. The performance is possible with piano and string quartet or quintet or extended string instrumentation (3.3.2.2.1).

Premiered at the Leipzig MDR Festival of Light on June 16th, 2016 | Anna-Maria Maak, Soloist | MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra | Kristjan Järvi, Conductor

Concerto for piano and orchestra, composed in 2010, in three movements.

Ballade Concertare for piano and orchestra was written in 2006. The piece refers to a romantic piano ballad and a solo concerto, being a combination of both forms. The ballad has a narrative character, it is a walk "through the forest of fiction". However, music does not have a strictly defined program in it. Rather, it refers to feelings and states of mind that we can freely transpose on the scale of our own experiences. We recognize its tone as it can sometimes be captured in the stories of foreigners sighing in an unknown language.

Music is expensive and may or may not be a story. The formal course of the Concertante Ballade reflects a certain psychological course, a fantastic lyrical situation. In the first movement, Andante maestoso, a conflict is clearly outlined, so characteristic of concertante forms. It is a picture of struggling with the world seen through the prism of one's fears. The lyrical second part encourages reflection and delving into one's interior, where anxieties become an illusion. The bucolic character of the finale is a kind of awakening after the heroic experiences of the first part and the introverted reverie of Adagio. The reality in the distorting mirror of the scherzando bears the hallmarks of the absurd, especially when the awakening takes place in another dream.

The piece was first performed on the 30th of April 2008 by Kalisz Philharmonic Orchestra, in Kalisz, Poland by Katarzyna Neugebauer (piano), and Adam Klocek (conductor).

"Les mains nues" is a mix of impressionism and minimalism. There are four sections in the piece: between heaven and earth – bare hands – who speaks there ? – Phoenix. Les mains nues (has been premiered in the USA, Spain, Finland, France, Italy.  

"In fact, this floating, highly fragile, self-listening music captivates from the first note. But this musical language is not spun and hermetic, its gesture is rather narrative. To paraphrase the sociologist Hartmut Rosa, it seeks resonance, focuses on world relations and thus literally creates a free space.»Burkhard Schäfer. Piano-News (05.2020) 

Commissioned by and written for pianist Kari Johnson while in residence with the Charlotte Street Foundation, this piece is inspired by the visions of looking through a window covered by layers of snow flurries. Parts of the layers are melted by sunshine and starting to form ice crystals. While they block and reflect lights in different ways, the other parts welcome new flurries to repopulate the surface. These masks of white change constantly, and create interesting shapes and patterns. After a while, they seem to make logical sense, and I realize only nature can create such levels of complexity in randomness.

The First Piano Sonata represents the attainment of a stage of awareness in the investigation relating to reflection on time. The term Sonata is inherited from the historical form which bases its internal articulation on the succession of fast and slow sections. This articulation allows the composer to initiate an emotional movement through the fielding of concise musical elements that combine, in a harmonic color that starts from the sonorities of a rarefied jazz sound. The new aspect within the Sonata genre is therefore the suspension of time which results in generating anticipation. This emotional suspension is obtained from the repetition of short rhythmic-melodic fragments that contain internal micro-variations. The Fast-Slow-Fast succession responds to the need to push the emotional aspect in a centrifugal way and then gradually stop it to allow reflection. The transitions of situations are seamless: ideas dissolve into each other, without clear fractures but always with a view to a continuous transition, as happens in the emotional dynamics.

Entgleisungen may be described as the continuation of Tatsachen in zwei Sätzen. It is the first piece that features manifold extended playing techniques and new notation methods for a larger chamber music ensemble. With the introduction of the work numbers for these pieces, my compositional approach had reached another level, inter alia by overcoming compositional aids such as orchestra libraries to listen to the score or audio software to notate live electronics. However, with increasing complexity and diversity, I became more and more aware of the difficulties concerning the ad hoc notation of unconventional techniques. These pieces are thus the starting point for a later treatise on the notation of unconventional musical techniques, which guided my work for over a decade. Unfortunately, I had to spend this decade without ever listening to Entgleisungen, as no ensemble dared to perform this work. The piece was revised after completing the development of the notation system for extended playing techniques (Dimpker: Extended notation. Vienna et al. 2013). The revision was extensive, but mainly concerned with the methods of notation and not the content of the piece.

The parts of the flute & clarinet as well as of the violin & violoncello are combined in one score each.

Clusters of whipping sounds suddenly rain down on a deafening silence. Melodic lines intersect with an innate need to sing, even if you no longer have the strength ... so they stop to bring out an engine of repetitive, almost incessant thoughts that revolve around a few sounds ... in the disappearance of these, however, the lines recover and trace a path that aims at the acute, which aims at Heaven. Despite all the sharp pain you can breathe and, in the depths of the soul, you can breathe Peace!

Eilein for chamber orchestra

Composition focused on the theme of hope. A composition of great emotional effect.

The ‘Sextet for Zemlinsky‘ is a piece of music commissioned by the State of Lower Austria to Gerhard Habl on the occasion of the commemoration of the 150th birthday of the Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky (1871, Vienna -1942, Larchmont, USA, in exile) and the appraisal of his musical accomplishments.

The sextet, for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, viola, and violoncello, is not an attempt to imitate Zemlinsky’s style of composition, but rather an effort to establish a relationship to the honoree with original ideas.

The eventful 1. Movement (Allegro agitato) features an ascending theme in a kind of ‘race’, where whole tone steps and semitone steps alternate. The small semitone steps ‘start’ with a ‘lead’ of a fifth, but are soon ‘overtaken’ by the bigger whole tone steps. This basic structure offers many possibilities for converting intervals and groupings, derived from the main theme, in various shades.

The 2. Movement (Andante) with the subheading ‘To Alma’ deals with the love attachment of Zemlinsky to his student Alma Schindler (later Mahler/Werfel). A quiet main theme describes the blossoming feelings, subsequent ascensions hint at the bubbling up of mutual desire, occasional pensive phases at mood swings. During the reprise of the main theme, the intensified addition of the flute to the voice-leading clarinet symbolises togetherness, which- as we know- did not last long. That is why the movement ends with a ‘musical sigh’ and a major/minor mixed chord.

The opening theme of the lively 3. Movement (Allegretto vivace) starts with 4 distinctive notes, which determine the following sequence (varied in different ways), and a descending whole tone step figure, which gain harmonic importance through manifold modifications. A scherzo-like dialogue of quiet and rhythmic segments develops, and leads to an energetic conclusion.

To compose a piece of music, the most essential yet difficult thing is that you should live it before! Dynamia means potentially. The "I can" that represents all of our actions. This potentially always have to transform to an action. To "Energica" as Aristotle defines. Adyanmia however means "Impotentiallity". The ability to deny this cycle. The cyrcle of gainig approval from the society by transforming your Dynamia to Energica. It shouldn't be misunderstood with weakness. It's more likely the power of denying the power! The power of negating the society and their approval. And the price for this is to negate yourself (not as you define yourself but as the society defines you as a human being which must be capable of something) and guess we can all agree that it's a very expensive price! 

Composing to me is not something fancy and separable from the composer's life. Not even inseparable but also totally connected. In this piece, I just narrated my life experience from the moment I can recall. All the musical elements, including instruments, themes and...etc are representative as a certain period of my own life and guess it would be needless to say that piano is representing myself as well! I recall this sentence from Fernando Pesoa in his book of disquiet: these are my confessions. And if in them I say nothing, it's because I have nothing to say...

A brief explanation about the text: "For with my own eyes I saw the Sibyl at Cumaee hanging in a bottle, and when the young boys asked her, 'Sibyl, what do you want?', she replied, 'I want to die' Sec. 48In the T. S. Eliot poem,"The Waste Land", this quote is written by Petronius in Greek and Latin as follows: Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent: Sivylla ti theleis; respondebat illa: ?pothane?n thelo'.The quote refers to the mythic Cumaean Sibyl who bargained with Apollo, offering her virginity for years of life totaling as many grains of sand as she could hold in her hand. However, after she spurned his love, he allowed her to wither away over the span of her near-immortality, as she forgot to ask for eternal youth. I've used both English translation and one sentence from the original Latin text which the strings have to sing it in unison with the notes they are playting which is: Apothanein thelo (apothanein thelo) that means: I want to die. For the speaking/whispering parts however, I've used the English translation of this qoute by T. S. Elliot.

Sira Hernández, offers us a beautiful journey through the great work of Dante Alighieri, offering us a colossal work for solo piano in three parts, Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, which, in turn, are divided into six parts each.

In the words of Sira Hernández, “My three impressions on the Divine Comedy are not intended to describe or add a sound column to this immense work, it would be impossible and absurd. They are just that, sound impressions... that aroma, that intangible and fleeting trace, like the music itself, which has left in my reading of these eternal verses, a deep and subtle fluttering of sensations that transform into sounds and silences from the depths. of my being”.

This work is my first concerto for piano and large orchestra.

An idea for the present work materialized in the Spring of 2019 by the suggestion of my colleague and friend, pianist Harri Saarinen. At the time I was on the professional additional training education in the Lahti Conservatory. A few months earlier my biblical composition, Do not let your hearts be troubled for soprano and chamber orchestra, had been finished, and the world premiere performance had taken place on 20 March 2019 at the Church of the Cross (Ristinkirkko), Lahti, Finland. The music had made a deep impression and thus prepared a natural musical continuum on the religious-based set of works. The writing process of the short score lasted only a bit under three weeks, from 1st to 18th April 2019, albeit the finishing touch of the piano texture required a bit over two additional months, and the work was in the end finished on 27 June 2019.

Despite its dramatic character and versatile content, the story on the conversion of Paul the Apostle on the road to the city of Damascus has not produced a wide range of musical works. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847) touches briefly the event in a recitative in his mighty oratorio St. Paul (1834-36). Letters of Saint Paul have been a source of inspiration for many composers, especially Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) who used the verses in his A German Requiem (Op. 45, 1865-1869) as well as at the end of his life in Four Serious Songs (Op. 121, 1896). Fixing this grievance was the most significant factor behind the composing process. Another noticeable factor was the already mentioned effective nature of the story, which made it ideal to be composed.

Conversion is a descriptive work, demanding fantaisie de concert, following the Bible story and musically re-telling it. From the stylistic point of view, the work is influenced by Franz Liszt (1811-1886) and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the latter especially in the second half of the work. Musical paragons include Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor (1853) as well as his Dante Sonata (1849); Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words also were as a whole the source of inspiration. The work consists of nine sections, followed by an epilogue, and are linked to each other without interruption. The recommended total time of the work is ca. 15 minutes.

The world premiere performance took place on 28 November 2022 in the Small Auditorium, Tampere Hall, Finland, performed by Ville Hautakangas. The present edition, published on July 1st, 2024, is the definite printing, featuring a complete visual overhaul in terms of the text sections and the notation, including anew fingerings by Ville Hautakangas.

This latest collection of piano works by Clemens Hoffman is a continuation of his two previous books, 18 Pieces for Piano and 25 Sketches for Piano. While containing the same special mix of styles, techniques and timbres, these new pieces are longer and technically more complex. The 3-part piano duets also offer the new element of ensemble playing.

An exciting and educational journey for any eager piano student who is looking for a new challenge.

Enjoy!

1)     Piece for Piano

Starts with simple chords, supported by a thematic bass line. The main melody is played both in the right and left hand. A climax of broken chords towards the end, followed by a calm finale with thematic material in the left hand.

2)       Tree of life

This piece more or less describes the stages of human life. A peaceful and hopeful start at birth, gradually blossoming into full bloom with a jazz-waltz-like theme. The dissonances signal the decline towards old age, with illness and ultimately death dealing the final blow. But it doesn't stop there. The end sounds like a kind of release...

3)     Adagio

A longer piece of mainly familiar musical material, inspired in particular by Dmitri Shostakovitch's second piano concerto. Dedicated to all the oppressed peoples on this planet, this piece is full of contradictory emotions, including battle, power, pain, stillness, beauty and struggle.

You might call it a theme with variations, but I still prefer Adagio. Quite a challenge, both musically and technically, for any pianist who is up for it! 

Piano Duet I

• Part 1:  A simple and clear theme with part of the C major scale gradually appearing in the lower parts. Some dissonances in the accompaniment towards the end.
• Part 2: A calm Satie-like movement with the emphasis on tone and atmosphere.
• Part 3: A resolute and rhythmic third movement with sharp dynamic contrasts, ending with fourth intervals in the upper parts.

Piano Duet II

• Part 1: Starts with a calm melodic theme, returning in various keys, supported by lines of ascending and descending seconds.
• Part 2: This calm movement starts with a melody in the left hand of the primo part which is later copied by the secondo part before returning to the primo. The atmosphere and stillness play a key role here too.
• Part 3: This fast final movement presents some rhythmic challenges with a powerful unison finale supported by a syncopated bass line.

This piano solo piece was inspired by the impression of Taiwanese opera Luantan. The Taiwan Beiguan Luantan used wind and percussion as the main performance form, and it is also widely popular in temple fairs, ceremonies, parade, weddings and funerals. The first part of the music espresses the emotional tension of rubato singing, and the middle part used the difference in rhythm and the stacking of harmonic levels to interpret the lively and cheerful atmosphere of playing gongs and drums.

From the original Preface to Chandeliers for solo piano (2001):

For me, 2001 was a year of immense change, also in the world and particularly in the USA. After 9/11, everything changed. I was living in New York at the time and one of the things that struck me most profoundly was, despite the darkness that was towering over us all, light prevailed. I remember vigils and ceremonies aglow with candlelight and lanterns, and a spirit of solidarity that was touching to witness and experience – all this, in a city where aggression and apathy are not uncommon. I pictured swirling chandeliers hanging from the skyscrapers and thus I began to write this musical sonnet for piano: Chandeliers.

Someone bearing a similar name was also an inspiration for this title. Someone I was longing to see but who lived too far away. What would the future hold and would there be turbulence or peace? In my personal life and the world around me, these questions were reeling around in my head, and setting these thoughts to music was one way I could live through it all.

Hyung-ki Joo

A musical journey through lanscapes and emotional impressions of the magical city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Virtuosity and fun come together in a musical interplay between two pianists and multi-percussion instrumentalists.

The work is thematically related and each one of its sections is titled after, and depicts an aspect of Rio and its people, its atmospheres. From the "The Waters of Guanabara Bay" or the majestic "Pedra da Gávea rock formation", to a "Chase and Rhythmic Fugue -- "Fuga na Cidade", or a"Ciranda" -- Dance on the Beach, the music takes the performers and listeners into Rio...

A contemporary showpiece for piano and orchestra, lighting up the audience in both of its performances to date: the 2011 premiere with the Professional Orchestra of the Universidade do Minho in Portugal, conducted by the composer, and the 2013 US premiere with the Holy Names University Orchestra, conducted by Steven F. Hofer.

For the adventurous pianist, the piece includes several optional "windows" for improvisation.

Each of these six pieces may be played separately or as a set. The first piece, Fanfare, is the shortest and is a colorful piano paraphrase of the fanfare, A toast for Harry and Meghan, which I originally wrote for the Royal Wedding Concert at London's Cadogan Hall on the 19th May 2018. Winter Wind is fast, atmospheric, and dramatic. Like The Chase, with its emphasis on repeated notes, these two appeared in my earlier set of Piano Studies, but are now elaborated on in these versions. Dreamtime, dedicated to our three wonderful daughters, is the original piano version of Autumn from my orchestral suite, The Seasons. It is especially atmospheric and lyrical. Love song is sensitively expressive with attractive jazz-inspired harmonies it is and is dedicated to my wife, Claire. Finally, Show dance was commissioned as a virtuoso piano showpiece. Like Love song, Show dance is enriched with jazz harmonies, in a pianistic bravura style - an elaborate but infectious pianistic tour de force.

Sheet music of Love song and Show dance are both available separately from Universal Edition.

Six Explorations of Messier Star Clusters and Nebulae is a concert suite for solo piano based on the life work of French astronomer Charles Messier (1730-1817). Messier compiled a catalogue of approximately 110 diffuse objects in the night sky, objects which are now known as nebulae, star clusters, galaxies, and immense patches of interstellar gas which can be spotted by unaided eyes on clear nights. Hubble and Webb telescope images of Messier objects reveal vistas of extraordinary beauty and variation in energy patterning – spiraling, floating, exploding, diffusing – which suggest musical variations in rhythm, texture, formal design, and melodic elements. The six Messier objects described musically are M104 "Sombrero" Galaxy, M63 "Sunflower" Galaxy, M42 Orion Nebula, M25 The Pleiades, M57 Ring Nebula, and M31 Andromeda Galaxy.

Messier 104 “Sombrero” Galaxy

Radiant, vaguely hat-shaped Messier 104 combines the circularity of a spiral galaxy with the diffused swarming of a inclined elliptical galaxy. This celestial juggling act is expressed musically in a tight, one-measure musical cell in 5/4 which is repeated – rotated – throughout the work with continuous variation in harmony and gradually evolving intensity. At the moment of peak intensity a second, extremely slow-moving rotational pattern is added in the bass. The music dissolves into nothingness in its final seconds.

Messier 63 “Sunflower” Galaxy

The multiple, rather diaphanous spiral arms of graceful Messier 63 are also represented by a repeated figure, though the materials are handled in a more lyrical and improvisatory manner than the concentrated developments of Messier 104.

Messier 42 Orion Nebula

Messier 42, in the constellation Orion, is a birthplace of stars and a violent region of space. Newly-created stars emit streams of hot, charged particles which intensify into immensely powerful stellar winds that blow furiously at hundreds or thousands of kilometers per second. Photons of ultraviolet light from the hottest stars irradiate and excavate any exposed surfaces in the nebula. The resulting shockwaves de-stabilize regions of dust and gas that ultimately coalesce and spawn yet more young stars. The music represents the stellar wind; its speed, its power to destroy and create.

Messier 25 The Pleiades

Seven harmonically-related progressions of luminous chords suffice to represent the seven luminous primary stars of this open star cluster in the constellation Taurus.

Messier 57 Ring Nebula

The apparent “ring” is actually a translucent globe of expanding gas with a tiny, brilliant stellar remnant at the center, the result of a giant star’s casting off its outer shell and subsequently dwindling to a white dwarf. Gentle pulsation supports a slowly developing, dream-like melody which becomes ever more fragmented and tenuous until the flow of continuity dissolves. The expanding gas shell has dispersed and ultimately vanished into space.

Messier 31 Andromeda Galaxy

The brightness, immensity, and circular motion of the Andromeda Galaxy’s magnificent spiral arms are represented by intricately patterned music, described as “more an impression of grandeur and circularity than speed.”

Show of Hands - This work began life as separate pieces for solo piano that, I realized, fit into a traditional three part arrangement of fast-slow-fast movements. I wrote the first, Best Served Cold, while in residence at the MacDowell Colony in 2003. It was the dead of winter and magnificently serene for much of the time. Nothing about the character of this short, sometimes violent piece, then, can be attributed to my surroundings. The title is borrowed from "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" (1782) by de LaClos. My original acquaintance with it came from either a Star Trek Klingon or Montgomery Burns, Homer Simpson's evil boss; I'm not sure which. The second movement, Ever Since, contrasts the first since it is much less fiery and more introspective. The last, Snap, is played at break-neck speed and features quick, repeated single notes connected by short, jagged bursts leading to passages of climactic chords.

"Still" for solo piano was written on the 9th of July 2007, after an evening walk at a reservoir near my house. I was walking around taking photos, and one of the photos depicted a little yellow dinghy tied to the pier, lying motionless in the water against a backdrop of trees, mangroves and the evening sun.

"Still" was premiered by the composer on the 8th of October 2007 at The Arts House in Singapore. This piece won a Runner Up position in the "Instrumental" category of the 2009 UK Songwriting Contest.

This etude was composed on 9th December 2011. I wanted to write an etude for piano and the thought of writing something in contrary motion came to my mind immediately. Written in the key of G Major, this etude is both a fun yet technically challenging piece. I intentionally wrote 3 bars for crossed-hands in the middle part to add to the fun.

Six short and mostly easy piano pieces, each of which explores a musical idea born from an improvisation and its later variations, capturing a moment from everyday life. Each composition has its own character and influences, a distinct and unique sound.

Rhapsody "Spices" is an 18 min piano concerto with orchestra. It's a fun, entertaining and a virtuous piano concerto. Spices is the descriptive title of the musical variety this piece contains. Most spices we know in today's wold come from the orient and this is stongly reflexted in the music. There are oriental melodies, rhythms and meters involved. It take you to the world of an oriental spice market.

Spices cover a wide range - from soft, mild, sweet up to stronger picante, hot and spicy! Belive me, tha Rhapsody "Spices" will stays on your tongue and in your ears!

This piece, the final submission for my M.Mus. in Composition in Edinburgh, is based on two simultaneous grounds of unequal length, used in Passacaglia fashion. They are taken respectively from the final movements of Ligeti’s Horn Trio (25 quavers long) and Brahms’s Fourth Symphony (72 semiquavers long). Their unequal length creates a rotating series of harmonic backgrounds (in a quasi-Schenkerian sense) upon which simultaneous variations are composed. The variations begin with a rhythmic accelerando, as is typical in Baroque and Classical variations. At one time, we are reminded of Bach's solo violin Chaconne. Later variations explore different textures, such as chords, polyrhythms, contrasts and combinations between the different registers of the piano, clusters, silently depressed keys, unisons, virtuoso passages a la Liszt, fast parallel chords rising and falling along the whole range of the piano, leading to a climax characterized by hammered repeated chords. The long coda, beginning like a transformed recapitulation, explores the same material from different standpoints. In one section, in particular, the notes of the two ostinati enter one by one, gradually increasing the thickness of the texture and decreasing it again. The ending is rather dramatic, ending with a cluster that encompasses all the notes between E and G more than an octave apart.

This work was the final submission for my M.Mus. in Composition at the University of Edinburgh in 1998, for which I was awarded a distinction.

Marisol Gentile encargó la estrenación de la obra por el Rosario Ensemble

Backed into a Corner is a 30 second etude for piano inspired by an architectural detail found while waiting outside Duke Hospital in Durham, NC where two lines converge.

Commissioned by the internationally acclaimed greek pianist Erato Alakiozidou, “Piano Concerto No.1, In the Absence of Gods and Demons” sheds light on the centuries-old tradition of concertos for piano and orchestra. Everything is reduced to a single movement. The orchestra is reduced to a quartet and the musical gestures of the piano create evanescent sounds fading into the atmosphere of chamber music.

The work stands out in a continuous dichotomy between light and darkness. This music is on one hand a meditation and on the other hand a disillusioned surrender whereas a contemplation on the human opens up, in the absence of what we have called “gods” or “demons”. Halfway between the opposites, between high and low, there is the human effort to remain standing on the earth. These melodic shreds attempt to preserve and protect a certain type of beauty, surrounded by bitter dissonances and sonic disorientations.

The structure of the piece was conceived in opposite form, writing from end to beginning using the cadenza as a moment of synthesis and evocation of a beginning that did yet not exist to proceed by composing backwards. The piano has in fact the role of a shaman capable of predicting the future, of anticipating new thematic groups, of having a vision of the possible end. This “hinged” structure made it possible to work in a different way on the structural and motivic connection, allowing to descend continuously from the macrocosmos to the microcosmos, filling the apparently ornamental details with anticipations and memories. The compound oasis evokes an ancient beauty which remains disoriented in a disenchanted scenario.

Shimmer is the sequel to Spread. I take favorite moments from Spread and transform between them, providing musical commentary as desired. I love this piece; I wrote it while in Vienna in August of 2022 when I came to perform at the Golden Key Piano Composition Competition awards ceremony. It was then that I fell in love with Vienna, and had the vision to join Universal Edition.

The Piano Trio started as an improvisation: a set of stepwise, descending thirds over a tonic pedal in the low bass in the lovely key of A major. This falling-third-in-thirds idea became the central organic feature of the Trio’s language. This simple figure, heard from the very beginning, will eventually become embellished for the first time in the violin (b. 20) by an upbeat figure distinctly composed of an upper-neighbour turn on the dominant and a leap of a seventh. This clever addition is a hidden, octave-displaced melodic unfurling of the harmonic thirds of the original motif descending together from E to A. (The upper voice descends a third from E to C sharp; the lower voice does so from C sharp to A. The combined range is that of a descending fifth, from E to A.) This A-major idea is not what we hear at the start, though, for the Trio does not start on the tonic. Having Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 21, op. 53 (“Waldstein”) fresh in my mind —with its wonderfully deceptive use of the tonic as dominant of the subdominant key right from the start— I thought I’d try my own little bit of fun: I inserted an incipit, a sort of introduction, with a supertonic pedal in the bass, which initially points to B minor, but later reveals itself as a predominant to the warm, sunny A major of the first theme, sung by the cello’s beautiful tenor.

Faced with the optimistic lyricism of the first movement, I knew I could not follow with something neither too slow nor too bright. This led me to the choice of A minor as the key of the second movement, even before I decided to settle on the idea of a Scherzo. The movement turned out to be a moody one, with Brahmsian flavours, vivid syncopations, nimble-fingered piano arpeggios, and a disguised return from its trio section back to the scherzo proper.

The Andante theme of the third movement was not the first idea in the movement to spring from my pen. Rather, an enjoyable improvisation engendered a particularly pleasing, lush, triplet-driven idea for the piano. This first of the variations to be created now sits near the second half of the movement, next to the Adagio. This slow variation is truly the heart of the movement. As the variations progress, they become more relaxed, more flexible, until reaching a finale that seemingly does away with them entirely. This finale, however, expands its reach into the other movements to work out their themes and motifs into the fabric of the third movement. This theme and variations takes up, more or less, the same time as the first two movements do together; this important symmetry balances the work rather nicely before it ends in a flurry of excitement with a resounding A-major, brilliant close.

Rodrigo Ruiz

Shasta, California

06 May 2020

Luis Saglie's PIANO CONCERTO No. 1, subtitled The Kookaburra Concerto, is a vivid and compelling work that takes the listener on a transcending journey, blending rich dramaturgical imagery with a distinctive compositional voice. The concerto is inspired by the unique and unmistakable laughter of the Australian native Kookaburra bird, and throughout its three movements, the music is infused with distinctive motivic elements that mimic this sound. These recurring motifs, woven throughout the work, create a sense of continuity while evoking the lively, almost playful spirit of the Kookaburra. 

Saglie's *Kookaburra Concerto* is marked by its innovative use of free tonality, enriched with colorful chromaticism, which gives the work a highly personalized sound. The concerto displays an exciting balance between innovation and tradition, as Saglie explores unconventional harmonic territories while still respecting the classical framework of concerto form. Central to the work’s energy are the driving rhythms and rhythmic permutations, characteristic of Saglie's style, which imbue the piece with an infectious sense of vitality and forward momentum. 

While *The Kookaburra Concerto* showcases the composer’s distinct voice, it also holds a broad appeal—able to captivate both academic audiences with its sophisticated complexity and the general public with its vibrant, expressive energy. The piece stands as a testament to Saglie’s ability to blend creativity with craft, offering listeners a rich, colorful experience filled with both technical mastery and emotional depth.

In 2018 I started a new series of works, which I gave the title "Visionis". Literary templates are interpreted in musical "visions"...

This work is a First Prize Winner in the Lowell Chamber Orchestra of Massachusetts 2023 call for scores.

These three musical images were inspired by the New England autumn countryside. To create a context for hearing the music, I fashioned a haiku with particular suggestive imagery. The title for each of the three movements is a line from the haiku:

movement 1. (largo) . . . . Fall leaves, dawn unfolds

movement 2. (andante) . . Wings resound as flocks take flight

movement 3. (allegro) . . . Leaves like confetti

This work features the piano as a solo instrument. However, unlike a traditional concerto, the piano and the chamber string orchestra with the harp function like complimentary palettes of sound color. Together they render a sonic painting that unfolds in the patterned musical gestures, shifting rhythms, and vague implied melodic fragments that evolve into fuller themes. – M. M. S.

The piano is every bit the cello's equal in this piece, not merely an accompaniment. It is a communion of two instruments, a conversation - and the conversation ranges far and wide: questioning, answering, remembering, lamenting, celebrating, shouting, whispering, furiously arguing and occasionally agreeing. Sometimes they listen politely; sometimes they talk over each other. It ends as it begins, in questioning uncertainty.

Commissioned by the Pennington Mellor Munthe Trust.

Hegemony is a concerto for orchestra and piano pitting the piano in various relationships against sections of the orchestra. 

It was premiered in 1973, Ellen Burmeister, piano, Les Thimmig, conductor.

Three seventh etudes for piano, from: Chiromantic Concert Etudes for Piano

Advanced piano etudes, which have been successfully used on CD, in the concert hall and as compulsory pieces in competitions (e.g. in the ÖKB/AUME Piano Competition 2001 and several times in Prima la Musica). Seventh parallels are practised here (quasi instead of the traditional third and sixth parallels). The melody is catchy (advanced students can play the pieces well from memory). The piano is played exclusively on the keyboard. The chords are twelve-tone cadential and modulatory in concordant sevenths. The rhythm in the first piece is characterised by 5/8 time, the second étude is calm and the seventh steps form the melody here. The third étude has a jazzy, relaxed effect at a high tempo. All three pieces bring out special pianistic playing techniques in a new way. The first and especially the third can also be used as very virtuoso encore pieces. 

The first version of the notation was produced by the great music patron University Professor of Physics Dr James Lowe (Birmingham). The brilliant recording of the 3rd Edtude heard here was played by Alma Sauer, the wonderful pianist and piano professor at the Vienna University of Music.   

No. 1 = The prelude and fugue each begin with the main theme stated in the beginning measures followed by motivic development.  No. 2 = The prelude is A-B-A in form with the outer sections containing a nine note motive heard in the beginning with the right hand, and the middle section is a 6/8 canon. The fugue is busy with the motivic development of its theme. No. 3 = The prelude is five short variations with the theme heard in the beginning with the right hand. The fugue is actually a double fugue in the Dorian mode, with both themes playing with each other near the end.

In 2022/23 I wrote about 62 minutes of piano music entitled 'Impromptus und Interationen'.

12 Impromptus and 4 Interationen.

The Interationen are with preparations or/and are (partly) being played inside.

The work follows a certain dramaturgy.

Nevertheless other combinations, shorter versions, taking out the prepared piano Interationen - all this is possible.

For a concert due to the preparations and the removal of them it might be a good idea to begin with Interation #1.

for piano (solo), ensemble, sampler and tape

22 min

I. Beethoven is Fading Away

II. Beethoven is Angry

III. Beethoven is Dead

In Variazioni con tema (2020) for piano and ensemble, serious allusions to Beethoven are juxtaposed with whimsical, thoroughly humorous homage-like sequences, forming a very unique message for the anniversary year.

The three movements show us three very different worlds. The first movement begins with the Adagio cantabile from Beethoven's "Pathétique", at first quite normally, only with mechanical noises (interpreted by the ensemble), like an old record. In the course of the movement, we can witness the total decay of it: a homage to oblivion.

The second movement, as the longest and most complex of the three, forms the centre of the piece. Composed in scherzo form, we hear conversation-like instrumental guests, percussion-like samplers, wildly layered Beethoven and Varga quotations, with a little Ligeti thrown in. This overriding creative world is only chaotic at first glance, deep inside there is actually strict order. Last but not least, it's also terribly funny.

The last movement (an extended version of my Blumenstück) is a lyrical-dramatic farewell with free improvisational instrumental elements and stereo tape. 

It is possible to play the movements separately, but it is recommended to play at least two of them. I+II and II+III work great, I+III works less well. 

Jean-Pierre Vial composed a first version of the piano concerto in D minor, in 2005, then revised it in 2022 to make it the current version.

The concerto consists of three movements, with two lively movements surrounding a slower movement. (The first version also included a brief scherzo, which belonged more in a quintet than in a concerto and which, for this reason, is absent from the final version.)

The first movement, allegro ma non troppo, begins with a leitmotiv which, by combining the twelve notes of the chromatic scale, leaves the audience with a questioning feeling. The single theme of the movement follows this brief introduction. Then its developments and reversals are interspersed by the initial leitmotiv, sometimes reversed too. After a short piano cadenza, the final developments conclude with a tutti at the end of which an inversion of the notes of the leitmotiv now gives it a conclusive turn.

The beginning of the second movement, adagio, hesitates between both keys of C and D major. After a few piano arpeggios on a syncopated rhythm given by the strings, the piano introduces a melodious theme, first stated in C major by the woodwinds, then forcefully taken up in D major by the piano. The developments of this theme, by the woodwinds and the piano, on the same rhythm given by the strings, is interspersed by the brass stating a second, quite brilliant theme. The adagio ends decrescendo in D major with a descending variant of the initial piano arpeggios, still on the same syncopated rhythm given by the strings.

The third movement, rondo vivace, is based on two themes presented alternately. It begins with the piano exposing the first theme, accompanied by the strings, in the key of D minor with an augmented fourth, while the woodwinds gradually start counterpointing. Then the piano states the second theme, a very rhythmic gavotte, in the relative key of F major with an augmented fourth too, on which the horns in turn start counterpointing. The piano then, in arpeggios, accompanies the developments of both themes, during which the brass gradually enters the scene. The rondo ends with a chromatic rise that the instruments gradually join crescendo to form the final tutti.