Preludes: Book I

For Solo Piano (No. 1-9) (2007-12)

Duration: c. 20 mins

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Playlist of Score Videos (includes all but No. 6)

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This is the first book of an open-ended set of preludes that I have no intention of ever completing—I hope to keep adding to the set for the rest of my life. Each prelude is short, between 30 seconds and 4 minutes, and explores a single musical idea. The stylistic range of these preludes are extremely wide, and I hope that when taken as a whole they give a sense of my varied interests and sides as a composer. The preludes can be performed in any combination and in any order, the numbering is simply based on order of completion and does not suggest an ideal order for performance.

Prelude No. 1 (Jazz) - 2007

Prelude No. 1 for piano was written in the summer of 2007. This prelude is in a jazz style partially influenced by Gershwin and Kapustin.

Premiered Fall 2007 by Megan Denman at Baldwin Wallace University, Berea, OH, USA.

Prelude No. 2 (Drops) - 2008

Prelude No. 2 for piano was written in the 2008 and represents my first attempt at 12-tone composition, although I don't really employ it in the traditional way. Instead, the “drops” create an atmosphere much more akin to Debussy than to the second Viennese school.

Premiered January 2009 by Corey Knick at Baldwin Wallace University, Berea, OH, USA.

Prelude No. 3 (Homage to Nancarrow) - 2009

Prelude No. 3 for piano was inspired by listening to the player piano studies of Conlon Nancarrow. In this piece, the pianist wears a glove on their left hand which enables them to produce many lightning-fast glissandi, like in some of Nancarrow’s works.

Premiered April 30, 2009 by the composer at Baldwin Wallace University, Berea, OH, USA.

Prelude No. 4 (O Woozy Suzy!) - 2009

Prelude No. 4 for piano was written in a single day in July of 2009, while attending the Northeastern University Fusion Arts Exchange. This prelude uses the tune of Stephen Foster's “O Susanna!” combined with double black-key grace notes around each white key of the melody. The result is a kind of American folky etude that kept tripping over itself, hence the subtitle.

Premiered Jan. 27, 2010 by the composer at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.

Prelude No. 5 (Precision) - 2009

Prelude No. 5 for piano was written in the fall of 2009. This is a short virtuosic etude-like prelude that is focuses around a repeated C#.

Premiered Jan. 27, 2010 by the composer at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.

Prelude No. 6 (12-tone) - 2009

Prelude No. 6 for piano was written in late 2010 as an exploration of using the 12-tone technique within a tonal/chromatic context.

Not yet premiered.

Prelude No. 7 (Perfect Ostinato) - 2010

Prelude No. 7 for piano was written in 2010 and explores the use of “perfect” intervals (Perfect 4ths and their inversions, Perfect 5ths) combined with a gentle ostinato in the right hand throughout.

Premiered April 20, 2016 by Allen Shawn at Bennington College, Bennington, VT, USA.

Prelude No. 9 (Guante-ango) - 2012

Prelude No. 9 for piano was written in 2012 while in residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, NE. Like my Prelude No. 3, it is an exploration of piano glissandi using a glove on one hand. This time, I use it in the context of a tango, yet the musical material is based upon a rock song that I wrote when I was younger.

Premiered May 18, 2014 by Yumi Suehiro at Jan Hus Church, New York, NY, USA.

Prelude No. 8 (Chromatic) - 2011

Prelude No. 8 for piano was written in the spring of 2011. It is an extremely chromatic “moto perpetuo” and an exercise in alternating hands.

Premiered Oct. 30, 2014 by Kris Carlisle at Berry College, Mt. Berry, GA, USA.