PROGRAM NOTE VERTICALS is a seventeen-minute solo piano work in one movement, which can be divided into several interlocking sections roughly suggesting an exposition / contrast / recapitulation / coda formal plan. All materials of the work, however, originate from the opening sonority—a vertical structure (chord) comprising eight notes (though containing only six of the…
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PROGRAM NOTE [The following note was written in 1991 for the program book of the performances by the Cleveland Orchestra with pianist Alan Feinberg and Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor.] In retrospect, twenty-one years later, it seems that 1960’s and 1970’s bashing has become a favorite past time activity for a great many composers at this…
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PROGRAM NOTE Apprehensions was one of nine works commissioned by WFMT, Chicago’s Fine Arts Radio Station, as part of a series examining the 20th century art song. It was my initial intention to group together a number of poems, when I came across Apprehensions by Sylvia Plath. Written in the last year of her life,…
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