Statues (1992) for solo piano

Duration: 10 minutes

• Mvt 2 excerpt, “Eros” (0'50)
• Mvt 4 excerpt, “Visigoth” (0'49)
• Mvt 5 excerpt, “Bard” (1'11)

Mauricio Nader, piano

The five episodes that make up statues all draw on the same core of pitch material and are all built on sonic impression and gesture.  Each of the movements grew out of a set of improvisations that I did in reaction to the death of a close family friend, Claude Caux, and the feeling I was wanted was a sense motion that had been frozen in time, going nowhere- a kind of musical statue.  The first miniature, Partial Symmetries, is built on a bell-like figure resounding in empty space.  The second, Eros, is based around a swirling, two-handed pattern, which after having run its course, again approaches a kind of stasis.  The third movement, Unstruck Sound, is built on short, terse outbursts played in the left hand, the harmonic residue of which is sustained in the right hand.  The fourth, Visigoth, takes a bright harmony and treats it brutally.  The last miniature, Bard, has a kind of keening melody over what I imagine as a mandolin or lute accompaniment.  It is wistful in character.

—Christopher Theofanidis