piano music

Extraordinary Next Steps for “Aberfan”

What an incredible, full experience to start recording!

Driving into Boston, walking through Michael’s large maze of a studio for the first time, finding the piano had a wonderful touch that was not too hard for my hands, recording ’til near midnight, leaving to find the Walker Center in Auburndale, Newton, where I was to stay overnight, then coming back into the studio on the green line the next morning after 3 1/2 hours sleep.

Michael and I worked on one musical sequence at a time, talking about it some, recording, then listening. We accomplished an incredible amount — 1/3 of the piano parts — over those 11 hours! A musical sample will be posted soon.

Aberfan is a sponsored project of New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), a 501 (c)(3), tax-exempt organization. Contributions are tax deductible.

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Recording “Aberfan” to Begin!

We will begin recording piano parts for Aberfan in September!

One of the piano sequences, “Interlude”, represents the children walking to school on the morning of the disaster. Following those schoolchildren on their walk over the school’s threshold, this musical section uses eighth-note triplets according to a randomized sequence. To achieve that, I cut out each of the notes of the original and reassembled them— with eyes closed — to convey the element of chance that is part of everyday life and every catastrophe.

Each Interlude contains 144 beats, one for each person who died. “Altered Interlude” accents shift among first, second and third beats. Here is “2nd Altered Interlude”

I am very honored to be working with producer and engineer Michael Farquharson. This is going to be a tremendous experience.

More news and updates to follow soon.

Funding made possible in part by the Puffin Foundation and Puffin Foundation West.

Aberfan is a sponsored project of New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), a 501 (c)(3), tax-exempt organization. Contributions are tax deductible.

Raining from “Aberfan”

Today it’s raining. I can hear the drops on our metal roof. This is how it was when I was working on the Rain Sequence of Aberfan — realizing that rain falls haphazardly, scattershot, as if random. Yet it is a precisely created pattern.

Here is the very beginning of Aberfan, a few minutes of rain, one piano entering after the other.