Twelve Little Pieces for Piano - (2023)   

for John Krucke

 

This is a collection of short pieces, sparked in part by the gentleman who has been maintaining my father's old piano brought to Charleston after a refurbishment. Not the easiest piano on which to work, he makes the instrument most serviceable as I improvise ideas on whims which come from time to time.

 

The first short andante plays domain against domain in polytonal fashion in a chordal manner.

 

 

The andantino to follow plays with the same notion, now in contrapuntal fashion.

 

The next andante is spun out by a strife lick in the bass line, under chromatic chord changes in melodic fashion.

 

 

An a tempo after the ritardando in the third piece plays with a related subject, again in contrapuntal manner.

 

 

 

An adagio in 5/4 time follows the partition of 3 and 2, in a lyric tiny rhapsody in hushes tones.

 

 

The one-bar gesture in the l'stesso tempo remains in 5/4, fugue like but very diminutive.

 

 

The allegro continues in the relative modal minor, percussive and with pedals binding the gestures together.

 

 

Breaking from the previous 5/4 meter, the next andantino is written in 3/8 spun off from the same repeated pedal notes idea, now

 

 

Returning to choral textures, the allegretto then sings chromatic lines in six-note chords and arpeggios.

 

 

A short fugue in the same tempo follows, for the fun of it. Again the polytonal colors flavor the work. Some stride gestures in the bass echo an earlier mood.

 

 

 

The chorale takes right and left hand triads and send them through rising and falling "circle of fifths" chords, to meet at the tritone. The harmonic flavors are therefore dense and fun.

 

 

A final andante takes elements from the previous pieces to bring together tonal, chromatic, melodic and contrapuntal games, in truncated length and form.

 

 

11 pages, circa 14' 45" an MP3 demo is here: 

 

The score is available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this organ score.

 

Twelve Little Pieces for Piano