Product Description
When my friend, the composer and
pianist Neil Crossland, asked me to write a work for him to perform, he
requested that I give the piece a distinctly Scottish flavour. Perhaps as a
consequence, hailing from Scotland as I do, the resulting work is distinctly
autobiographical in nature. This is a challenging piece, aimed at advanced players.
The four movements reflect the preoccupations of
four stages of (my) life as seen in hindsight. The word dimensions in the
piece's title refers to facets of my own character.
The first movement, Complications, represents the
self-image of the young. The music is adventurous and academic, full of the
potential of a life yet to be lived and the earnest self obsession of youth.
The second movement, Romance, is the search for
love, though seen through the lens of memory and therefore touched with
sadness.
The third, Transience, shows the uncertainties of
middle age, so full of frustration and of nostalgia. This movement contains my setting of the Jacobian poem "Will Ye No Come Back Again?".
The last movement, Revelry, blows away the
uncertainties of the third movement with the driving energy of a Scottish reel.
Perhaps increasing age brings a certain perspective; what does it matter if you
have more past than future? Just get up and dance and let Dr. Music sweep your
cares away.
The piece features a musical fragment (first heard
in bar 26 of the first movement) which has been the cause of much amusement
between Neil Crossland and myself over the years. Neil has been composing music
since his teens but the art has only much more recently become a big part of my
life. However, musical ideas have always had a tendency to come into my head
and, several years ago, I decided to play these two bars to Neil. Every so
often, in the years that followed, he would teasingly ask me how my new piece
was coming on, knowing full well that I'd have to admit that my magnum opus was
still only two bars long! By setting the melodic fragment at the heart of this
composition I have finally ensured that he can tease me about it no longer.
More importantly, I hope that Neil enjoys our little in-joke.
The audio file for this work is beautifully performed by the work's dedicatee, Neil Crossland.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.