Product Description
"Changes for twenty nifty fingers" (1995)
duet 3 minutes
This is the simplest
piece of the collection, and the oldest.
I wrote it during my undergraduate years at Bristol University in
response to a task set by my then composition tutor Wyndham Thomas. The given title "Changes" refers to the inspiration of the peeling of
church bells ringing the changes - where there is a simple ostinato pattern
that undergoes a gradual metamorphosis. This
piece starts with the skeleton of this short repeated phrase (in 14/8) which
gradually fills out, and then moves through two enormously tricky sections of
phasing - in which the two pianists have overlapping bars of different lengths
(14 and 15 quavers). The duet finally
builds to a dramatic climax in the third minute.
So, this is a
short minimalist piece, ultimately with its technical roots in American
minimalism, although the material was more immediately inspired by the piano
style of my older brothers, in particular my eldest brother Antonys piano solo
piece Dance of the Redeemed Creation
- the style of which can be traced in many of my piano compositions.
Changes has been widely performed by the Kiev Piano Duo
(Dmytro Tavanets and Oleksandra Zaytseva), and a recording (performed by Steven Kings and
John Pitts) is available on CD "7 Airs & Fantasias and other piano music"
from www.johnpitts.co.uk - or as a download from Hyperion/1equalmusic:
www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_1EMIPM08
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.