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My friend and colleague Kristina Szutor will be recording a CD of contemporary piano works inspired by the Italian Baroque composer, Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), in early 2010, and she asked me to write something for that purpose. I think the planned name for the CD is Aprés Scarlatti.
While it would probably never have occurred to me to write a contemporary piece based in some way on Scarlatti's music, the fact that Kristina would be performing and recording it was ample inspiration for me to tackle this project, as she is one of the finest pianists I have heard and has already performed several of my compositions, always beautifully (such as Dream Dance and Last Dance).
My introduction to Scarlatti's music came through learning guitar transcriptions of his sonatas, and one of the most popular of these amongst classical guitarists is K. 208 (L. 238) in A major. Two of the most pervasive characteristics of that sonata are the steady, often repeated, quarter notes in the left hand, and the flowing melody in the right hand with frequent syncopations; these ideas formed the basis of Scarlet Daybreak.
I wrote two of these sonatas, and the second will be posted in about a week.
[Edit: Just to clarify, in case there was any confusion, this recording is just a MIDI rendering from Finale 2007. I had never done this with Finale before — I always opened my MIDI files in Digital Performer and did all my articulation, tempo, and dynamic editing there. This time, I just wrote all the articulations, dynamics, and pedal markings in the score, and Finale took care of the rest, and I was pleasantly surprised by the result. The other technical note to add is that the piano sound is the Steinway from Kontact2, something I've had for a couple of years but only just figured out how to use. Technology; takes me forever to figure it out some times.]
While it would probably never have occurred to me to write a contemporary piece based in some way on Scarlatti's music, the fact that Kristina would be performing and recording it was ample inspiration for me to tackle this project, as she is one of the finest pianists I have heard and has already performed several of my compositions, always beautifully (such as Dream Dance and Last Dance).
My introduction to Scarlatti's music came through learning guitar transcriptions of his sonatas, and one of the most popular of these amongst classical guitarists is K. 208 (L. 238) in A major. Two of the most pervasive characteristics of that sonata are the steady, often repeated, quarter notes in the left hand, and the flowing melody in the right hand with frequent syncopations; these ideas formed the basis of Scarlet Daybreak.
I wrote two of these sonatas, and the second will be posted in about a week.
[Edit: Just to clarify, in case there was any confusion, this recording is just a MIDI rendering from Finale 2007. I had never done this with Finale before — I always opened my MIDI files in Digital Performer and did all my articulation, tempo, and dynamic editing there. This time, I just wrote all the articulations, dynamics, and pedal markings in the score, and Finale took care of the rest, and I was pleasantly surprised by the result. The other technical note to add is that the piano sound is the Steinway from Kontact2, something I've had for a couple of years but only just figured out how to use. Technology; takes me forever to figure it out some times.]
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bitfeld
I particulary like the baroque "salute" with which you finish the composition. When the same appears in the middle I did expect just a little more of an excursion into the old style. As always it's nice to hear a new piece from you.