Avenoir (piano solo)
Overview
avenoir - n. the desire that memory could flow backward
Commissioner: Corey Hamm
Dedicated to: Corey Hamm
Instrumentation: Piano
Premiered by Corey Hamm on August 1, 2022 at the Perugia, Italy
We take it for granted that life moves forward. But you move as a rower moves, facing backwards: you can see where you’ve been, but not where you’re going. And your boat is steered by a younger version of you. It’s hard not to wonder what life would be like facing the other way…
Performance Materials available here: Avenoir Score
I've always found writing for the piano to the hardest. The instrument has the best repertoire, with an incredible history of players. It's hard to imagine making any sound on the piano (on the keys or off) that hasn't been heard many times before. The poor instrument has even been drowned and burnt alive as part of a performance. What makes it possible for me to even consider writing for the piano is a quote from Daniel Barenboim. He described the piano as the most boring instrument because you can't affect the sound after you've played the note (unlike a violinist who can shape dynamic in real-time, introduce or remove vibrato, etc.). But then Barenboim said, what transforms the piano form the most boring instrument to the richest in possibility, is the option of playing two notes together and make one sound different from the other. That simple quote transformed my understanding of the instrument.
Corey was wonderful to collaborate with. He shared a a treasure-trove of incredibly virtuosic repertoire and essentially gave me an open-ended brief as to technical challenge. I felt very free when writing. Subsequently I believe it's a piece that not many people will perform (it is a monster). There are way more virtuosic pieces in the repertoire, but the real challenge in Avenoir is something you can see in the first few measures - an underlying ebb and flow that moves freely between 16th and triplet-16th notes. This never lets up and (classic Psathas) hardly ever repeats exactly.
Watch the score and hear the music (looks better if you jump to YouTube):
Commissioner: Corey Hamm
Dedicated to: Corey Hamm
Instrumentation: Piano
Premiered by Corey Hamm on August 1, 2022 at the Perugia, Italy
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Avenoir: Solo Piano
Performance Notes:
- Accidentals apply for the whole measure.
- Foreground melodic lines are conveyed using a hierarchy of accentuating notation; progressing from softly emphasised (tenuto), to accents, to notes with double tails, and arriving at the most strongly pronounced: accented notes with double tails.
- The often-present, detailed, mid-register moto perpetuo voice should be played as evenly as possible,
and reside in the background of the overall sound, allowing the foreground melodic material to be heard clearly.
- Notes have been ascribed to left and right hands by the composer, but further adjustments and improvements by the performer are welcomed.
- The same applies to pedalling.
