Suite for Piano Piano Solo - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.973026

Composed between January and March 2003, the Suite for Piano was written for a recital by pianist Qi Liu (1976-2017), at Stony Brook University, in March of 2003.

The opening of the first movement evokes bells, not unlike those in Rachmaninoff’s "Rus­sian Easter" (the finale of his First Suite for Two Pianos). This is contrasted with a short and murky rising gesture. The middle section incorporates pianistic patterns (some reminiscent of Debussy), a yearning Ibe­rian melody, and a barely-recogniz­able snippet of Chopin used for a climax. The murky gesture eventually returns, introducing a triumphant state­ment of the opening bells.

Early on, I had decided the piece should include references to the other pieces on the re­cital’s program: Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 18 (op. 31, No. 3) and Brahms’s F minor So­nata (op. 5). As soon as I had word from Qi that she was going to play the Beethoven, I immedi­ately wanted to hear it. I wasn’t familiar with the piece, and since I didn’t have a score or a re­cording of it at home, I decided to download it in MIDI format from the internet. Unbeknownst to me, the computer’s rendition transformed the lively sec­ond movement scherzo into a slow-moving hymn which reminded me of the Ode to Joy. I was quite sur­prised the next morn­ing when I went to the mu­sic library and listened to a re­cording played by a human. Nonetheless, I was drawn to the melody, and I found the slow effect interesting, so I de­cided to base my middle movement (the slow movement) around the theme of Beetho­ven’s scherzo, making it the hid­den theme for a short set of variations. The end of the movement also contains less direct refer­ences to the music of Brahms (very short allu­sions to the Sonata and to the Variations on a Theme by Haydn).

The last movement explores fast and light fingerwork, in a sort of toccata or capriccio, pro­viding a flashy ending to the piece. As in the first movement, the form is A-B-A. Before the return of the first section, a little dance evokes the opening of the piece. (The "murky" gesture from the first movement also finds its way into this last movement).

Each of the three movements experiments at one point with using the sustain pedal in order to create a wash of sound. This effect is used most prominently in the second movement.

Movement I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-NKcs076UI

Movement II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSxkOcdlpiY

Movement III: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CntmWYdOA9Y