The Contemporary Child: A Set of Eleven Contemporary Pieces for the Beginner to Intermediate Piano Student introduces various 20^th-century techniques, such as polymodality, aleatory (chance music), and additive processes to the beginner to intermediate piano student. These pieces are designed to be playable by younger hands while still teaching important modern musical concepts. Each piece can be played by itself, as part of an abridged set, or as part of the full set.

 

1. Lemonade at Home
2. Shadow Melody
3. Folk Song
4. Black Forest
5. The Elephant and the Mouse
6. Choose Your Own Adventure! No. 1
7. The March of Memories
8. Choose Your Own Adventure! No. 2
9. Grasshopper
10. Add On (Additive Processes)
11. The Enchanted Castle (Duet for 4-hands)

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I. Whirlpool
II. Tritonic
III. The Golden Spinning Wheel
IV. Cell-Phone Symphony

Solo Piano Suite is suite for solo piano containing four contrasting short pieces. Each movement can stand alone, as part of an abridged set, or as part of the entire suite.

Whirlpool is based on a flourishes of color inspired by Claude Debussy. It is in the Mixolydian mode, which lacks the tension-filled raised leading tone found in the major scale. This gives the piece a calmer and more soothing feel.

In sharp contrast to Whirlpool, Tritonic is harmonically jarring and unsettling as it is based on quartal stacks of tritones, an interval which has long been viewed in the music world as unstable. The piece also uses the cross-rhythm of three-against-two, creating a syncopated feel between the right and left hands.

The Golden Spinning Wheel utilizes fast, pianistic turns to represent the mechanics of a spinning wheel.

Cell-phone Symphony is a Prokofiev-inspired piece with a simple theme accompanied by odd and sometimes wandering harmonies. This piece explores fast registral shifts, short melodic ideas inspired by cell-phone ring tones, and advanced piano techniques, such as hand overlapping.

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Marginalia is a three-movement suite for solo piano inspired by Impressionist composer Claude Debussy, particularly his piano preludes. The term “marginalia” refers to the notes found within the margin of a book. The three movements in Marginalia live in their own structural, tonal, and rhythmic world. All three pieces rely heavily on the use of seconds and sevenths, which are inherently ambiguous and lead the ear away from traditional harmony. Marginalia I opens with a colorful, rhythmic flourish similar to the flourishes found in Debussy’s piano prelude Bruyeres. These flourishes are found throughout Marginalia I and II. Marginalia III opens with a pentatonic melody, a favored scale of Debussy, which is then accompanied by quartal stacks.

This set would fit nicely into any chamber or solo recital, particularly alongside pieces by Debussy or Ravel.

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