Two Studies for Prepared Piano (1983)
1 Gang o' Notes
2 Handful of Keys
Requested by and dedicated to Shirley Hoffmann
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Score BDE 540
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Duration: No 1: 3 1/4 minutes; No 2: 4 minutes. Total: 7 1/2 minutes
Premiere
First performance: 7 July 1983; First SABC Contemporary Music Festival, Johannesburg; Shirley Hoffmann prepared piano
Further performances: 24 May 1995; 10. Tage der Neuen Musik, Würzburg, Germany; Armin Fuchs prepared piano (German première)
Programme note
In the early 1980s I listened a lot to old recordings of Art Tatum, Fats Waller and other jazz pianists of an earlier period, and studied published transcriptions of their improvisations. Around the same time, Shirley Hoffmann, with whom I had performed my first compositions for piano duo a decade earlier, had developed an interest in the prepared piano and had given recitals in the USA, where she was doing postgraduate study at the time, and in South Africa. Over lunch in London one day she proposed I write her a piece, and so it was to the improvisations of Art Tatum and others that I turned. The two studies should always be played as a pair; the preparations are identical for both.
1 Gang o' Notes
2 Handful of Keys
Requested by and dedicated to Shirley Hoffmann
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Score BDE 540
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Duration: No 1: 3 1/4 minutes; No 2: 4 minutes. Total: 7 1/2 minutes
Premiere
First performance: 7 July 1983; First SABC Contemporary Music Festival, Johannesburg; Shirley Hoffmann prepared piano
Further performances: 24 May 1995; 10. Tage der Neuen Musik, Würzburg, Germany; Armin Fuchs prepared piano (German première)
Programme note
In the early 1980s I listened a lot to old recordings of Art Tatum, Fats Waller and other jazz pianists of an earlier period, and studied published transcriptions of their improvisations. Around the same time, Shirley Hoffmann, with whom I had performed my first compositions for piano duo a decade earlier, had developed an interest in the prepared piano and had given recitals in the USA, where she was doing postgraduate study at the time, and in South Africa. Over lunch in London one day she proposed I write her a piece, and so it was to the improvisations of Art Tatum and others that I turned. The two studies should always be played as a pair; the preparations are identical for both.
