5 Short Pieces for Piano (2022)

5 Short Pieces for Piano - MIDI Recording

Piano music is that part of classical music that most people are familiar with and hear the most often. From Mozart's Rondo alla Turca to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. However, when you search deeper, you find a very wide array of music that uses many different techniques and moods and ranges from very simple and beautiful to very complex and demanding.

For me, a composer that I enjoy listening to in particular because of his sound and the way the music feels as if it's going on a journey is Alexander Scriabin. Besides his eccentric beliefs, as a composer, he fascinates me with the way he uses harmony to guide the music and how he uses the piano in such an impressive and sometimes broad ways! Now, I am not Scriabin but it is his piano music that inspired me to want to write piano music of my own! There may even be splashes of Ravel or Debussy too!

So through this rather long and fanboyish thought came the conception of this piece 5 Short Pieces for Piano. A lot of Scriabin's piano music is organized into works that contain many movements or pieces within that each gives some variety, so I've decided to organize this work in a similar way. The five pieces or movements in question are as follows :

The first movement is a fast-moving 5/8 dance that uses a groove that persists throughout and gives the movement persistent energy.

The second movement is much slower and much more menacing depicting the anger felt in sorrow as well as a sort of incomplete peace with the sorrow at the end.

The third movement is smooth and flow-like which depicts a peaceful trance-like state, reminiscent of Satie's Gymnopédie No. 1, but not as tranquil harmonically.

The fourth movement is very fast and energetic and depicts an excitement that seems to grow throughout until it ballons too far almost to the point of madness. This settles and we end on a more controlled and joyful note.

The fifth and final movement is much slower as well and serves a similar purpose as the third movement but acts more as a meditation on sorrow. Unlike the second, however, we finally end with a more complete and peaceful resolve.

As a whole, this work is itself a kind of journey visiting different scenes of moods a person can feel, from deep and bitter sorrow to very joyful and passionate to peaceful and tranquil.

- Composer