Sonorescence (2003)

Sometimes a musical idea gets stuck in my head. Something simple, maybe even a little banal. But I find it compelling, and eventually, I incorporate it into a piece I'm writing.

The basic musical idea behind this piece — a few simple chords built off of stacked fifths and their neighbor notes — has been stuck in my head for five years now. In 1998, I incorporated it into my piano sonata; here, I've used it again, but in a very different guise.

This piece also explores a more abstract idea that's been stuck in my head lately: How can I give performers the opportunity to play their best? I'm a control freak, so I tend to produce pedantic scores in which every detail is carefully specified. That doesn't leave much room for interpretation, which is, after all, what a collaboration between a composer and performer is all about. In this piece I've tried to create a small and simple musical world which the performer, in her own way, can guide us through.

Sonorescence was written for Jill Sokol.