These little miniatures can be played completely independently or scattered throughout a program. They were originally written with the latter purpose in mind. Preludes I and II were premiered on May 20th, 2001, opening each half of a Mostly Modern Chamber Music Society concert in Cleveland, OH. These two preludes were written for and originally realized by Dustin Budish. The third was composed at the same time and the full set of three was premiered on Nov.17th, 2001 at a Harvard Group for New Music concert by Mary Ruth Ray.
Of course they can be played in any order as a complete concert piece as well.
I. "The Earth's vibrations/ pass slowly through our bodies/ into the cool air." These lines, written into the score's original draft, capture the sense of the long-spun slides which wind around a meditative drone.
II. A skittering opening develops into a series of terse, dramatically virtuosic gestures. The nervously frenetic figures (pushing repeatedly upwards) seem to finally reach a convincing peak, but the veiled afterthought ends with disturbing ambiguity.
III. This song without words is marked "Tenderly." The melody unfolds, always hanging on the pitch from which it originated (G-sharp), though the phrases cast this note in different lights. Near the end the G-sharp is abandoned in lush double-stops, but it quietly returns for the close.
- Cleveland, 2001
Approximate Timings : I ) 1:40 , II ) 1:20, III) 1:15
Recordings:
Performer: Dustin Budish (I, II). Mary Ruth Ray (III)
I. Serenely (2:22).
MP3: 2.1 MB,
Real Player: 28k, 56k
II. Biting (1:28).
MP3: 1.4 MB,
Real Player: 28k,
56k
III. Tenderly (1:46).
MP3: 1.7 MB
