Program notes

Followed by Another
Infinite Here
Life is So Strange
This Is the Story She Began
while the whole moves
It Was




Followed by Another

The first movement of «Followed by Another» was actually composed after the second movement; we sometimes need to remember that the creative process need not necessarily be a linear one. The first part of «Before Going On» is built out of a set of germinal ideas that recur with increasing frequency and complexity as the piece unfolds.
An overlapping set of clusters, one all white notes and the other all black, opens the piece, and is punctuated by clusters at the extreme ends of the keyboard. The repeating notes will become an important element of the second movement, and lead directly into the second half of the movement, which is based loosely on the Sarabande from Bach’s G Major French Suite. The mordent, a Baroque ornament, is a key element, gradually transforming into other shapes as the movement draws to a close.
The second movement, «Here and Away», is also built from a series of germinal ideas, but we are introduced to them in a complex and subtle way. Rather than simply appearing as a series, they overlap and drift in and out of each other. The title of the work comes from the transitory nature of the piano itself, the sound of which begins to die immediately after a note is struck. The only way the sound of the instrument can be «captured» is through repeating notes and tremolos, which are important elements of this movement. The last half of this movement is a memory of the first half, reiterating the same ideas but in a transfigured state, perhaps reflecting on a larger level the title of the movement. By Stephen Buck.