Petite Suite (2013, rev. 2020)
Instrumentation: piano solo
Duration: 6 minutes
Duration: 6 minutes
Program Note:
French music of the twentieth century has deeply fascinated me since my childhood. I fell in love with the lush harmonies, glittering orchestration, moody juxtapositions, and unforgettable charmingness. Unsurprisingly, these qualities trickled in to my own music and influenced much of my teenage musical development. Petite Suite is the culmination of this time, an homage to some of my favorite French composers, and my last work before collegiate study. Each movement depicts a different French composer’s style and character.
In Flippitance (Poulenc), a pointed and decisive tune melts away into a lighter waltz, but reemerges more agitated than before. The twists and turns along the way reflect the contrasting characters of Francis Poulenc’s music: the “monk” and the “rascal” as described by musicologist Claude Rostand.
Though best-known for the quiet, delicate world of his Gymnopédies, Erik Satie composed a great deal of eccentric and tongue-in-cheek pieces including Flabby Preludes (For a Dog), Bureaucratic Sonatina, and Dehydrated Embryos. In this vein of humor, the second movement, Variations (Satie), takes a simple melody and transforms it through incrementally sassier repetitions.
For a long time I considered Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G to be the most perfectly constructed piece. (Sorry Bach fans!) Today, the concerto remains one of my favorite musical pieces. In the spirit of this concerto, Toccata Dancing (Ravel) uses interlocking hand patterns to create fast, bubbling rhythmic grooves that speed to a vigorous and climactic ending.
Petite Suite was first performed at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN) in July 2013 and is dedicated in friendship and gratitude to Martha Schmidt. The revised version was first performed at the Aurora School of Music (Aurora, OH) in September 2020.
French music of the twentieth century has deeply fascinated me since my childhood. I fell in love with the lush harmonies, glittering orchestration, moody juxtapositions, and unforgettable charmingness. Unsurprisingly, these qualities trickled in to my own music and influenced much of my teenage musical development. Petite Suite is the culmination of this time, an homage to some of my favorite French composers, and my last work before collegiate study. Each movement depicts a different French composer’s style and character.
In Flippitance (Poulenc), a pointed and decisive tune melts away into a lighter waltz, but reemerges more agitated than before. The twists and turns along the way reflect the contrasting characters of Francis Poulenc’s music: the “monk” and the “rascal” as described by musicologist Claude Rostand.
Though best-known for the quiet, delicate world of his Gymnopédies, Erik Satie composed a great deal of eccentric and tongue-in-cheek pieces including Flabby Preludes (For a Dog), Bureaucratic Sonatina, and Dehydrated Embryos. In this vein of humor, the second movement, Variations (Satie), takes a simple melody and transforms it through incrementally sassier repetitions.
For a long time I considered Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G to be the most perfectly constructed piece. (Sorry Bach fans!) Today, the concerto remains one of my favorite musical pieces. In the spirit of this concerto, Toccata Dancing (Ravel) uses interlocking hand patterns to create fast, bubbling rhythmic grooves that speed to a vigorous and climactic ending.
Petite Suite was first performed at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN) in July 2013 and is dedicated in friendship and gratitude to Martha Schmidt. The revised version was first performed at the Aurora School of Music (Aurora, OH) in September 2020.