An Essay for Solo Piano

An Essay for Solo Piano: In Three Short Paragraphs is a collection of short pieces originally written as composition exercises and assignments for my undergraduate composition degree.

The first movement in this collection, Two and Three, has a conflicting jazzy dance-ish feel, represented by a few dissonant chords and triplets being played over eighth notes. It also has an atypical ending in a dark, chromatic cadence.

The second movement, In Four Notes, is a dark journey through dissonant chords and a traveling melody that only uses four notes, D-A-C-and E flat. This piece is a quasi-tonal journey through a dissonant group of notes, really seeing how much the piano can do with very little information.

The final movement, Walking, is characterized by the walking bass line throughout the entire piece in the left hand of the piano. This has more of a swing feel than the first piece, as it uses moderate swing rather than just triplet rhythms.