Rachin (op. 89)

In this post, I'll be making the premiere of the first and second movements of my three-part (book of) Job inspired piece, "רחין", that title being the initials of the first of the three lines of text that inspired the piece and its movements:

רוחִי חֻבָּלָה יָמַי נִזְעָכו
(אֶל־אֱלוֺהַ דָּלפָה עֵינִי)
קְבָרִם לִי

The whole score of Opus 89 can be heard here; in a different recording, the second movement ("אֶל־אֱלוֺהַ דָּלפָה עֵינִי") can be heard in solo here, and the third ("קְבָרִם לִי") can found on this blog here.

Luctus

A new piano score, Luctus; C# minor with a brief modulation in G#m. Play time of around 7'38". Comments welcome, as ever.

A recording is available here.

Education of the Stoic

A piece for solo piano, just over three minutes' playtime, recorded today, written during a recent bout of illness while in Minnesota. It's named for Pessoa's Education of the Stoic, about which I've been thinking a lot lately, and takes cues from it, but is written in a somewhat Satiesque style.

A Educação do Estóico can be heard on Last.fm here.

Cor Carians

Details as to the piece, for any curious: it’s a score for string orchestra (violins, violas, cellos and contrabasses) and piano, with ad lib harp. It’s an exploration of the C minor chord and the æolian mode on C. Charpentier’s Regles de Composition (c. 1682) referred to Cm as “obscure and sad”, Schubart (in the work cited a few posts back) claimed it was both a “declaration of love” and “at the same time, the lament of unhappy love,” containing “all languishing, longing” & “sighing of the love-sick soul”, etc. Parts of that may be appropriate—at least in terms of inspiration, regardless of whether the music itself captures or expresses those things.

If anyone chooses to listen—it may be heard here—comments are welcome.

Cold

A score in G minor, which Schubart (Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst, 1806) claimed to represent "[d]iscontent, uneasiness" among other things, and which in Bach’s system seemed to represent generalized pathos. Don’t know that this piece reflects that so much (if any piece in equal temperament reflects historical modes and their significance, for that matter), but the mood is somewhat somber, the music sparse. It takes inspiration from Pärt’s style in “Für Alina,” and like that piece it's for solo piano, but whereas his score, as usual in the case of tintinnabuli, focuses on only one chord and a single mode over that (B minor, and B æolian in that particular piece), "Cold" works its way across a particular set of chords in its key.

This work can be heard here.

קברים לי

This piece is named for the line in Job 17:1, and, hopefully, reflects the feel of the passage as well. It is written for string orchestra and oboe, and as the third movement concludes the larger work, "Rachin" (Op. 89).

It can be heard here; for the full score, or the second movement, see this post.