Details:

Duration: 6 mins
Instrumentation: Solo Piano
Premiere: Premiered on April 1, 2023 at Hamilton College by Lucas Jonathan Wang Zheng.
Commission Info: Written for Lucas Jonathan Wang Zheng. Commissioned by Sar Shalom Strong

Program Notes:

This work, A Song My Mother Taught Me, represents a welcome return to the world of purely acoustic composition, after spending several years writing electro-acoustic music. It also represents a shift in harmonic language as I continue to incorporate elements of my “other” musical life as a singer/songwriter into my “serious” compositions. (Distinctions I have discovered live only in my head.) 

The material of this work is the direct result of my initial conversation with Lucas. He wanted to celebrate his mother’s birthday, April 1st, which also happened to be the date of his recital. In response, I interpolated the opening fragments of the vocal melody from Antonin Dvorak’s Songs My Mother Taught Me and set it in a harmonic and gestural world that reveals my love of Debussy’s writing for the piano. 

Audio:

Score:

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