Five Preludes
- Solo Piano
- Completed: 12 December 2007; Premiered: 01 February 2008
- Sheet Music Plus
Five Preludes is a set of short pieces for solo piano, exploring various sounds and ideas. Each prelude is one to two minutes in length.
Prelude 1: Play-lude
The main idea of this prelude uses parallel fourths in the left hand with short, dissonant statements in the right hand. The contrasting second idea has a tonal bass line progression below a chromatic figure. The 3/8 time signature gives the piece a quasi-swing feel.
Prelude 2: Pray-lude
This prelude alternates between F major and Gb major, with slow reflective melodic statements over sustained roots. The statements gradually become shorter and shorter until the recapitulation.
Prelude 3: Pre-lewd
This whimsical prelude uses a five-note synthetic scale throughout (1, m3, P4, m6, M7), but the scale modulates in a pattern that suggests a standard 16-measure blues progression. There is a repeating figure in the bass using the same modulating scale.
Prelude 4: Prelude Solitude
This slow prelude in 7/4 time has an ostinato bass line that never varies. The six notes of the bass line (Eb, E, F, Ab, A, Bb) form a synthetic scale from which the entire piece is derived.
Prelude 5: Pre-ludicrous
This prelude uses the same six-note synthetic scale throughout (C, Eb, E, G, Ab, B). Harmonic motion is established through a repeated bass line, with chords built from every other note of the scale.
Recorded at University of Alabama in Huntsville on October 17, 2008
- In-Sook Park, piano
