Études-Tableaux (2011)
for solo piano

 

 

The first book of Études-Tableaux for solo piano was written to investigate the relationship between music and memory, perception and the visual arts.  
Each movement features short gestures of distinct color and shape which, rather than develop of their own accord, are surrounded by a continually shifting accompanimental texture.  This results in a musical narrative whereby static events evolve through contextualization.  This is an attempt to convey, in a musical expression, the experience of multiple perceptions of a fixed object - for example, the many ways in which a brushstroke on a canvas, or a curve in a sculpture, may be seen through changes in light, shadow, angle and distance of viewing.  

The Études-Tableaux were written in the winter/spring of 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland and first performed by Bethany Pietroniro on 7 April of that year.  
The work has been expanded in a version for orchestra, entitled Panels.