Two Poetic Pieces, for Solo Piano | (4’) - 2021

Free!

The full piano part can be downloaded below. Please consider playing this piece!

As a gift to one of my most memorable friends and supporter of my drive for music, this is a gift for you, Kate. I really like and respect your feelings of music being more special when it has meaning, and I had been meaning to write a piece based off of poetry for awhile. Writing "programmatic" pieces is really fun! That is what your piece written about the storybook is, too.

These pieces are meant as interpretations of the provided poems on the last page. Before playing or reading my own "Performance Notes," create your own interpretation of the poem and music!

In both "Parched Man" and "Stories of Light," the rehearsal marks are meant to follow the poems. Part 1 of "Parched Man" is a man struggling to walk through a desert before he feels saved to find the pond. But, at the end of his slumber, he finds the pond is undrinkable and the section ends on a tense chord! Part 2 is where the character is more exhausted, and there is less hope in sight. As he dreams again, he feels content. Part 3 ends with a slower and prettier version of the "Dreaming" sections to personify the woman who drinks from the first pond. I ended this piece on a questionable but happy chord, as the parched man was not in distress in the end. He was able to find comfort in his dreams.

The "Stories of Light" piece has five separate parts, and should be played with a slight break in between each. Outside of the introduction/conclusion, each section is a different "story of light." Also, I thought it would be funny to quote a Ravel piece in the first story.