Three Impromptus

Description

Piano — The Three Impromptus Op. 68 were written to celebrate the centenary of “Yaddo,” the artists’ colony located in Saratoga Springs, New York.The title “Impromptus” in this case is meant to hark back to the Impromptus of Schubert, and these pieces share one technical characteristic with his: the almost obsessive use of a predominantly unvaried rhythmic figuration for each piece. In the first, it is an oscillating sixteenth note pattern.xa0 The second piece (played attacca) is built on a slurred thirty-second note motive with a middle section of sixteenth notes alternating between the hands.xa0 The last piece is built on a constant ternary eighth note rhythm. Like Schubert's, these pieces are absolute music in the purest sense (having no programmatic or extra-musical content, and being solely preoccupied with their own musical materials) and are of an intimate and introspective nature.Three Impromptus won the inaugural American Composers Invitational at the 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas, in May/June, 2001.xa0xa0 The composer was awarded a grand prize of $5,000 for the work selected from the New Work component by the greatest number of semi-finalists.xa0 (Three Impromptus was chosen by seven of the twelve semi-finalists).