Piano Games

Program notes

I wrote this piece at the end of graduate school, in 2001-2002. At the time it was one of my more popular pieces, at least with my professors and other composers. (It's probably the reason I got my job at Princeton!) The piece grew out of my experiments with processes and interactive computer programs, and several of the movements began with my "composing" a computer program that would improvise with me. Eventually I would capture the results of these improvisations, using them as the basis for a notated score. So although the final product is completely notated, it is, at least in its genesis, a piece of improvisatory computer music.

The music is in four movments. The first and third begin with fast toccata-like textures that gradually break down. The second is rhapsodic and impressionist, while the fourth begins with a modern-music blues and ends with a slow-tempo march.

Instrumentation: Solo Piano

Performer: Ivan Ilic