If ever there were a piece that could said to be close to my heart, it would be this one, if only because things that are close to the heart may sometimes be where they are because of their unattainability, and I've become kind of resigned to the fact that I may never be able to complete this piece.
The overwhelming and sometimes OVERwhelming chromaticism may have arisen from my obsession with Leopold Godowsky's compositional style in his Passacaglia on a Theme from Schubert's Unfinished Symphony at the time (and to a lesser extent now). The two motifs you hear at the very start are ancient ones. Very ancient indeed. I think I conceived them independently at the piano (a rarity for me) thereabouts of 2010, or perhaps even earlier. Interestingly enough, both were conceived in C minor.
On a(n) historical note, let me add the descending flurries of rapid thirds you hear once at the beginning of the piece and a second time at the very end initially took the form of what I consigned to be ossias when I saw that they were, to put it quite simply, unplayable. The original form of those flurries was inspired by a certain passage in Chopin's G minor Ballade. A cursory glance at any of those triplets will make everything clear.
Finally, I suppose there is no shame in admitting that I am addicted to the last bars of the piece. You might scoff and say, "The last bars suck, just like the rest of the piece," but you must understand that I'm powerless to do otherwise. Those last bars move me in a way that only some of the most moving pieces by other composers move me. You may see it as narcissism of the highest order, but this is a fact.
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If ever there were a piece that could said to be close to my heart, it would be this one, if only because things that are close to the heart may sometimes be where they are because of their unattainability, and I've become kind of resigned to the fact that I may never be able to complete this piece.
The overwhelming and sometimes OVERwhelming chromaticism may have arisen from my obsession with Leopold Godowsky's compositional style in his Passacaglia on a Theme from Schubert's Unfinished Symphony at the time (and to a lesser extent now). The two motifs you hear at the very start are ancient ones. Very ancient indeed. I think I conceived them independently at the piano (a rarity for me) thereabouts of 2010, or perhaps even earlier. Interestingly enough, both were conceived in C minor.
On a(n) historical note, let me add the descending flurries of rapid thirds you hear once at the beginning of the piece and a second time at the very end initially took the form of what I consigned to be ossias when I saw that they were, to put it quite simply, unplayable. The original form of those flurries was inspired by a certain passage in Chopin's G minor Ballade. A cursory glance at any of those triplets will make everything clear.
Finally, I suppose there is no shame in admitting that I am addicted to the last bars of the piece. You might scoff and say, "The last bars suck, just like the rest of the piece," but you must understand that I'm powerless to do otherwise. Those last bars move me in a way that only some of the most moving pieces by other composers move me. You may see it as narcissism of the highest order, but this is a fact.
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