Masquing the Medusa is a tribute to my friend and colleague John Casken, and wascomposed for a concert celebrating his work at Manchester University in January2008. This short prelude pays homage to him by taking ingredients from two of hiscompositions and putting them together in my own way. The notes of the melodyare taken from the oboe part of Masque and the accompaniment figure stems from aprominent figure in the piano part of Blue Medusa.
The remaining preludes were composed during the spring of 2009, born from afeeling that Masquing the Medusa needs to be part of something bigger. For methere’s something very tantalizing about miniatures, each offering glimpse of adifferent world. I think of these as preludes in the Debussian sense; he deliberatelyplaced the titles of each his preludes at the end of the music, so that people wouldbe free to revel in their own associations and imagery, and not be too influenced byhis titles. My titles were thought up after composition of the preludes, so I wouldencourage performers and listeners to do the same here.
This set of preludes was selected as a Winner of the International Music Prizes forExcellence in Composition Competition, 2009.
- ISMN: 9790570682294 (M570682294)