Sometimes the problem for me is not composing but actually giving my music a suitable title!
Way back in 2012 I created a mysterious sounding piece of music which presented this problem to me once again. However, I had been listening to a lot of music by the “Barenaked Ladies” and they can be brilliant wordsmiths. They like to use a lot of clever literary techniques and word play but also juxtapose a lot of their lyrics. In my head I pictured a circle whilst playing this piece but liked the impossibility of having a corner in the circle. It felt strange and confusing and I liked it as a title so the piece became “In The Corner of A Circle”.
A few years later I was teaching a student how to play “Primavera” by Einaudi. She asked if I'd be able to create something similar. So I started with an ostinato bassline in F minor. This then gave me the opportunity to riff over the bassline with off beat rhythms. The piece evolved from there. This also had a similar mysterious feeling to it, just like “In The Corner Of A Circle” so I decided it would become it's sister tune. “In The Curve Of a Square”!
My favourite part of the piece is actually the short section after the opening theme as it features some James Bond melody and harmony parts which add to the mystery. I really liked how the sections to the music shift quite easily between minor and major and have a real sense of dark and light.
At the turn of 2023 I knew I wanted to create an EP of solo piano pieces to be played through the darker months. I had just created “Last Train Home” and needed 3 other pieces. Alongside, “Losing Touch” and the piano version of “We Wait For Nightingales” this made it's appearance to complete a darker set of pieces.
It was fun to come back to this piece and relearn it. You tend to forget about certain compositions and this firmly fell in that category. It also seems quite popular with my students.
And with that we have completed the programme notes to “And Then It Went Dark”. I need to look into compiling these programme notes into collections for each album/EP, mainly for my own nostalgia.