Time Preludes

for solo piano
(1998)

The score of Time Preludes can be purchased from Sheet Music Plus.

These pieces are quasi-poetic musings that rely on various coloristic possibilities of the piano. I therefore hope that performers and audience members will both be inspired to bring some of their own imagination and imagery into their performances. I call them "time" preludes because each one focuses on a different way of handling the progress of musical time. For example, some utilize different lengths of note groupings while maintaining a consistent tempo, while others rely more on the changing of tempos, on the use of accelerating and decelerating figures, or on the use of much "rubato". In the end, though, they aren't really meant to be technical exhibitions of musical timing, nor should they be considered to be etudes. I hope that all the technical matters of time and timing are successfully taken care of by the pieces themselves and that performers and audience members will tune in to their more poetic aspects.

Recordings have been made of 5 of the six preludes.
Performances here are by Jeffrey Jacob and Gloria Yeh.
Prelude #1
Prelude #2
Prelude #3
Prelude #5
Prelude #6

Performers are free to program preludes separately, or in smaller goups.
Because certain preludes allow for much freedom of tempo, exact timings may vary, but the approximate performance duration of all six preludes is
27-30 minutes.
(The approximate duration of each prelude appears at the end of its score.)