Three Short Pieces

Program Note:

Three Short Pieces for Piano were composed at Harvard in the spring of 1963 and revised a year later in Rome. The first is concerned with numerically-derived material in which a systematic relationship is established between specific intervals and rhythmic groups, primarily thirds and fourths, triplets and quadruplets. The second illustrates a contrasting organization: the serial use of simultaneous intervals, registers, and dynamics. The "rows" here are comprised of six, five, and three members, respectively. Pitch and rhythm do not share in the serial construction. The third piece, while it does not exhibit numerical or serial characteristics, stands as a synthesis of the spirits of the first two pieces.