for piano and orchestra
alternate versions:
piano duet, three-hands
two pianos, three hands
Composed in 2001.
7 minutes.
“...one of the very few piano
concertos ever written that I could handle technically."
-Peter Schickele (aka P.D.Q. Bach)
One-Note Concerto is
a seven-minute neoclassical work in the vein of
Haydn, Bartok, Prokofiev, et al. The piece is in three short
movements, with continuous interplay between the pianist and
the orchestra.
To dispel any misunderstanding,
it should be mentioned that there are many notes in the
piano part - they just happen to be located in the same place
(B3). The intent is both humorous and totally serious
- however, the audience is the ultimate decider.
Jamie Allen, director of the
Santa Fe New Music YouthFest, wrote:
"One-Note
Concerto combines a wide range of melodies that
are surprisingly woven together through the reiteration - by
the “soloist” - of a single pitch (a very high “B”). From carnival-like
tunes in the first movement, to introspective waltzes in
the second, to a violent (yet lighthearted!) presto in the finale,
this concerto aggressively pursues a sense of musical drama
with its tongue firmly placed in its cheek." It was premiered
as a piano duet at the Santa Fe New Music YouthFest in 2004,
and with orchestra by the Hartford Symphony on May 20, 2006.
This Concerto
will work
nicely as a novelty on a pops program as well as a regular
concert program. An excellent combination would be to program
it with its companion piece,
Chopsticks Variations
(also for piano and orchestra).
In addition to the score for piano and orchestra, there
are two alternate versions. The first is for two pianos, for which
we send two copies. The second is for piano duet, for which we send
one copy with left-right orientation. Both versions are for three hands.
