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I Meant to Do My Work Today (Suite for Solo Piano)
SM-000334747
| Genre |
Classical
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| Instrumentation |
Piano |
| Scored for | Solo |
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| Type of score | For a single performer |
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| Movement(s) |
1 to 11 from 11 |
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| Duration |
31'0" |
| Difficulty |
Advanced |
| Year of composition |
2018 |
| Description |
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Suite consists of:
1. Prelude
2. Bird
3. Apple Tree
4. Butterfly
5. Field
6. Leaves
7. Wind
8. Grasses
9. Rainbow
10. What Could I Do?
11. Laugh and Go
Total time: 31 minutes
[From the preface:]
The poem I Meant to Do My Work Today was written by Richard Le Gallienne (1866-1947). My friend and colleague David Pike learned the poem as a child, and it became his favorite. About ten months ago David commissioned me to compose the suite, asking that I base each piece on key elements from the poem. With the exception of Prelude and What Could I Do?, the performer should feel at liberty to play these pieces separately, as they do stand on their own. Prelude, however, is in fact a true prelude, given that the final note leads naturally into Bird. And because What Could I Do? quotes from earlier themes, it is most effective when performed as part of the suite.
With the goal of capturing this poem's simple charm, I aimed for a straightforward 'light classical' style typical of many turn-of-the-century piano solos: Bird is especially representative of these. On the other hand, Field is almost "new age" in its character, while Laugh and Go harks back to the actual classical period of Haydn and Mozart. Obviously then, adhering rigidly to one sub-genre was not of paramount concern.
"I meant to do my work today—
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.
And the wind went sighing over the land,
Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand—
So what could I do but laugh and go?" |
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