Miró Sketches (1997)

for solo piano

Movement I: L'Or de l'azure

Movement II: La Danseuse

Movement III: Bleu II

The three movements of Miró Sketches take their inspiration from three paintings by Joan Miró. Prints of these paintings hung on the wall of my Paris apartment, inevitably serving as a kind of backdrop to my domestic life.

In this collection for piano, the form of each painting directly influenced the musical material, affecting aspects of density, timbre and space. The first movement flirts with iridescence, the second imagines Fibonacci dancing, while the third resonates in that dark space where blue meets black.

"L'Or de l'azure"—the first movement—was commissioned by pianist Guy Livingston for his "60 Seconds for Piano" project, a collection of new short piano works. It has been released on Wergo Schallplatten as part of the "60 Seconds for Piano" CD.