Program Note:

I was inspired to write several vignettes for piano after listening to Beethoven's Op. 126 bagatelles. Gradually the material became more and more thematically linked.

The opening and closing movements pay homage to Galina Ustvolskaya's austere style. General Lavine - Cyborg Zombie is an update on a character depicted in Book II of Debussy's Preludes. The clown, long dead, has been resurrected in a way similar to Frankenstein's monster. His original persona, mechanized tendencies, and the insanity of rebirth compete in his mind as he leaps about the world he was brought back into. Folds evokes misty, vast, and abandoned natural landscapes as well as pads of light, softly appearing and disappearing, on an ethereal plane. 

Performances:

• Ryan McGaughey, Lorimer Chapel, Waterville, Maine, July 26, 2015.

• Blair McMillen, Bitó Performance Space, Annandale-On-Hudson, New York, April 27, 2015.