sábado, 10 de mayo de 2014

Why open a door if you don't enter?

My friend, pianist Henoch Kristianto is "going 1000 kms/hour" as we say in Spanish. He's sending all the finished tracks for the Vol. 2 of his CD of my piano music to be commented by me. Most of my comments are "no comments" since they were so brilliantly played, but I did correct and commented some bits of his playing. Until now he has recorded 10 of my Rapsodia Nusantara, and around 20 of my shorter pieces, so I can say that in Indonesia he is the pianist who really knows my music the most, with all its quirkiness, idiosyncracies and vulnerabilities. .............................................................................................................................................. But today was special, because he sent a recording of my piece that I've almost already forgotten, In the Nick(s) of Time. That piece was an experiment, it was published in Alicia's First Piano Book from 2009, but in fact written much earlier, in the late 1990s. It was done according to Einstein's theory of time dilation that moving clocks are measured to tick more slowly than an observer's "stationary" clock. Also the theory of simultaneity, that two events, simultaneous for one observer, may not be simultaneous for another observer if the observers are in relative motion. So I wrote a piece about tickings, all in different speed. It's quite difficult to play especially with only 2 hands. This particular piano piece is short, and I must say though interesting to listen, it is quite unmusical. Afterwards I forgot about it, mostly due to its "unmusical" content. It's like I found the key to a door, opened it, but never entered. Now after about 20 years later listening to it again as a different person already more mature (hopefully) musically, stylistically and technically, I think I can use it now for musical purposes. In fact, I've been stuck for quite a while with a long piece for chamber orchestra, and I guess this is the key to its structure. .............................................................................................................................................. Other pieces that will be included in "Ananda Sukarlan : Rapsodia Nusantara and various shorter piano works, Volume 2" among others are some Lullabies (for James J. Neeman son of good pianist friends Edward & Stephanie Neeman, for the 3 young pianist brothers Hamond, Hansel & Hagen and for Arnell daughter of another pianist friend, Kaka the 5-year-young son of Lusi my friend), two pieces for friends Johan Djayanto and Lina Chan, and some popular pieces like Little Variations and Slow Waltz. Oh yes, and 1 minute for Japan, that piece I wrote immediately in the train in Spain while watching the news of the tsunami in Japan in 2011. Jeeezzz, it was already 3 years ago. .............................................................................................................................................. And Henoch even managed to record my brand new piece, the 9-minute Variations on I. Marzuki's "Rayuan Pulau Kelapa". Check my entry earlier in March, titled "Inspired". I am very grateful that this piece is bought by Rina Zoet, to be donated to our Indonesian Classical Music Foundation, for free education for underpriviliged children. Therefore you can read the dedication : "Aan Daan, mijn lief, van Rina" (to Daan, my love, from Rina) above the title. This CD is planned to be released around the date of Ananda Sukarlan Award Competition at the end of June. It's less than 1 year since Henoch released the volume 1 of my works. He said he wants to release at least 1 CD per year. OMG, that means lots of work for me too!