Without a Net
Abstract / Program Notes
Without a Net is a substantial reworking of my earliest attempt, in 2008, to create a “refined” solo piano concert work based on free improvisations captured and transcribed with the help of MIDI software. An avid devotee of improvisation since the mid-1980s, I’ve long been fascinated by the question of what may be gained – or lost! – from the application of rigorous compositional techniques (judgment, development, revision and so on) to the bright, unpredictable flames of spontaneous creation. In works such as Without a Net, the aim is for such distinctions to ultimately fall away, leaving a music that feels at once fresh and immediate, yet also carefully structured. The original 2008 score of Without a Net not only utilized various transcribed improvisations, but also left sizable “gaps” to be filled creatively during the performance – hence the title! A number of such “filled gaps” from the most successful 2008 performance, at Old South Church in Boston, have themselves been transcribed and edited to figure in this fully notated 2020 version. All passages of transcribed improvisation are clearly labeled in the score. Perhaps in the end, all of this is neither here nor there? Either way, I had a lot of fun and hope that listeners will too. Enjoy!
Without a Net
Without a Net is a substantial reworking of my earliest attempt, in 2008, to create a “refined” solo piano concert work based on free improvisations captured and transcribed with the help of MIDI software. An avid devotee of improvisation since the mid-1980s, I’ve long been fascinated by the question of what may be gained – or lost! – from the application of rigorous compositional techniques (judgment, development, revision and so on) to the bright, unpredictable flames of spontaneous creation. In works such as Without a Net, the aim is for such distinctions to ultimately fall away, leaving a music that feels at once fresh and immediate, yet also carefully structured. The original 2008 score of Without a Net not only utilized various transcribed improvisations, but also left sizable “gaps” to be filled creatively during the performance – hence the title! A number of such “filled gaps” from the most successful 2008 performance, at Old South Church in Boston, have themselves been transcribed and edited to figure in this fully notated 2020 version. All passages of transcribed improvisation are clearly labeled in the score. Perhaps in the end, all of this is neither here nor there? Either way, I had a lot of fun and hope that listeners will too. Enjoy!