for piano and orchestra
alternate versions:
piano duet, three-hands
two pianos, three hands
Composed in 2001.
7 minutes.
“...one of the very few piano
concertos ever written that I could handle technically."
-Peter Schickele (aka P.D.Q. Bach)
“One-Note
Concerto combines a wide range of melodies that
are surprisingly woven together through the reiteration - by
the 'soloist' - of a single pitch (a very high “B”). From carnival-like
tunes in the first movement, to introspective waltzes in
the second, to a violent (yet lighthearted!) presto in the finale,
this concerto aggressively pursues a sense of musical drama
with its tongue firmly placed in its cheek.” -
Jamie Allen, director of the
Santa Fe New Music YouthFest
One-Note Concerto
is a seven-minute neoclassical work in the vein of
Haydn, Bartok, Prokofiev, et al. The piece is in three short
movements, with continuous interplay between the pianist and
the orchestra. There are actually many notes in the piano part
- they just happen to be located in the same place - "B3." The intent
is both humorous and totally serious - however, the audience
is the ultimate decider. It was premiered as a piano duet at
the Santa Fe New Music YouthFest in 2004 and by the Hartford Symphony
on May 20, 2006.
This Concerto
will work
nicely as a novelty on a pops program as well as a regular
concert program. An excellent combination would be to program
it with its companion piece,
Chopsticks Variations.
In addition to the score for piano and orchestra, there
are two alternate versions. The first is for two pianos, for which
we send two copies. The second is for piano duet, for which we send
one copy with left-right orientation. Both versions are for three hands.
