Impromptu for Piano 

"Impromptu for Piano" (May 2024) Unlike my usual uploads, this is not an improvisation per se - it is a notated composition. The difference between improvisation and composition may seem like a hair-splitting distinction - they both spring from the same creative impulse after all. But as far as I am concerned, if it's notated, it's a composition. If it's not notated, it's an improvisation. As I see it, an improvisation is spontaneous, like Jackson Pollock flinging paint onto the canvas - a composition is like the hard, straight lines of Wassily Kandinsky (whose art illustrates this video). Both are valid ways of doing the business of music and both produce delightful results. But it must be admitted that Kandinsky's method required a different kind of technique - one that Pollock deliberately avoids with his later works. On the other hand, Kandinsky did call several of his paintings improvisations. And like Kandinsky, I "improvised" this piano composition with very little forethought, even though it is completely notated - hence the title "Impromptu", which suggests something done without plan, organization, or rehearsal. The style of this little piano piece is a throwback to the good old days of Schoenberg, Webern, and the 12-tone method. I admit that I dearly love the modernist ethos of the early 20th century and in particular the music of the Second Viennese School, even though, like Freud, this music is now considered passe. But one likes what one likes, so I don't make any excuses for it. The performance is nothing more than an audio rendering of the notation file - I would never dream of asking an actual pianist to tackle the technical demands of a work like this - it's just not worth anyone's time. And nowadays the computer does a pretty respectable job. Good enough for an "impromptu", or a notated improvisation.