BINARY (2005) 4'

Protone Music; ASCAP
Three versions: two pianos; solo piano; piano four hands
Comm. and prem: 8/1/05; Pianofest

Binary, a work for two pianos, was commissioned by Paul Schenly for Pianofest 2005. I was invited to be composer-in-residence for this amazing summer program and Binary was premiered on August 1, performed by Jiayin Shen and Michael Berkovsky.

Two is the basic number of our digital world and has a significant application to music. I wanted to explore as many implications of two as I could imagine, contrasting static block chords with swiftly moving single lines, extremes of dynamics and tempo and harmonic and melodic patterns derived from two.

The piece was in one movement, but that didn’t seem appropriate for a work called Binary, so in 2008 I decided to add a second movement. The material for this came from a solo piano work I had written earlier called “Batucada”. In this, harmony and melody are subordinated to rhythm. The beat is in two, offset by syncopations and accents, creating a lively dance.