30 minutes
2014

Marking a return to the solo piano after a hiatus of nearly seven years, I was thinking at the time of this composition as the simplest and most direct execution of a few very basic ideas. There are four “shapes” in this piece: an expanding wedge; an ascending line with occasional added base notes; a strong horizontal with occasional harmonies “marking time”; descending dyads. These occur in succession—once we move on, we don’t return. The first happens five times, the second three times, the third once, the fourth twice. Given the simplicity of these ideas, I thought of the anecdote Morton Feldman tells about Mondrian (in his essay “The Anxiety of Art”): “Someone suggested that since Mondrian used areas of all one color, why not use a spray instead of painting those areas? Mondrian was very interested, and immediately tried it. Not only did the picture not have the feel of a Mondrian, it didn’t even have the look of a Mondrian.” I contemplated various ways to execute this idea, including some that were very “objective” or “systematic”—rather like using a “spray”—but I felt I had to write the notes myself. Somewhat like Sol Lewitt’s wall drawings, this piece could be realized again and again, with very similar but nonetheless distinct results.