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Two Soundpieces - Soundpiece I: Tripartite (Recording), Gary Smart, Michael Bovenzi
Two Soundpieces - Soundpiece I: Tripartite (Recording), Gary Smart, Michael Bovenzi
Gary Smart
I was a student at Indiana University when I wrote Two Soundpieces (1969). The piece was originally written for a friend, tenor saxophonist, Robert Hores, who asked for a piece that used the tenor’s idiomatic “illegitimate” sounds. It was soon picked up by avant garde saxophonist Ken Dorn who performed the piece several times in various new music venues. I moved to Germany in 1970 and soon after lost much of my personal music library, including this piece, in a Cologne warehouse fire. At the time I had just a few copies of most of my works….and suddenly they were …
Two Soundpieces - Soundpiece Ii: Rag-Cadenza (Recording), Gary Smart, Michael Bovenzi
Two Soundpieces - Soundpiece Ii: Rag-Cadenza (Recording), Gary Smart, Michael Bovenzi
Gary Smart
I was a student at Indiana University when I wrote Two Soundpieces (1969). The piece was originally written for a friend, tenor saxophonist, Robert Hores, who asked for a piece that used the tenor’s idiomatic “illegitimate” sounds. It was soon picked up by avant garde saxophonist Ken Dorn who performed the piece several times in various new music venues. I moved to Germany in 1970 and soon after lost much of my personal music library, including this piece, in a Cologne warehouse fire. At the time I had just a few copies of most of my works….and suddenly they were …
Piano Sonata Iii. Turtle Dreams Of Flight (Recording), Gary Smart, Yukino Miyake
Piano Sonata Iii. Turtle Dreams Of Flight (Recording), Gary Smart, Yukino Miyake
Gary Smart
This slow movement was directly inspired by a dream. I enter the mind of the turtle. I dream my turtle self into other dimensions, where I think and feel without the use of language. This pseudo-waltz scherzo moves more than once from very slow to very fast, from low to high register, from simple to complex with an urgent, yet disguised purpose. Like my dream, this is a mysterious drama indeed, as is life itself. In the end one is still left with a question, perhaps Ives’ Unanswered Question. For me this piece is symbolic of an inexorable desire for …
Piano Sonata Iv. Chez Garuda (Recording), Gary Smart, Yukino Miyake
Piano Sonata Iv. Chez Garuda (Recording), Gary Smart, Yukino Miyake
Gary Smart
Garuda is a mythical bird-god. His statue in Sanjusangendo is fierce and menacing. The figure seemed almost comical in its ferocity. The Garuda I saw was a crazed Hellboy musician stamping out a beat, playing wild licks on his flute. But it seemed he might also be capable of the most inspired lyricism. If so, his would be formidable music-making, no doubt. This movement is my reaction to that image. Here my jazz background becomes apparent. Bebop, boogie-woogie, Bill Evans lyricism…all this and more is mixed together in a swirling cartoon world of expression. The movement is loosely cast in …
Piano Sonata I. Kimnara’S Blessing (Recording), Gary Smart, Yukino Miyake
Piano Sonata I. Kimnara’S Blessing (Recording), Gary Smart, Yukino Miyake
Gary Smart
The first and last movements here are named after deities in the Japanese Buddist-Hindu canon. I was inspired by a visit to the Sanjusangendo shrine in Kyoto, where 1000 exquisite ancient wood statues have stood for many centuries. There I saw Kimnara, a winged female spirit, a gentle celestial musician. My evocation of her music is ritualistic. The piece begins and ends with an “a-men” and features an abundance of thematic material which includes lyrical expression, as well as harp-like flourishes and most notably, exuberant sections based on the ringing metallic sounds and rhythmic gestures of the Balinese gamelan orchestra. …
Piano Sonata Ii. Moonspinner (Recording), Gary Smart, Yukino Miyake
Piano Sonata Ii. Moonspinner (Recording), Gary Smart, Yukino Miyake
Gary Smart
This playful, virtuosic movement is evocative of American folk music, particularly Appalachian fiddle music and song. The fiddle music is abstracted, certainly, yet the figurations are idiomatic. The folk song, which interrupts the “instrumental” music twice, is original. A hint of it appears in the “working out’ at the center of the form and also in the high register at the very close of the movement. The title, “Moonspinner” is named after an old-fashioned hand made wooden toy I once saw in North Carolina. I always promised myself I would write a piece with this title.