I've talked and talked about this, so I think it's time to finally share a recording I have in a video, that does show the full score (in chunks though).

Hope you'll enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grGh-U26Db4

The pianist, Kristian Banazianou did a brilliant job with this!

I admit I did not listen to the whole thing, but what I heard was very approachable and sophisticated without sounding like preaching atonality. I like the way the pianist nuanced the lines. If I heard the same piece as a computer generated file it would lose a lot of character.

Hi Nikolas, I just stumbled upon your composition. Congratulations to you and also the pianist.
Very much enjoyed listening and shall listen again. Are you able to play this yourself?
Do you work out your ideas at the piano?
I'm just going out the door so shall catch up again later on.

Hey Nikolas--

Great job. Really interesting work.

I don't know how many folks are like me, but I found that having the score increased my appreciation by a factor of like 20. I would have been fine without it in the second half-- my ears could have latched onto those ostinatos without needing to see them on paper. But I think that without a score, the first half of the piece would have just been a stream of notes. This is not meant as a criticism. I feel the same way about Schoenberg and Berg. Without the score I just don't know how to "parse" the notes, to make them meaningful, to fit them into the flow of the music. Anyway, I don't know how many people are like me, but I recommend distributing videos of your music with score, as you've done here.

Maybe you've written about this elsewhere, but can you talk about how this piece is based on permutations of some pattern? I read that hint of methodology in the youtube description, but I didn't pick any of it up from listening.

-Jason

Scott: Spot on! It's not a strict atonal work of any account (though I will admit that the melodies are computer generated... :$). I tried my best to shape the material I had in an almost romantic fashion (as far as gestures are concerned at least).

Dara: Thanks for listening. I hope you relisten and revisit and repost. And to asnwer your questions.

- I doubt that I'm able to play this work anymore. There was a time about 10 years ago when I should be able to pull it off, but right now it seems improbable for a few reasons. I no longer have the time to practice playing the piano and I've lost my touch. I no longer have the time to dedicate a considerable amount of time to practice the piano... And I've lost my technique I think.

- When I was working on this piece, I didn't have a piano at home. So... I didn't try out anything on the piano. Directly to the manuscript. But I will say that in other cases I do compose on the piano and I do try things on the piano or on the computer.

Hey Jason,

Thanks for your thoughtful post! I appreciate it!

If you notice the youtube channel, all the videos (so far) have the same method: With the score... I would like to have something else, but if live footage is not available then there's little one can do.

And yes, with such music, things can get rather complicated and the score does help out I think.

The permutations I'm talking about exist primarily in the middle section (when it goes fast immediately and it's a single voice). Those are a series of computer permutations which have no repeated elements inside. The same melodic material is used in the slow movement (check the beginning of the fast section and the beginning of the work. Same melody), but the harmony in the slow movement advances even further. The melody (the pitch series anyhow) was computer generated to avoid any resemblance with each other. The rest is... me.