Ghost Town Trail

From an introduction given by Daniel Perlongo at the premier performance of Ghost Town Trail. September 27, 2007.

The Ghost Town Trail for two pianos is a musical tribute to the pioneer-miners whose ghosts, according to a local legend, still can be “seen and felt” while journeying across the Trail.

I wouldn’t say that I am using tone painting or depicting any particular thing or event through the sound; unless of course the low A in octaves, the lowest string on the piano – all 9 feet of this steel string, coiled with copper – depicts the fiery caldron at the bottom of Eliza Furnace when I use it as an arrival, after a long descending scale leading to it. Or the binary form in which the music of Twin Rocks is designed; or maybe, the relationship of title–to–music seems a bit more evident in the general feeling throughout of bicycle wheels in motion, crunching on the crushed limestone and gravel path, and with the light sound of breezes whispering in your ears as you move along.

The 7 named movements follow each other without pause. The melodies and harmonies heard at the beginning in the first movement, Dilltown, are varied, developed and transformed throughout.