Ross Bauer

two pianos -- 176 keys -- no waiting

Composer's note:
Split Infinitives, for two pianos, written during the fall of 2010, was commissioned by the New Music @ECU Festival. The piece is dedicated to Yukiko and Keiko Sekino for whom it was composed. Lasting about thirteen minutes, the piece is in one movement consisting of three large sections.
The first section is fast and mercurial, it's ideas often interrupted -- the musical surface and continuity often quite jagged. The second section, much slower and vastly more static, serves as a strong contrast to the first. It begins with a very long trill on B-flat below middle C -- the longest trill I've ever written"¦or am likely to write (at least in a chamber music composition!)
A long melody gradually unfolds over this trill and the accompaniment gradually morphs into an ostinato. The intensity of the middle section ebbs and flow, but toward its end, the temperature gradually rises leading directly to the third section. This section incorporate elements of both the preceding section -- the discontinuity and fast pace of the first section and the harmonic language of the second.
Toward it's end, more rapid dialoguing between the two pianos ensues. Both pianos are in octaves much of the time and the musical surface becomes more pulsed, even dance-like at times. The final passage of the piece is it's most climactic. The preceding music has served as a giant upbeat to this strongly definitive ending.