Robert Carl

Piano Four-Hands

Composer's Note:

Shake the Tree began as an experiment. A series of ringing chords announce the work, all radiating up from a low A, following overtone patterns which result from that note as a fundamental. I then created a series of "time-molds", each centered on a different pitch, moving up and down the A overtone-series, into which I poured music, spontaneous, but still exploring harmonies that treated each respective center as a fundamental. The durations of these "molds" and the patterns of movement through the centers is simultaneously rigorous and arbitrary; I admit, this is one of the more abstract pieces I've ever written, designed as a vehicle of exploration rather than an attempt to express any pre-conceived emotional or imaginative state. Instead, it's very much about a world of sound to which I'm increasingly attracted, and compelled to return.

The title comes from the one motivating image of the piece. If you shake the tree, the fruit falls. The opening chords are rolled, shiver, and then begin to yield their harvest over the course of the work.