Michael Blake
A FRACTURED LANDSCAPE for piano
Bardic Edition BDE1204
A Fractured Landscape (in memoriam Edward Said) for piano solo
Requested by Antony Gray for his Australian concert tour in August 2009
The death in 2003 of the philosopher and musician Edward Said, and the posthumous publication of his book On Late Style, led me to consider afresh the notion of so-called late style in music. I looked particularly at piano music - late Beethoven, late Schubert, late Liszt and late Brahms - and given Tony Gray’s special affinity with Brahms’ four late sets of Klavierstucke, I tried to reflect on these pieces in A Fractured Landscape. Though I started the piece at home in Cape Town and finished it in Pretoria while on tour, I actually wrote a good deal of it in London at Tony’s piano.
A Fractured Landscape (in memoriam Edward Said) received its first performance in the Pilgrim Church, Adelaide, Australia on 17 August 2009 by Antony Gray. The work has been recorded by Daan Vandewalle on Wergo CD: WER 736 12. Michael Blake
Duration 9 minutes
Requested by Antony Gray for his Australian concert tour in August 2009
The death in 2003 of the philosopher and musician Edward Said, and the posthumous publication of his book On Late Style, led me to consider afresh the notion of so-called late style in music. I looked particularly at piano music - late Beethoven, late Schubert, late Liszt and late Brahms - and given Tony Gray’s special affinity with Brahms’ four late sets of Klavierstucke, I tried to reflect on these pieces in A Fractured Landscape. Though I started the piece at home in Cape Town and finished it in Pretoria while on tour, I actually wrote a good deal of it in London at Tony’s piano.
A Fractured Landscape (in memoriam Edward Said) received its first performance in the Pilgrim Church, Adelaide, Australia on 17 August 2009 by Antony Gray. The work has been recorded by Daan Vandewalle on Wergo CD: WER 736 12. Michael Blake
Duration 9 minutes
