Description
Audio
Todd Tarantino: Smoke and Mirrors (2006)
Live performance by Katherine Tagg
December 2, 2007
Rose Studio, New York
Duration
18-22 min
Premiere
May 27, 2006
Goethe Institut, New York, NY
Barbara Lieurance, piano
Goethe Institut, New York, NY
Barbara Lieurance, piano
Instrumentation
piano
Program Notes
The piano is my instrument and as such I was long attracted to and repelled from writing a solo piece for it. The temptation to write for my own fingers or to notate an improvisation was too great and the burden of the great works that I’ve played since childhood was too heavy. Yet, I wanted to write a work that I would enjoy playing and that was a respite from the loud, extremely dissonant works I had been writing for ensembles. Smoke and Mirrors is my nocturne.
There are no melodies in Smoke and Mirrors, no progressions; only inscrutable sound that moves, expands, contracts, lingers. The end of the piece is no different from the beginning.
Smoke and Mirrors is dedicated to pianist Barbara Lieurance.
–Todd Tarantino