Stele / Stele:Translation I
Christopher Lee
About this work:
I was happy to oblige when my friend and founding editor of the literary magazine "Whiskey and Fox" Daniel Remein asked me to contribute a new piece for his publication. The theme of the issue is "Lithic," and will contain poetry and prose (and now music) that touches upon the subject of stones, ciphers, codes, and otherwise non-verbal modes of communication. The resulting pair of works, "Stele" and "Stele: Translation I" (for solo piano) were inspired by the evocative mid-twentieth century graphic scores of Earle Brown. "Stele" consists of a Brownian array of blocks floating in space, to be interpreted freely by any number of performers, but the "Translation" presents a very different aesthetic by providing an interpretation of the graphic using spatial and mathematical formulae. It imagines a fusion of paradigms that might have resulted if Brown's mentor John Cage had not broken off his early friendship with Pierre Boulez. A stele is a stone or wooden slab, erected for memorial or commemorative purposes, and engraved with the names of the deceased. Please see the PDF file above for full program notes.
Year composed: 2011
Duration: 00:00:00
Ensemble type: Unspecified Instrument(s):Solo
Instrumentation:
Instrumentation notes: "Stele" is for unspecified instrumentation; "Stele: Translation I" is for solo piano.