Seven Solitudes
Gregg Wramage
About this work:
Premiered by Bruce Levingston at Alice Tully Hall, 4/03. Published by the composer. For further information about this work, please contact Gregg Wramage at: gwramage@hotmail.com, 718-238-9485, 28 Marine Ave., Apt. 5H, Brooklyn, NY 11209. Program note: The initial inspiration for "Seven Solitudes" came to me during pianist Bruce Levingston's recital at Alice Tully Hall in the spring of 2002, he premiered "Seven Solitudes" one year later at his second Alice Tully Hall recital. The image of Bruce walking onstage alone at the start of his recital made an impression on me. A single performer, sitting at a single instrument, performing a program he prepared alone for the better part of a year made me realize the close relationship between pianists and composers; we are solitary rather than communal musicians. This idea of solitude reminded me of a passage from Nietzsche I had read years before: "New ears for new music, new eyes for the most distant things. An experience out of seven solitudes." This gave me my title, and the idea of solitude became the driving force behind the composition of my piece for Bruce. As I wrote the work, I began to imagine that the solitude that is a necessary part of the lives of composers and pianists gave us access to a world of emotional and spiritual experiences different than those of other less-solitary people. In the work I attempted to create a kind of music that stemmed directly from the spiritual and emotional experiences I have had during moments of my deepest solitude.
Year composed: 2003
Duration: 00:09:00
Ensemble type: Keyboard:Piano
Instrumentation: ,1 Piano soloist(s)