Science Fictions

for two pianos*
2021
21 minutes

I. Interstellar
II. Circuit Dweller
III. Cloud Cities

* The second piano is played using various preparations, and for the second movement, both pianists perform on the second piano.

For Kay Etheridge and Jean-Paul Allouche

Science Fictions presents imaginative portraits of three scenes from the realm of science fiction (not referencing any particular story). Each is set within an exotic sound world created in part by preparations to one of the two pianos, consisting of various objects that contact the strings of the piano and thus modify its timbre. For the second movement, both players perform on the prepared piano, while for the outer movements, two pianos are used. Much of the melodic and formal content of the movements are derived from a family of mathematical sequences related to those that I employed in the piece Signals Intelligence, for percussion ensemble. These were the subject of a recent research project that I carried out with mathematician Jean-Paul Allouche of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) resulted in the publication Finite self-similar sequences, permutation cycles, and music composition.

two pianos / 8.5×11 PDF score (56 p.)
$25

All scores are published by