pno. Duration: 14:00

   by Paul A. Epstein

1. The Great Valley, No. 1: 15x16

2. Eye of the Wind: 13x13

3. ParaPhase: (3x2)x5, 7

4. The Great Valley, No. 2: (4x5)x3, (5x3)x4

5. The Great Valley, No. 3: 11x9

The five pieces in this set explore the process of interspersing two or more melodic patterns, usually of different lengths. The first, fourth, and fifth pieces - The Great Valley, Nos. 1, 2, and 3 - are also studies for a larger project inspired by Joan Mitchell’s monumental Grande Vallée suite of twenty-one paintings. La Grande Vallée was a real place described to Mitchell by a friend, Gisèlle Barreau, for whom it had been a secret childhood retreat.

Eye of the Wind employs a 13-note pattern interleaved with itself at different distances. Steve Reich’s Piano Phase was, to my knowledge, the first piece built entirely on a pattern constructed by interleaving. ParaPhase, which is dedicated to Reich, interleaves the Piano Phase pattern with that of Reich’s other great phasing piece, Violin Phase in a set of mini-variations.