Cactus

Cactus is a thorny, but cheerful, staccatissimo post-minimalistic solo piano work that places emphasis on several phrases of music that reoccurs and appears somewhat slightly changed in each of its repetitions, usually truncated by a beat or two. Elongating pauses of sheer silences give contrast to each musical phrase repetition and allow the overall structure of the piece to have weight and balance in the listener’s mind. Another new musical material is created to avoid exhausting the primary one and adds distinction from among the otherwise overlapping textures. Soon, the listener is aware that silences almost break up the main repeated phrase and nearly stop the flow of the music, before disparate atoms of the main phrase gradually piece the work together, as harmonic shifts bring added drama to the growing musical tapestry. The seemingly overlapping material then becomes juxtaposed with other contrasting material and eventually concludes with a short, biting Coda that rounds out the form, and makes the piece satisfyingly short and pointed. Cactus is an excellent piece for the young pianist, providing early minimalistic concert diversity to any solo program or recital.