Kentucky Harmony

Kentucky Harmony (for two pianos; 10’32”; 2013) is a three-movement piano solo that showcases the evocative American tradition of using jaunty, disjointed with characteristic colors of blues-inflected and airy open-chord expanses. Handsomely written across a variety of mixed meters, there is a strong American consciousness in the work, evoking aural illustrations of the frontier experience.

It can be described as a work similar to a musical drama with the piano taking the central role. The piece opens with a clear representational imagery of triplet patterns in a fiddle-like tune that emerges from call-and-response patterns in both pianos, then morphs into almost abstract stretches with described long linear lines and rhythmically complex fragments, often containing a healthy dash of humor.