For Elise (with the Flaxen Hair) (2021)

for solo piano

Duration: 4:30

Initial premiere by Ariel Nathanson-Bolinja.

Alternate performance recording by the composer himself, Christian Lyons.

Note:

The motives of Beethoven’s famous piano piece, Für Elise, are torn apart and recombined in this new work that is a far cry from the original. Individual motives that form the building blocks of Für Elise, as well as a few from Debussy’s The Girl with the Flaxen Hair, are cast in a new light through the transformation of their melodic content, harmony, meter, texture, and overall mood. Prevalent themes include the vertical stacking of particular tones from the original motives and the tension and eventual blending of major and minor tonalities. From mysterious ambiguity to starker textures and harmonic progressions, this piece seeks to blur the lines between darkness and light.