NOTE: The Crystal Preludes is a growing set of piano preludes, which will eventually be a set of 24. They are a variety of levels (similar to the range of difficulty found in the Chopin Preludes).
Three of these preludes are meant for students (who might be at the level of playing a Clementi Sonatina, or the middle pieces of the Burgmuller 25 Progressive Pieces), and have been pulled out into a set, available here.
Program Notes
Crystal Preludes is a collection of five years of experiments in my piano writing. Some of these preludes are expansions of material that exist in earlier works (such as my Piano Trio, Godsongs, et al), some are preliminary sketches for future works, and some are that just ideas that need their own little space to unfold.
My first entry point into music was as a pianist. I know the piano repertoire in my bones, and I have a special love for the many sets of 24 preludes in the rep, from the Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, to Debussy’s Preludes, to (perhaps my favorite set) the Chopin Preludes. Many of the preludes in this set take seeds of inspiration from the pithy, brilliant works of those composers.
These pieces also reference specific Hindustani raags, and use many Indian classical techniques (see notes for each specific prelude at the end of the score).
While many of the preludes in this set do have a have a kind of sparkling, crystalline quality to them, that isn’t where the name comes from. The first three preludes I wrote from this set were for one of my oldest friends, pianist Crystal Rivette.
Recording
Professional recording is forthcoming. Here are a few quick demos of the student pieces so you can get a sense of what they sound like:
