Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Phillip Schroeder, Music for Piano

Capstone

Phillip Schroeder’s latest CD, Music for Piano, is an hour of unrelenting delicacy. The five works included on the disc manage to shift from dense to sparse, from staccato to legato, and from short to long, but they are uniformly delicate. Schroeder maintains this effect through merging the stock techniques (rolled chords, plenty of pedal, drones, etc.) with a particular focus on the resonance of each sound he calls for.

The CD begins with “Twelve Pieces for Piano,” and the tone is established immediately. A slow, three-note sequence, played with ample pedal, enters. Eventually, the register is expanded as a low pitch and then a high chord augment the sequence. Once these new entries have undergone slight variation, the piece closes just shy of two minutes. In light of such sparse material, the listener’s focus is drawn to the resonance of the piano, which is heightened by the placement of the microphone.

Throughout “Twelve Pieces” and the CD as a whole, resonance remains a focal point. Schroeder indicates in the liner notes that the overtone series holds particular interest for him, and many of the most interesting moments happen as fading overtones commingle, especially in pieces later on the CD like “From the Shadows of Angels.” In fact, at times it sounds as if Schroeder is choosing his sonorities for how they will resonate as much as for how they will sound when attacked.

Schroeder varies the impact of these resonances throughout Music for Piano by exploring register and texture. Schroeder often makes full use of the piano’s range, especially in the longer works, and creates some neat effects as low notes rumble under high arpeggios or the overtones of a repeated note are blurred by a flurry of activity in another register. He uses register almost pontillistically in “No Reason Why” and explores harmonic textures in “Floating,” which also features a nice rolling-thunder sound.

As might be expected from a collection of pieces that explore one musical realm so thoroughly and consistently, Music for Piano can, at times, feel unadventurous. The pieces, though, are a thoroughly pleasant listen, and they function quite nicely as ambient music (thanks to the calm and even performance by the pianist, Jeri-Mae G. Astolfi) even if they occasionally fail to keep the listener actively engaged.

posted by Lanier Sammons 12:08 AM