Waves
for solo piano

Work no. 3
2008

Of all of my early pieces, this one was the most popular with friends – but nobody would attempt to play it, because the rhythms were so difficult. This is partly because a variant of Stockhausen's formula composition was used to create the music, and partly because I used uncommon durations to communicate various types of touch required of the pianist. As a young self-taught composer I thought nothing of it, but I quickly learned that this kind of thing was incomprehensible to performers. A few years later, I added a second staff with correct and simplified durations, to make the score more readable. Even so, the music remained extremely challenging to play. Perhaps I should've made it one of my Studies for MIDI-controlled piano – but I'm not sure if those are ever programmed for this level of detail.

I was really proud of the piece – my third numbered work – and even today I quite like how the piece hides its many complexities under a placid surface of innocuous arpeggi. I kept wanting to compose a few more monophonic piano pieces, but it took more than a decade to compose the next one – Retroactive Camouflage.