Chorales II Notes
     

     Whereas Chorales for Piano and Brass, written in 1986 and published by Carl Fischer Inc. 
 is a pastiche made from chorale-like passages from my earlier works, Chorales II for Two Pianos  
 is made from two traditional chorale melodies: “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden” and “Jesu, meine Freude.”  
 Throughout the piece, which is thought of as a kind of concert encore, the two melodies are interwoven in 
 a plethora of styles, from baroque chorale prelude treatments to overlapping harmonic layers  of varying dissonance 
 treatments. Deconstruction is really the order of the day, as the first phrase of ‘O Haupt”  is stated in the Buxtehude-Bach 
 style in Piano II with obbligato materials that are treated separately later on.

     I am very fond of this kind of dismantling of traditional sounding musics in a continuing exploration of 
developing new musical structures out of familiar foreground. It has been my contention that most composers in 
the last 30 years have tried to create new “sounds” and use traditional musical structures. Novelty has taken the 
place of originality. I can’t help but think of the symphonies of Joseph Haydn, who produced complex and interesting 
works out of the most pedestrian ansd accessible materials.