Tibetan Songs For solo piano Ian Percy (2004/16)

Percy, Ian (2017) Tibetan Songs For solo piano Ian Percy (2004/16). [Composition]

Preview	Text (Original Music Score) Tibetan Songs A4 Reference Score & Preface DrIPercy.pdf Download (344kB) | Preview
	Audio (Live Performance) Tibetan Songs 1 & 3 Live 150517 Sableviciute DrIPercy.mp3 Download (18MB)

Abstract

This collection of four short movements (songs without words) for solo piano was inspired by Tibetan Buddhist teachings, prayers and daily offerings. The first two movements were edited and rescored in March 2016. The second movement was recomposed (again) during April – June 2016, when the third and fourth movements (songs) were added. Each of the movements is approximately three minutes in length.

I. If only we had more time …

This movement was originally composed in 2008 as a sketch for a passage of harmony within the orchestral score for An Acoustic Mandala for the Fourteenth. The music was revised slightly and part re-notated in 2010 (and again in 2016). It is a melancholy reflection upon ‘the passing of time’ in a contemporary campanella style, but with occasional (subdued) rays of optimism, regret and aggression.

II. Should we just accept things the way they are?

First sketches for this movement date back to 2004. The piece went through a variety of forms and instrumentation until it was finally reduced to a piano arrangement, revised and recomposed in reference to its new title and place within this collection in 2010. Revisions kept as much of the original material as possible, but rhythms, notation, pacing and tempo were all radically adjusted to fit the narrative implied by the new title. The movement was further recomposed (twice) during 2016.

III. Recollections and Reminiscences (faces and places from home)

Composed around fragments and sketches salvaged from Melancholy Daydreams (2004), which has since been withdrawn. The original material for this movement was radically rearranged, reconceived and expanded during 2016, but the music still retains influential elements of the raw dissonant harmony and more emotionally energetic style of earlier compositions from the composer.

IV. Regardless of the Past, We Must Look to the Present …

This reflective and poignant final movement was also composed around fragments salvaged from Melancholy Daydreams (2004). The rhythmic textures make reference to the ticking of chronometric time and the cycle of daily life. The persistent continuity of linear time and its relationship to the non-linear way we store and recall personal memories of that ‘passing time’ is a consistent theme within the narrative of this collection, influencing the form and character of the music throughout.

Concert pianist Lauryna Sableviciute premiered the first and third movements of Tibetan Songs at a public recital in The Grace Room, Liverpool Hope University in May 2017.

Item Type:	Composition
Additional Information and Comments:	All performers have agreed recordings can be used for dissemination of research and personal portfolio
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Creative Arts & Humanities > School of Creative and Performing Arts
Depositing User:	Ian Percy
Date Deposited:	12 Dec 2017 10:39
Last Modified:	12 Mar 2021 16:01
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/2292

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